CHAPTER XVII 



IN June, I spent ten days in one of the most fertile 

 sections of Illinois. Leaving it on an interurban rail- 

 way, I shared a seat with a factory operative a 

 farm-reared boy on his way to work. He pointed 

 out his father's farm, where he was born. He told me 

 that his wage was 52 cents per hour, but at the end 

 of each week, if he worked full schedule time for the 

 six days, he received a bonus of $7.80 $1.30 per 

 day or about 1 1 cents per hour additional. This 

 was not for service rendered at all that was already 

 fully paid for; no such excuse or pretense was made. 

 This bonus was simply a reward for working regular 

 schedule time at an extremely liberal wage a wage 

 400 per cent, higher than is received by the average 

 farm owner if he be allowed 3 per cent, on his money 

 invested. The income tax returns confirm this. Only 

 one farmer in four hundred has a gross income of 

 $3000, and this without allowing anything for wages 

 paid his sons or other members of the family. Why 

 should this young man and his brothers remain on the 

 farm ? Did this young man own a farm all the 

 acres he could possibly work he could not afford to 

 till it. It would be more profitable to let it lie fallow, 

 and stick to his job. They are not remaining, and tens 

 of thousands of their fellows are leaving the farms 

 for similar reasons. 



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