The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-12
RUST BROTHERS
ARE ACCLAIMED
FOR AMBITIONS
Praise Coupled With Some
Skepticism About
Cotton Picker.
BY DANIEL M. KIDNEY
Times STAFF Writer

WASHINGTON, March 12.-Uni-
versal praise for the Rust brothers
of Memphis, who have revealed
their intention to socialize the
profits and labor saving advantages
claimed for their mechanical cotton
picker, was voiced here today by
government and labor officials. But
the praise was coupled with some
skepticism about the extent to
which such machine might sup
plant men.
One of the New Deals chief social
planners said that machines already
are displacing labor on the planta-
tionS and that perfection of the cot
ton-picker is bound to augment the
problem.
This official, who declined to be
quoted by name, suggested that the
government, through its taxing
power, is the best agency to solve
such social problems.
Aim Seen as Difficult
While praising the Rust brothers,
he declared that it would be diff
cult for any individual concern to
socialize the benefits of it's product.
The only avenue the government
offers for altruistic inventors is to
establish public patents, he said.
This would permit any one to man
ufacture the picker. but it would
not accomplish what the Rust
brothers seek.
He Endorsed the Rust idea of
establishing worker owned corpora
tive farms where all mechanical
aids to production could be utilized
for the benefit of those who labor
on the land.
Experts at the Bureau of Agricul-
tural Engineering asserted that a
European war, re-estaDlishing the
wartime export cotton market,
might speed up the use of mechan-
ical cotton pickers, but they saw no
immediate danger of their use be-
coming widespread.
The problem of labor displace-
ment by mechanical pickers seems
remote" said r.. B. Gray, chief of
the mechanical equipment division.
None of them has reached the
point where its use is about to be-
come widespread. They never have
been perfected to that point, al
though one of the big farm machin-
cry concerns has spent three million
on the problem"
w. M. Hurst, of the same division,
who has made many field inspec-
tons of various cotton pickers but
has hot seen the Rust brothers
work, declared that the delta coun-
try around Memphis is ideal for in
PRODUCTION of such machines.
But there are sociological prob
lens in the South that must be con-
sidered lettering factors" he de-
clared. "One is the large Negro
population, which many planters
feel must be fed and provided with
work.
They Are indispensable
"They are indispensable in Chop
ping cotton and other techniques
of cultivation and therefore they
will continue to be employed in
picking, since the cultivation re-
quires more hands than the picking
of cotton.
I'm addition there is the small
white farmer, whose 20 or 30 acres
isn't large enough to support me-
chanical equipment"
Mr.. Hurst said he had heard of
the Rust brothers and knew them
to be genuinely interested in pre-
venting any social suffering being
caused by their mechanical picker.
Gardner Jackson, formerly with
the AAA Consumers Counsel and
now chairman of the National Com
mittee on Rural Social Planning,
expressed profound admiration" for
the Rusts
"The program of cooperative
farming which they preach is one
in which we firmly believe. If their
attitude of denial toward monetary
profits and aggrandiZement
was shared by any of the impor-
tant cotton plantation interests,
the South would not now be facing
situation which threatens to re-
solve itself ly through bloodshep
and more misery"
The brothers offer was highly