CHAPTER II 



IT may be asked, " What do all these things have to 

 do with agriculture?" They have very much to do 

 with it because, as a class, the farmers are equal in 

 number to nearly all other manual laboring classes 

 combined. Hence, withdrawal of these vast numbers 

 from the ranks of labor or the lessening of their effi- 

 ciency, falls more heavily upon farming interests, than 

 on any if not on all others, combined. Not only be- 

 cause of number, but because of their isolation, any- 

 thing suggesting that manual labor may not be highly 

 honorable is among them more far-reaching in its 

 evil effects. As the employers of most other labor 

 are by tariff or monopoly protected from competition, 

 they are able to add to the cost of production, not 

 only the cost of labor, but a percentage of profit on 

 that added cost. The farmer has no such redress. 

 The prices of his commodities except at present, as 

 a war measure restricted are fixed in the world's 

 markets, while he is prohibited from buying in them; 

 hence, he can in no way meet this competition. It has 

 for years been utterly impossible to secure more than 

 half the necessary farm labor at any price. Thus the 

 evils of inefficiency and over-pay to other classes of 

 labor fall more heavily upon the farmers than on any 

 other class, especially as approximately 85 per cent, 

 of all the farmer buys is labor in some form. The 



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