The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-03-25
Borden Company

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The average price that the farmer
gets for his milk is three cents and
less, and that is half the cost of
production. Worried about their de-
crease in profits, company like Bor-
den has reduced it's price to the
farmers, cut its employees about
$4,000,000 in wages, and is pulling
strings with the Board of Health to
crush small milk dealers to increase
its market. In the case of the bak-
ing trusts the figures show that the
three largest are still making a net
profit OF approximately a million dol
lars a year. The wheat farmer gets
forty cents for bushel of wheat
from which the baking trusts can
make fifty-seven loaYes of bread
Bread is still ten cents q loaf at
most stores. The American Tobacco
Co., Reynolds, and Myer Ligget,
made net profits of $4O,000,000, 1885,
100000, and $23,O00,O0O last year.
But in Wisconsin tobacco farmers
received their lowest prices in the
history of tobacco growing in that
state. In Connecticut farmers re-
ceived six cents pound and many
of them couldn't even sell it for that
price. In North Carolina tobacco
farmers have been so hard up that
they have been forced to steal to-
bacco from their own cooperative
warehouses. One Virginia farmer
put S1.47 worth Of gas into his truck
to haul his tobacco to the market.
He received at the end Of his day
$l.45 for the whole load.
Work Without Pay
While the farmer has been getting
nothing for his products, he has been
compelled to work harder and harder.
He has bought less clothes and gro
ceries. In a desperate effort to beat
low prices, many milk farmers have
increased their herds. This means
calling on the smaller children to
help with the chores and longer
hours for everybody. But what &C
tually happens is that a bigger herd
means bigger loss since every quart
is sold for less than it costs In Wis
consin the farmer works &c hours a
week during the summer and 81 dur
ing the winter. In Minnesota the
dairy and grain farmers are working
two hours more daily than they did
% years ago. Many farmers have
had to hire out as hands. Wages of
farmhands have fallen below the
1910-1914 average, while the cost of
living has jumped up 30 per cent.
Down South cotton pickers get as
little as twenty-five cents hundred
with two hundred pounds of cotton
a day as good picking Many farm
laborerS work only for food and
lodging and are lucky to get that.
The less the farmer has been get
ting for his drudgery, the more he's
had to spend to raise his crop and
keep on the farm. The index Of
prices of industrial commodities
stands twelve per cent above the
pre-war index. Agricultural imple-
ments are just as high. Freight rates
have risen 1873 per cent since 1914.
And most crushing Of all the mill
stones on the farmer are taxes.
Taxes have shot up 266 per cent
within the last twenty years. The
tax collector demands twenty per
cent of the farmers total operating
expense. The farmer either can't or
won't pay. AS result tax delin-
quencies have been steadily rising
until they amount to 30 per cent Of
taxes levied in many parts of the
country. In one county in Kansas
the officials will be lucky to collect
twelve per cent of the 1882 levy.
Taxes are delinquent on more than
150,000000 acres of land. In Missis-
sippi, in one day 10000 farms went
under the auctioneer's hammer. In
Arkansas, 80 per cent of farms are
mortgaged, 25 per cent with Recon-
struction Finance Corporation. Te-
nancy grew from 1877 per cent in 1925
to 42.4 in 1850. IN 1890 half mil
lion farmers lost their lands. In
1892 we find that only about one
fifth of the farmers actually own the
land they work
Government Aids Rich
What have the state and federal
governments been doing in the mean
time to help the farmers? The Farm
Board has been used to act as pool
for the spectators. Where as in
Faribault County, Minnesota, 1000
farmers scared the commissioners
into a IL per cent tax reduction, the
politicians Immediately got back by
cutting road work for the farmers, by
eliminating country schools, country
nurses, and general welfare work.
The Land Banks which were given
SIZE, 0OO. 900 ("to help the farmers"