The union times., 1945-11-03
MONOPOLY TREND

"Just as in the case of the small businessman, every depression speeds up the trend toward monopoly-ln this case the most dangerous of all monopolies, monopoly of the soil it. self, the basis of strength for any people.
 You will forgive me if seem to spend a fair amount of my allotted time discussing the problems of farm CTS, and particularly Connecticut farmers, for our agriculture in Con- necticut is largely operated by the small farmer, and his welfare is close ly tied up with that of the working man.
 ssAs American citizens, opera tors of family-type farms want to feed, clothe, house and educate their families the whole year round. Operators of 'facories in the field' hire and fire migrant workers from month to month, week to week, and day to day. We all are especially interested in them, because, with some few ex- captions, the managers of these inc dustrialized farms feel no respOn- sibility for the year-round welfare of their employees.
 Moreover, this type of operator is, with a few exceptions, fero- ciously anti-labor, and is usually well organized and economically and politically powerful in the lo- cal community, the state capital, and in Washington.
 BIC AGRICULTURE"
 Frankly, we don't like him. To date, Big Agriculture, using the small farmer as front, has managed to obtain for agriculture, complete i'm munity from all labor and social legis- lation. l am sure you will under stand what 1 mean when l say that small farmers, in the long run, just can't survive against this type of murderous competition.
 "The result of growing monopoly in industry and in agriculture was spelled out during this war when se- lective service examinations of boys IS and lo years of age-the very prime of life-resulted in rejection rate for farm boys of All per cent, as compared with rate for all Unit ed States boys of 25.4 per cent.
 'sOf course, both rates are far too high, higher than they would have been if from 1929 to 1939 we had had the intelligence and organization to run our whole in. dustrial and farm plant at full production and farm levels. But the rate of All per cent for farm boys is shocking-a national dis grace, which concerns labor as much as it does farmers-since we well know that labor cannot make progress if any section of our pop ulation is tagging behind. We are we'll aware of the fact that our farm population is the only part of the nation that is holding its own in numbers, and in normal times 'exports'' about 5OO,OOO per- sons to the cities annually. Thus we see the low state of rural health as a signal of grave national dan. ger.
 Unless farm people attain parity within agriculture and with city peo- pie, and unless all of us have enough for health and decent lives, our strength as a people and as a world power will decline.
 "I have discussed, at probably too great length, some of the problems o1 farmers as we see them. Not all of these problems immediately affect Connecticut farmers, but we in or ganized labor have learned that in the long run, what affects labor in California eventually affects labor in Connecticut, and vice versa. I sus- pect that the same holds true for farmers.
 TRUTH ABOUT LABOR
 "In the few minutes that remain, may I tell you a few facts about or ganized labor in Connecticut. Natu- rally, I am prejudiced, but l assure you that it is my intention to be fair.
 "I believe you know that during the war, Connecticut labor out-pro- duced every other state in the nation.