XVI 



SOME PROBLEMS OF AGRICULTURAL LABOR 



Introduction 



We are prone to think of "labor problems" as confined to urban 

 employments, and to assume that rural labor is performed under safe, 

 healthful, and otherwise satisfactory conditions. This was perhaps 

 measurably the case in the agricultural experience of the generation 

 that is passing. Farming was almost exclusively a family enterprise 

 and labor was employed under home conditions. The pioneer wife, 

 to be sure, might be grossly overworked, both in the farm kitchen and 

 in the harvest field, and growing boys were doubtless often set at 

 tasks beyond their strength. Poor housing and diet were abuses that 

 existed then as now (see selections 29 and 30), and hard drinking is 

 no new evil in country districts (selection 272). 



But, on the other hand, the coming of machine processes and 

 capitalistic methods has raised some problems of agricultural laborers 

 which were little, if at all, known in the older day. Machine appli- 

 ances make certain of the better sorts of labor vastly more efficient 

 than they could be under hand methods, but it also creates new pos- 

 sibilities of injury and possible death. The use of machinery enables 

 the farm manager to dispense with hand workers in many processes, 

 but it likewise brings about a demand for certain classes of skilled 

 labor of which there seems never to be an adequate supply. The 

 sheer "ignorance and brute strength" which constituted an adequate 

 equipment for subduing the wilderness fails to get results from com- 

 plicated farm machinery or highly bred dairy cows. 



The passing to more specialized and intensive types of culture 

 creates strong seasonal demands for labor of inferior grades in the 

 routine processes which cannot be taken over by machines. With 

 this come irregularity of employment, itinerant labor, exploitation 

 of workers by employment agencies and labor bosses, and most if not 

 all of the abuses with which we have become familiar in connection 

 with the use of low-grade labor in industrial employments. 



Finally, the emergence of a separate class of laborers in agriculture 

 has already given rise to class consciousness and organization for the 

 attainment of class ends. Selection 264 turns our eyes to France to 



838 



