Part I.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. 57 



Conclusion. 



In concluding this report there is one matter of importance 

 confronting the farmers this coming year to which I wish to 

 call especial attention. We are going to be urged to produce 

 even greater crops than this year in face of an adverse labor, 

 fertilizer and seed situation. Many of our laborers and even 

 some of ourselves are going to be claimed for the army. Ma- 

 terials of all kinds and interest rates will undoubtedly be 

 higher, while the market for our products will be as uncertain 

 as ever. Agriculture is going to come more and more in com- 

 petition with industries, particularly in the labor market, and 

 it is becoming more and more evident that if food is produced 

 another year in large quantities it has got to be produced by 

 fairly high-priced labor, and the consumer has got to pay the 

 increased price largely due to the labor situation. All business 

 is demanding a fair return on its investment. No one seems to 

 consider that the farmer should have the same privilege. 



There is already a movement on foot among some of the 

 larger agricultural organizations to ally themselves with the 

 American Federation of Labor in an effort to organize agri- 

 cultural labor. We as farmers have always avoided this issue 

 as far as possible, but it seems to your secretary that it might 

 bring to a direct issue some of the great problems which con- 

 front us, and force upon the attention of the public the neces- 

 sity of the farmer getting more of the money which is ulti- 

 mately paid for food. There is a certain romance and specula- 

 tion connected with agriculture which no doubt keeps many 

 persons in the business just because they can make a living 

 and hope some day to make some money. Even the most 

 successful never make money in the sense that it is made in big 

 business. We are often constrained to ask why the basic in- 

 dustry should be unprofitable, and especially why at this time 

 we should be asked to run our farms at no profit when business 

 is demanding a profit or a gain; why the farmer should be 

 patriotic if patriotism means running our farms unprofitably. 



In our unorganized condition each man has got to answer 

 these questions himself, always holding in mind that we are 

 now at war; that our young men are offering their lives that 

 we may be spared a greater sacrifice, and that while our 



