The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-10-18
March of determination Skips Most

IS phesying the advent of tractors "sui
n able for use on small farms" But b
d does not say when these tractors vii
n reach the small farms or how big
f. small farm must be in order to max
q use of these envisaged but not deliver
j. ed tractors.
q Johnson further says of the rapi(
q increase in farm productivity:
, more time will be available fol-
, other things including recreation anf
: increased leisure"
: Neither the animal-power phase oil
mechanization which began more
than a hundred years ago, with the
steel pillow, the mower, the reaper, and
then the self-binder, or the more re-
cent and highly intensified phase of
tractorized and electrified machinery
has shortened the workday OF our
small and middle farmers.
Official Explanations"
At one point, Johnson admits that
there are large groups of farm people
who cannot benefit from mechanical
ton and associated improvements"
but offers as an explanation that they
cannot readily adapt themselves to
the new techniques." At another point,
he remarks that successful modern
farming requires less Drawn and more
brains than the farming of genera
ton ago" but clearly the main reason
is one which he hops over nimbly in
passing, namely that:
g. it takes large capital invest
ment. :"
The unlimited market available for
farm products during the war and i'm
mediate postwar periods has obscured
the decline in the relative economic
position of the small and middle farm
ers, but the farmers cannot afford to
ignore this decline. Though Johnson
pays lip-service to the possibilities of
improving food consumption at home, |
increasing food exports, and expand |
ing industrial production to make Jobs |
available for unemployed or only |
partially employed people on farms, |
he does not offer any program for
achieving these detectives, nor does
he claim that the governments pres
ent course is headed in any such direc-
ton.
Official Solutions"
Beneath the sugar-coating on the
pill, Johnson has his main prescrip-
ton, which is that there must be a
shift from full time to part-time OPP
GRAFTON and even to rural homes on
which little or no farming is DONE" ,
How they are to live without an in
come he does not say.
Instead of demanding measures and
policies which will safeguard the in
crest of the family-size farmers and {
If all farm families threatened by dis {
this BAE report, written |
~ Johnson as the final summary of S
heir wartime investigations, lamely I
proposes that: a
Employment offices in rural areas 4
will be needed to inform workers of
OBJ opportunities. Many will require a
training for job opportuni- O
ies" i
MANS PloWUnder Policy n
In their formulation of agricultural I
olicy for American agriculture, the "
arm advisors of the National Associa- Il
ion of Manufacturers and the u. S.
,hamber of Commerce declared in ;
Iarch, 1915 that one-fourth of the ma 0
ions farms should be Immediately "
minated and as many as two-thirds Il
hould be ear-marked for eventual u
limitation. In their report titled Il
Variations in Farm Incomes" the Il
Am and Chamber of Commerce rep u
ssentatives demanded that all gov m
rnment policy should be directed to- u
ard encouraging production "on u
hose farms which are capable of al
roviding the largest average returns I'll
er unit of labor and capital expend-
l."
Despite the fact that the independ- TO
1T, family-size farm has long been hs
,garded as one to be cherished and or
the NAM and the Cham hf
or of Commerce experts are calling be
r it's speedy elimination. They see BIZ
this farm displacement an oppor- wi
nifty to slash wage rates as millions th
farm people are thrown onto the w,
Dor market oh
In a recent leaflet warning the ia
nall farmers of Revolutionary new 81,
achines" coming in, the United CT
arm Equipment and Metal Workers oil
JIO) states fa1
"The small farmer-two thirds of
e farm population is left way be- -.
nd The day of large-sca1e farming -,
: big operators and corporations is ~
ready here" he
Strong Bond With Labor ar
The story of farm mechanization re
ould warn the farmers against the in
mpaign which seeks to spread anti a
Dor poison about the countryside. Pc
it'll two out of every three farmers mi
ly jump or SO ahead of displace- in,
snt from the land, they cannot af-
I'd to join with the NAM in a cam die
ign to hit labor over the head. ne
Labor is the one group which has a no
'ect interest in helping the working bol
'mers to hold onto their farms. The aid
placement of these 4 million or lar
IRE farm families would lead to the
arp slashes in wages and thus bring to
1nomic hardship upon the workers me
well as upon the farmers them gre
yes. of
The interest of the American farm AM
and workers is not in hating the the
rich Of science and technology They ito
, interested in having these advan-
J, including atomic energy, used for r
,da.atinr,