130 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 



only twenty-three per cent in the number of laborers on the railroads, and 

 the increased pay was 166 per cent — more than double. It is a little less 

 now. I am not making any criticism of railroad labor, I am not criticising 

 unions, I think unions have a good purpose to serve. I am giving you the 

 facts as given to me. Who pays the increase of towards two billion dol- 

 lars that is going to railroad labor? The farmers are contributing about 

 half of the business of the railroads of the United States in their ship- 

 ments and in the supplies which they receive. I might give you further 

 figures to show other high costs paid by farmers. They feel these in- 

 creases the more because of their reduced income. 



Then there are wide margins between the prices the farmer is receiving 

 and the price the consumer pays for his products. Here are some figures 

 from government bureaus. Let me read a few. In August, 1921, about 

 three months ago, the farmers were receiving sixteen per cent more for 

 their hogs than they received the corresponding date in 1913, before the 

 war. The consumers were paying ninety-seven per cent more for their 

 hams at wholesale. The farmers last August were receiving nine per cent 

 less for their cattle than they received in 1913. The consumers were pay- 

 ing fifty-seven per cent more for their sirloin steak and sixty per cent 

 more for their round steak. These are just facts, I am not presenting any 

 argument to you. We need facts if we are going to decide great ques- 

 tions. Farmers received twenty-four per cent less than before the war 

 for their hides, and the prices of boots and shoes were 125 per cent more 

 to the purchaser than they were before the war. The freight on shoes 

 had gone up 110 per cent and the wages in the shoe factories had doubled. 

 One or two more. Farmers received eight per cent less for their wool, and 

 woolens were selling for fifty-five per cent more; and freight had gone up 

 110 per cent, more than double, and wages had about doubled. Building 

 labor stands about ninety per cent to ninety-seven per cent more. What 

 was the farmer's labor? You know the farmer doesn't contract in advance 

 for his labor. He puts in labor and sells the product for whatever the 

 market is offering and gets wages from the grain and live stock which 

 he sells. Bituminous coal was selling for an advance of eighty-six per 

 cent, and anthracite coal at ninety-eight per cent more than before the 

 war. Wages of the coal men were seventy-three per cent more. That was 

 only last August. 



Now a few words about the remedy. I wish the good Lord would give 

 it to some of us to see the remedy. I am not able to tell you what the 

 remedy is. The remedy has to be worked out, just like any other prob- 

 lem. You must put two and two together, discuss it with your wives and 

 sons and neighbors and business associates and the remedy will finally 

 appear. In a word, I think that the most effective remedy — we can go into 

 the legislature, we can have commissions, we can have investigations, but 

 I think the most effective way is to educate the public as to farm costs, as 

 to the hours of labor on the farm, the pay that the farmers are receiving, 

 the fact that not only the farmer works but the entire family works in 

 producing the crops and that they proceed on faith through it all. Many 

 a farmer has put in his whole life time and at the end of his life has 

 nothing to show in the way of accumulation except the increase in the 



