34 FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



and this included villages and towns up to 2,5QO population. 

 While the urban population increased 34.8 per cent from 

 1900 to 1910, the rural population increased only 11.2 per 

 cent. In that decade the total population increased 15,- 

 977,691, and the cities above 2,500 got seven-tenths of it to 

 three-tenths for the rural. Including the smaller towns, 

 55.1 per cent were living under more or less urban conditions 

 in 1910. Nearly one-tenth of the total population lived in 

 the three cities of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, 

 while 22:1 per cent live in cities of over 100,000 population. 

 Over 75 per cent of the people of five States live in cities, 

 and from 50 to 75 per cent in cities in eight other States. 

 This proves conclusively that returns for both labor and 

 capital are far better in cities than on the farms. 



There is only one way to equalize the advantages and stop 

 this ever increasing city population over the country popu- 

 lation : that is to unionize and go after more wages and in- 

 terest on investment as they do. The opportunity is yours. 

 Will you wheat growers accept it? It is for you to say. 



Smaller Farms Made Possible. 



In 1870 there were only 3,400 farms in the United States 

 containing over 1,000 acres, but they had increased to 

 50,135 in 1910. 



Only by following the example of city labor and business 

 in unionizing for more wages and interest can the wheat 

 growers make it possible to divide up their farms among 

 their children to keep them from moving to the cities. As 

 it is now, it requires a wheat farm of 640 acres or more to 

 keep a family and make one set of improvements, when 

 forty to eighty acres should be made to do that. But only 

 by increasing the growers' wages and interest on investment 

 can that be made possible. And only by unionizing to set 

 and enforce a higher wage and interest through the mini- 

 mum price system can that be accomplished. 



