INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 201 



ing his income from his investment of capital or from his 

 labor? Almost every Agricultural Year Book, annually pub- 

 lished by the United States Department of Agriculture, in- 

 structs us that with improved agricultural machinery of to- 

 day, even not taking in computation the almost phenomenal 

 machinery of California wheat farms, the productive power 

 of the modern farmer is at least ten times greater than that 

 of the farmer of a few generations ago. Thus, if average an- 

 nual income of modern American farmer is $582, the income 

 of average farm in the United States 60 years ago should have 

 been just $58.20. But it is self-evident that solid comfort 

 of life of early American farmer could not be had for such 

 a trifle. Mere absurdity of the result reached by this calcu- 

 lation proves quite conclusively that the modern American 

 farmer does not receive all he produces, to say nothing of re- 

 ceiving more than he produces and if he does not receive more 

 than he produces this means that his income amounting to $582 

 a year derives, not from his investment of capital, but from 

 his labor, the hardest and the most productive toil on the face 

 of the earth. 



This unavoidable conclusion has been reached already, 

 several years ago by a high authority on economic questions in 

 the United States. "By using all available statistics," says 

 Professor C. K. Walker, "it becomes evident again and again 

 that deducting rent and interest, the American farmer receives 

 less for his exertions than does the laborer in the factory or 

 the hired man on the farm." The consequence is, that the 

 American farmer of to-day is living largely on his accumu- 

 lated capital or the returns therefrom, and that this Capital is 

 so fixed that he can not utilize it for any other than its 

 present use without an "almost total loss (American Economic 

 Association Studies, 1897, p. 56). This conclusion finds its 

 further corroboration in our calculations exhibited above. 

 If the American farmer receives from his farm an average 

 per capita income of 26 cents per day and out of this amount 

 must pay the taxes, insurance, interest, the cost of seed, etc., 

 so that no more than a per capita income of 10 cents per day 

 can be left for support of himself and his family, while his 

 hind help receives in his wages an average per capita in- 



