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Tllh: AMERICAN MUSEUM JOUEXAL 



It -n-ill now be asked whether the standard 

 of living is not, in fact, sufficiently high on 

 the farms. I am not today discussing the 

 family standard itself, but only the income 

 without which it cannot be high enough to 

 meet the needs of democracy. We recognize 

 the high type of character bred by our best 

 farms, and the generous scale of living there 

 maintained; yet this does not release society 

 from its part of a plain obligation. We may 

 at once dismiss the glowing accounts of a 

 class of popular writers, who would make us 

 lielieve that farmers are the best off of our 

 people. Nor am I especially considering the 

 conditions of war time. We are to remember 

 that the farmer does not make a jjrofit in the 

 commercial sense. He receives a return for 

 his labor. I know that there may be excep- 

 tions, and not all that is classed as farming 

 is really such. The exceptions prove the rule 

 and they never can Vjecome the rule ; and 

 some of the profits attributed to farming 

 are the results of speculation or the selling 

 of fertility long stored by nature in lands 

 only recently opened. 



The fairest way we know to measure the 

 farmer's net earning is by means of the 

 labor income. This is the sum left after all 

 working or business expenses and the inter- 

 est on the investment and the unpaid family 

 labor are deducted. It represents the in- 

 come the farmer receives for his labor, be- 

 yond what home supplies he may use from 

 the farm itself, which supplies are, of course, 

 subtracted from his jjotential sales. Prob- 

 ably for the country as a whole the labor in- 

 come will not exceed about one dollar a day. 

 If it rises to twice this figure, the price of 

 land begins to increase. 



The Cost of Food 

 We are justified, of course, in reducing 

 the cost of food by such means as will not 

 endanger the plane of living of those who 

 produce it. We shall learn how to eliminate 

 many of the extrinsic costs between pro- 

 ducer and consumer. We shall supply the 

 farmer more knowledge of his occupation, 

 eliminate the incompetents, stimulate help- 

 ful organization, and in other ways improve 

 the business itself. Xever shall we need to 

 cease such efforts. How far we can apply to 

 agriculture the so-called efficiency methods 

 of quantity-production of the factories yet 

 remains to be determined. We are to con- 

 sider the results on the homes as well as in 



commodity wealth. The copartnership and 

 corporation plans of farming have not been 

 successful, and there is little hope that they 

 can succeed outside exceptional circum- 

 stances. The private farm colony plans are 

 foredoomed, also, except perhaps in an un- 

 usual condition now and then. 



Many persons not on farms expect that 

 farming must lend itself to the big-business 

 type of organization, with expert manage- 

 ment on a large scale and intensive depart- 

 mentalizing of the business. This subject I 

 am not to discuss here; I wish only to point 

 out that even if it were to succeed, we could 

 not expect to reduce the cost of food there- 

 by. As soon as farming is industrial- 

 ized, the home element is eliminated, all 

 labor must be hired outright, the going 

 wage must be paid, and salaried manager- 

 ship must be met. At the same time we are 

 facing lessened fertility. All this would at 

 once greatly increase the costs. At present 

 much of the effort in food production re- 

 ceives no direct wage, for women and chil- 

 dren contribute to it. Even if the farm 

 women do not labor in the fields, the keep- 

 ing of the farm home (which is part of the 

 farm business} devolves on them, as well as 

 much of the management and oversight. All 

 the efficiency methods we could apply on the 

 workshop plan probably would not offset the 

 unpaid or insufficiently paid labor available 

 under the present organization and methods. 

 The world has had cheap food because we 

 have not paid those who produce it and have 

 lived on stored or original fertility. 



I see no hope for cheap food, on the old 

 Ijasis. That basis is gone forever. No 

 longer do we look for cheap lumber or cheap 

 paper or cheap clothing. We know that new 

 levels have been reached. We know that new 

 adjustments will have to be made, and that 

 if the consumer suffers, other remedies must 

 be found than merely to force down prices. 

 If the cost of food is too high for the 

 consumer, the subject is of course open 

 to investigation, but we are not to assume 

 that a penalty is to be applied to the pro- 

 ducer. 



In the past we have been able to obtain 

 cheap food in this country in great abun- 

 dance, because of our vast extent of very 

 fertile land. We can no longer live on the 

 easily stored riches of the soil. Much of the 

 farmer's income goes back into the soil to 

 improve it. Eeduction of his income means 



