No. 4.] FAKM HELP PKOBLEM. 147 



and other European countries. Such teaching has been be- 

 gun in this country, and it will surely spread until its benefi- 

 cent influence reaches every nook and corner of the land. 

 College-bred people are no longer ashamed to be known as 

 farmers. When farming becomes popular and profitable, 

 the children of farmers will be content to continue in the 

 vocation of their parents, and then the farm help problem 

 will be solved. 



There is one other circumstance that will help to keep 

 laborers upon the farm, - — ■ when they realize that the differ- 

 ence between farm wages and factory wages is not so great 

 as it seems to be. There are no trade unions among farm 

 laborers, and an extensive strike for higher wages among 

 them was never heard of. The reason for this is found in 

 the fact that the farm laborer is not affected, as is the laborer 

 in other occupations, by the high cost of living. The me- 

 chanic or industrial laborer is immediately affected by an 

 increase in the cost of living. He discovers at once that his 

 wages are insufficient to support himself and his family, 

 and his only refuge seems to be a strike for higher wages. 

 Farm help are not affected in this way. They board at the 

 farmer's table and room in the farmhouse, and therefore 

 they are not specially concerned about the price of milk or 

 the other necessaries of life. For this reason the wages of 

 farm help are really higher than they seem to be, and often 

 higher in reality than are paid to laborers in other pursuits. 

 The fair way to judge of the relative wages of employees is 

 to find out the surplus left at the end of the employment. 

 The farm hand who is " found " as a part of his compensa- 

 tion usually is able to lay away more of his wages than the 

 laborer who " finds " himself, though his wages " sound " 

 more in dollars and cents. And another thing to be consid- 

 ered is, that employment on the farm is more secure and 

 permanent in hard times than employment in other occupa- 

 tions. In such times, when industrial laborers are being 

 thrown out of work by the thousands, the good farm hand 

 has nothing to fear unless it be a reduction of wages, for his 

 services on the farm are needed in hard times as much as in 

 good times. 



