HUMAN EFFORT AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION 259 



ranks of the consumers and decreasing and weakening the ranks of 

 producers. 



In January more farm hands are looking for work than can get 

 jobs. In March the tide turns and there are not enough men to go 

 around. What shall men do between times ? Spend their little sav- 

 ings and trust to luck? Thus the character of the men who stay 

 deteriorates, while good men refuse to remain in an occupation which 

 offers no better future. As soon as work on the farms is organized, 

 and employment is made steady for all the help, just so soon will a 

 better class of laborers be attracted to the farm. 



As the farm-owner wishes life to be free from eternal drudgery for 

 himself and family, yielding the fruits of happiness, leisure, and cul- 

 ture, he would do well to consent and arrange to give the farm hand 

 who shares the shelter of his roof a fair chance at these same benefits. 



The mass of farm hands are realizing that they are to remain wage- 

 earners and that they will not become independent farm-owners. 

 This means that the farm hand is no longer willing to endure long 

 hours with no recreation. Formerly he considered being a hired hand 

 a temporary condition. He could stand anything then, for he looked 

 forward to the independent life of a farm-owner. But with this hope 

 gone, and with nothing to look forward to but a life as a hired hand, 

 he wants that life improved. He wants regular hours, a chance for 

 recreation, a good place to live in, and enough wages to maintain a 

 family according to American standards. A three years' trial of a 

 regular half-day off for each farm hand has been successful on 

 Mr. Dougan's dairy farm. There are six hired men. One has Monday 

 afternoon off, another Tuesday, etc. Whatever the emergencies, it 

 is understood nothing shall interfere with this arrangement. On 

 Sunday each man gets another half-day. 



The tendency is to pay all men the "going wage." This keeps 

 down ambition and encourages incompetency. There are men whose 

 services are worth two or three times that wage, and others who are 

 expensive help at half the amount. One may discriminate in this 

 matter on the same farm and keep contented help, on two principles: 

 The first is to pay as generously to labor as the income can possibly 

 stand, and to increase this pay as business increases; the second is 

 to distribute this pay according to experience, ability, and length of 

 continuous service on the farm. 



Some form of dividing profits with hired help is perfectly feasible. 

 A system of arriving at an actual basis for such profit-sharing implies 



