The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-10-17
(By Mrs. Leona R. Barritt In thu
Alberta Labor News)

Labor DAY, 1SoOI anu
Nv wish that l might be able to
Teport industrial peace and a.
bounding prosperity. Instead, try
as | may, my eye will wander oV-
er brown burrows under which lie
the ruins of the 1880 crop, ana
which form the seed-bed for next
year" But even more depressing
is the picture, ever present to my
mind, of hungry men vainly seek
ing work in order to feed their
hungry wives and children. How
can one cry peace, Peace when
there is no peace?
Speaking for agriculture, the
situation is serious. Over a large
part of this province, drought, un-
precedented high winds, insect
pests and hail have taken such a
toll that in many and many dis
trict the hum of the threshing ma
chine this fall will be as exciting
as that of an aeroplane. The stu
alton is rendered more acute by
the light crop of last year and the
spectacular collapse in price Of
grain and dairy products. With
credit shut off, as is true of large
numbers of our people, it does not
require much imagination to con-
ceive of situations where the wolf
may come very close to the door
of even the man on the land.
A RuinOus Situation
But while food for the family
and stock during the ensuing win
ter will be a serious problem with
a percentage of our farm popula-
ton, many more are gravely con-
cerned over the compromising of
the seven and eight per cent in
terest charges which they are un-
able to meet. Not since the post
war slump has the situation APP
peared 50 ruinous, for the great
majority of farmers have been un-
able to liquidate the obligations
piled up during those calamitOus
years. If it could not be done
with dollar wheat how can 1t be
done with wheat at seventy cents ?
1t is said on good authority that
during the years 1923, one-half
of the wheat growers of Montana
moved out, many of them having
their farms foreclosed. If the
present tendency in Western Can
ada remains unchecked, the next
five or six years will see an amaz-
ing number of farms in the hands
of the mortgage companies.
DisDOssessed Farmers
And what of the dispossessed
farmers and their families? Let
me quote to you a prediction made
by well-known Albertan whose
articles and speeches on the ques-
ton have recently caused a good
deal of comment. Referring to
the increasing use of power-driv-
en- machinery on farms IN order to
cut production costs, he says: "It
seems inevitable that the proper
ton of rural to town population
must decrease very greatly in the
immediate future. Whereas 80
per cent of the population was re-
Quired on the land a century ago,
today less than % per cent are
needed there, and it is quite pos
sible that in the not distant fut-
ure 10 per cent of the population
actually working on the land will
be more than sufficient 10 produce
the food required. This means
that a period of economic read
justment is upon US. Farm
units will steadily increase in size.
-. AS a consequence rural popu-
iation will be sparser, but the peo-
pie whe remain on farms will be
more highly skilled and necessari-
iy more intelligent as the process
of selection goes on. The peasant
type will tend to be eliminated en-
timely or be relegated 10 the poor
er districts where the land i!
rough, or to the truck farming
areas tributary to the cities anC
larger towns. Along will
greatly decreased costs of produc
ton, marketing technique will neeC
20 be more and more improved j
we are to hold our place in the
worlds economic scheme. Certain
ly the farmer is entitled to a fail
Eeturn for his effort and invest
unent, but only if his effot is eff
ficient and intelligent. Societ!
viii not tolerate a premium on in
efficiency and incompetency."
The Larger Unit
Inefficiency and incompetency
The author is writing from tn
cool and calm seclusion of univer
sity walls. And when / think o
the many who borrowed none,
from the bank last spring to see,
their two or three hundred acre
only 20 watch their carefully pre-
pared seed-bed blown sky-high i
gales of hurricane proportions re
peated day after day, or those WIN
could not obtain credit TO insure
and saw their crop wiped out in
hailstorm, ] regret most keenl
that the cave man has undergon
such a process of sublimation ]
the human race, and particular
In the agriculturist Otherwise, b
a process of selection, that part {
society which was considered f
TO survive might learn to exercis
a very high degree Of federation
But when all is said and done, tt
statement quoted is a true expires
sion of the pitiless capitalist
outlook, and faithfully indicate
the trend of the times. Let I
analyze it little.
EARN units will steadily il
crease in size" How? The fo
lowing little item from the dali
press shows the process: "Fi'
Canadian life insurance compani
and two Canadian trust compani
have hired-to manage and supe
intend the cultivation of S40,0'
acres Of farm land in Weste