AGRICULTURAL WAGES 817 



person a disposition to avoid contact with nature in the gross, with 

 whatever is sharp or rank or rugged. It is probable that more young 

 Eastern and Middle States countrymen today would rather hire 

 themselves out to stand behind counters, or to sit in boxes selling 

 tickets, than to become foremen to farm proprietors at the same 

 remuneration, or even to become small farmers on their own account. 

 This is not from an aversion to physical exercise. These same young 

 clerks and ticket-sellers are, most likely, members of some boat club 

 or gymnasium. It is largely because of the more polished appearance 

 which they are enabled to affect, and a readiness to endure those 

 things which offend man's spirit, rather than those things which 

 offend his body. 



Still another cause for the dissatisfaction toward agriculture as a 

 vocation is the decreased importance of the agricultural population, 

 socially and politically, as compared with the members of other 

 callings. The farmer's local influence is less than that of the trader 

 or manufacturer or contractor. He who in numbers and in the pro- 

 portion of his taxes is first is, for all purposes of official distinction, 

 considered the least. All roads toward distinction lead away from 

 the farm. Aware of his diminished consequence in the world of 

 politics and affairs, the farm proprietor emulous of distinction, if 

 unable to forsake it itself, desires that his sons shall follow almost 

 any other calling than his own. 



261. THE COMPETITION OF NON-AGRICULTURAL 

 EMPLOYMENTS 1 



BY GEORGE K. HOLMES 



Farm labor in this country has presented the problem of a dimin- 

 ishing supply relative to population since the days of original settle- 

 ment. It is the old familiar feature of the industrial nations of the 

 world. Until recent years the problem was almost entirely confined 

 to the quantity of the supply, but during the last decade or two it 

 has assumed a new phase in which not only the amount of the supply 

 relatively has almost critically declined, but the quality has almost 

 absolutely declined, or has failed in an important degree to keep 

 pace with the need for labor, more skill, and more intelligence. 



In spite of all that the farmer has done or been able to do, there 

 has been a drift of labor from farm to city and industry, and the 



1 Adapted from Bulletin 94, Bureau of Statistics, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, pp. 38-41. 



