THE AFTER-WAR DEPRESSION 45 



his labor, after deducting 5 per cent on his 

 property investment, was below the return re- 

 ceived by employees in other industries. The 

 average reward per farmer for labor, risk and 

 management, after allowing 5 per cent on his 

 investment, was as follows: 



1909 $ 311 



1918 1,278 



1920 465 



Compare with this the reward of employees 

 in the mining industry, which were in 1909, 

 $590, in 1918 $1,280. Railway employees re- 

 ceived in 1909 an average of $773 and in 1918 

 $1,532. It will be seen that the farmer would 

 have been better off had he been working as a 

 miner or for the railroads, so far as his return 

 for labor was concerned, excepting his returns 

 upon his savings represented in his investment. 



The Commission concluded that while the in- 

 come and reward for capital invested and labor 

 employed in agriculture have been improving 

 in recent years, as compared with other in- 

 dustries, they are still relatively lower than the 

 rewards in other lines of business, and measured 

 by the standard of the purchasing power of his 

 products, the farmer was relatively worse off 

 than those in other industries. 



