THE FARM LAND 49 



FARM VS. FACTORY 



America had an abundance of two kinds of natural resources. 

 It had millions of acres of fertile land to produce crops. It also 

 had stored away in the land great deposits of iron and coal and 

 oil and the other raw materials that are needed for factories. 

 The men who owned the ore pits and coal mines grew rich and 

 powerful much faster than the men who owned the farms. 

 Factories grew up around the mines and along the rivers which 

 supplied water power for factories. Cities sprang up beside 

 the factories and at the centers of transportation where the 

 products of both the factories and farms were traded and 

 shipped. 



In 1880 agricultural products made up 83.3 per cent of the 

 value of exports from the country and manufactured goods and 

 minerals made up 13.2 per cent 42 ; in 1936 the percentage of 

 agricultural exports had dropped to 29.36 per cent and nonagri' 

 cultural exports had gone up to 70.64 per cent. 43 In addition 

 to this, the factory owner had then as now a great advan' 

 tage over the farmer. The farmer sows his fields, harvests 

 his crops, and sells them for what he can get. The price is de' 

 termined by the supply, which depends chiefly on the weather, 

 and the demand, which depends on the amount of farm crops 

 available all over the world. In other words, the farmer grows 

 as much as he is able to, and takes the best price he can get. 

 As an individual he has no control whatsoever over either 

 supply or price. The factory owners, on the other hand, have 

 frequently been able to control the supply by cutting down on 

 production. This is especially true since large corporations have 

 taken the place of small individually owned factories. With the 

 help of the tariff the corporations can get a price for their 



42 Hacker and Kendrick, op. cit., p. 217. 



43 The World Almanac, 1938. 



