The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1951-01-04
Small Dairy Farmers Are Turning To
Unionization For Solution TO Woes

Cloquet, Wis. (LPA) - When
you're sweating and slugging 1t
out in the shop do you ever close
your eyes and dream of a little
white house in the country set
against a crisp blue sky and cool
green fields?
If YOU do, forget it. That's the
advice of Ray Strand here, an ALL
carpenter who was born and raised
on farm and has been trying to
make one pay ever since the end of
World War III.
Ray, a young, stockily-built man
with a mop Of unruly black hair,
served as a carpenters mate End
class on the USS Rixey in the
South Pacific. 1t was a combination
transport-hospital ship-taking in
fresh troops and removing wound
| ed.
On some of the quieter days Ray
used to stand at the ships rail, look
at the lush green of those Pacific
isles and dream of Wisconsin where
Che was sure) the grass was green
er.
1t didn't work out that way,
however, and today Ray is one of
the leaders among the small mar
ginap farmers in the Duluth-Sup-
erior area who have turned to the
National Farm Labor Union-AFL
to help win a decent standard of
living.
Why have these farmers turned
to union which was originally set
up to help the workers on huge
commercial farms? Well, let's look
at Rays case again.
When he was mustered out he.
bought his parents farm Of 120
acres, 46 of which are clear, and
got married. So far his wife Doris
and he have had three children
Tom, a; Gloria, 3; and a baby,
Steve.
Success didn't crown Rays other
efforts quite as well. He had ~,
cows and was among the top three
producers among small farmers in
this state, yet he seemed to gol
continuously in debt.
Ray finally took stub of pencil
and sat down to figure things out.
He found that while he was pro-
missed top price Of $3.50 he was
actually paid a "blend price" of
$500 a hundred pounds. Thirty
cents went to shipping so that hel
received less than $l5 a day for
the 500 pounds of milk he shipped
to the dairy. That didn't take into
account his investment in his farm,
or cows, or what he spent for feed. |
During two "dry" months he ships
only 100 pounds Of milk a day. |
And Rays cows produce at more
than double the rate for the aver
age cow in this state.
Is it any wonder that he busted
off his carpenters tools and went
to work-or that hundreds of |
others have applied for training
under the CT Bill of Rights to OBJ
tain the $97.50 subsistence money
each month?
But neither method is a perman-
ent cure for the ills that assail
small dairy farming in this coun-
try. Sooner or later the Gil Bill
runs out and sooner or later Ray
and hundreds Of others like him are
going to tire Of getting up at 5
a. M, doing their chores, grabbingl
a bite to eat, and then hopping in
the family ialopy to dash off to a
job in the nearest town while the
wife and kids muddle through the
task of running the farm.
Sooner or later, too, that "little
white house in the country" is go
ing to lose its lustre and Ray and
the other marginal" farmers are
going to throw in the sponge, step
out and let the big dairy interests
take over. That, in turn, will mean
higher prices for you.
Long ago the small farmers turn
ed to co-ops with their sorrows, but
they say the co-ops have long since
got out of their hands. John Banks,
Jr., former coop officer and small
time farmer near Superior, is now
president of Local 2S4, National
Farm Labor Union, because he
found his own coop had fallen into
the hands of businessmen and
bankers.
Like Ray Strand and Elmo Ulvi,