ADVOCATE AND GUIDE. 13 



same wages as skilled union labor in cities. The hour is the 

 unit of time wages are reckoned by in cities, and should be 

 opted by the wheat producer. If the average union wages 

 in cities are found to be seventy-five cents an hour, then 

 that should be his wages also. As union wages are incor- 

 porated in the price of everything the wheat grower buys, 

 then he must incorporate wages for himself and family in the 

 minimum price of his wheat and collect when he sells it. 

 Their wages must be computed on every hour put in to 

 produce wheat, such as plowing, packing, harrowing, disk- 

 ing, cultivating, fertilizing, drilling, harvesting, stacking, 

 threshing, marketing, and care of teams and machinery, 

 even repairing fences to protect it. As the services of a 

 two-horse team is of equal value, the wages for it should be 

 the same as for the man, and figured in the wheat price the 

 same way. But only by unionizing can the wheat grower 

 collect these wages for himself and teams through the pric- 

 ing of his wheat. 



What Overhead Expenses Shall Include. 



Every business that produces commodities the wheat 

 grower buys includes overhead expenses when setting the 

 price on them. The wheat grower must do that also when 

 computing the cost of wheat. 



His overhead expense should include interest on the value 

 of the land, or its cash rent ; improvements, teams and ma- 

 chinery; insurance and taxes; pasture and feed for teams 

 the year round ; operating expenses and repairs for ma- 

 hinery ; a per cent for depreciation of improvements ; teams, 

 machinery, and depletion of soil fertility; seed; fertilizer; 

 and all cost connected with organizing and maintaining the 

 wheat growers' union. This latter is a proper expense ac- 

 count recognized by all business men and unionized capital 

 and labor, since the organization is to be both a sales agency 



aiiu j 



