The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1938-04-01
A Sweet Situation =
BY RHODE ISLAND RED

L0IkaND HEO
(power to set the wage scale for the
beet labor. The grower must con-
form to certain requirements of
huSbandry in the production of
the crop if he wants to get in I'M
der the wire for any tax benefit
payments-certain farming prac-
tees which he must follow.
The price paid by the professor
to the grower for beets under con-
tract isn't by a wide margin
enough to pay the cost of growing
the crop and the professor cross
es his heart and yells that he
hopes to die if he can pay any
more than he is paying while
labor tries awful hard to C. I. o.
itself into a tantrum of scream
ing that it cannot live on its
three months work out of the
year and buy gas for its cars
and all such necessities of the
day. Experience has shown the
grower that he must depend upon
alien labor to do the work of tend
ing the beet crop. Local white la
Dor won't do it, and the grower
can't get WPA labor and if he
could get 'em he couldn't afford
to use 'em on account he would
probably have to provide them
with parasols to keep the sun
off and individual fire extinguish-
ers in case they should happen to
get on fire or somethin'.
For the life of me I can't see
why a job that pays anywhere
from five to eight dollars for ev-
cry days work isn't a good job
whether it be working beets or
working concrete or working in a
bank. It is a seasonal job and you
cannot make anything else out of
it. The beet grower can't pay
enough to a worker for three
months work to maintain the
worker for a year. The industry
will not stand it. What's the an
swer? Is wallace right?
So, here is the picture of the
grower, standing between the pro-
cessor on the one hand and labor
on the other, with the secretary
of agriculture lowering over him
ready at any moment to smack his
ears down If he should happen to
digress from the straight and mar
row path and at the same time
yelling to the grower that this
! program is all voluntary on the
growers part. Well, I guess it Is.
He doesn't have to grow beets if
he doesn't want to. He can quit,
and in the opinion of the writer,
that Is exactly what the admins
tration would like to sec happen.
Let's look at the sugar beet sit
uation here in Big Horn county
for a moment. It's altogether
likely that fifteen thousand acres
Of sugar beets can be grown here
this year If conditions r. at all
favorable.
Fifteen Thousand acres of sugar
beets represents a capital invest
ment of considerable magnitude in
farm land and equipment to say
nothing about operating capital.
c1S uIc IL OuI LUZ yOuISSAA. ! uOAA y
like to figure. Fifteen thousand
acres of sugar beets represent a
per year contract labor charge Of
$345 900 at twenty-three dollars
per acre You guys in Hardin get
the most of that, don't you-or
will you? It costs the grower be-
tween eighty and ninety dollars
per acre to grow and deliver a
thirteen ton crop of beets. If any
one wants to question or debate
those figures-they're on!
The purpose of the recent hear
ing in Billings, presided over by
three agents of the department of
agriculture and a nice-looking lady
stenog, was to bring out the vital
facts concerning the industry in
order that the secretary of agri-
culture, as the supreme arbitrator,
might by decree or otherwise bring
about a leveling, or rather an eq-
uitable distribution of the returns