collar 



5eopIe 



for a 



their 



to a 



sub- 



main- 



lan to 



rposes 



the 



to a study of and to make recommend- 

 ations as to the requisites of industrial 

 and national peace. But today we still find 

 organized industry almost, if not totally 

 lacking in offering any sound basis to 

 assure workers of participating in the 

 fruits of their endeavor, and we find 

 organized labor asking for higher wages 

 even though it is necessary to draw a 

 substantial portion of such increased 

 wage from past reserves and profits. 

 We find nearly all of our citizens in 

 need of almost every kind of industrial 

 product, but we find their desires 

 tllwarted by the indecision of industrial 

 leaders and the extravagant demands 

 of organized labor. We find industry 

 urging substantial reduction in taxes 

 and we find labor insisting upon higher 

 exemptions from income tax, yet we 

 all recognize the continued and tre- 

 mendous requirements of the Nation 

 for revenue to balance expenditures 

 with income. We find the masses still 

 demanding comparatively cheap food 

 and without practically any realization 

 that about nine per cent of their right- 

 ful costs were borne by the Federal 

 Government throughout the period of 

 the war. 



Nation Needs Prc«perous Agriculture 



We find farmers yet forced, at least 

 in certain areas of production, to de- 

 pend upon the Federal Government for 

 a substantial portion of their income in 

 order that certain divisions of govern- 

 ment may continue war-time methods 

 of controlling prices to avoid further 

 demands of organized labor for in- 

 creased wages. We yet find the farmers 

 insisting only upon prices for their 

 products in the markets of the country 

 that are necessary to give them a reason- 

 able degree of equality of purchasing 

 power for the products of industry and 

 industrial labor. It should never be 

 forgotten by America that the thinking 

 farmers of the country are the one 

 group who have constantly and con- 

 sistently demanded policies of govern- 

 ment that would permit and require 

 the American public to purchase food 

 and fiber in the markets of the country 

 through both depression and prosperity 

 periods on a basis of equality with the 

 profits of industry and the wages of 

 labor. They knew before as they know 

 now that this Nation can never enjoy 

 any permanent degree of prosperity un- 

 less the basis of our American economy, 

 agriculture, is in a reasonably prosper- 

 ous condition. Only the simplest of 

 economic fact is necessary to convince 

 anyone of this fundamental fact. 



Ctiallenge to Economists 



Notwithstanding all of the experi- 

 ences of depression and of industrial 

 activity, their causes and their effect. 



we still have professional economists 

 writing essays on what would constitute 

 a sound National agricultural policy 

 and receiving large awards for the best 

 of their essays. Only recently the prize 

 essays prepared by professional econo- 

 mists placed great emphasis upon the 

 importance of large agricultural pro- 

 duction and cheap food, and making up 

 the difference between a low return to 

 the farmer in the market and a just re- 

 turn by checks from the Treasury of the 

 United States. To accept such a pol- 

 icy would mean that those engaged in 

 agriculture would soon become wards 

 of the Government. I regard those 

 prize winning essays as a challenge to 

 the Departments of Economics of our 

 Land Grant Colleges to offer proposals 

 that recognize the fundamental impor- 

 tance of a sustained, contented and 

 prosperous agriculture to the welfare of 

 every man, woman and child in the 

 United States. I have never known of 

 any but a small minority of farmers 

 who have sought more in the way of 

 price return for their long hours of 

 labor and effort than an equitable re- 

 turn for the products of these efforts. 

 In other words, prices for farm com- 

 modities that would give them a fair 

 exchange value with the products of 

 industry. 



Strife Hampers Reconversion 



Farmers also have a very definite in- 

 terest in the immediate solution of 

 difficulties between industry and labor. 

 It may seem out of place for me to offer 

 a suggestion for the solution of our 

 industrial-labor relationships, but I do 

 so only because of the failure of our 

 economists, our industrial and labor 

 leaders, and should I say political 

 leaders, to offer anything that would 

 seem to promise a solution of the indus- 

 trial strife which is so seriously stifling 

 sound reconversion. If we are to pro- 

 tect America as a nation of free men, 

 we must recognize that capital is an 

 essential to business progress and, 

 therefore, is entitled to a reasonable 

 return. We must recognize that out- 

 standing ability of management is en- 

 titled to reward, and we must recognize 

 that labor is a partner in industry and 

 entitled to a wage that reflects a reas- 

 onable return for its contribution to 

 total net profits. 



Answer Is in America 



May I suggest for consideration by 

 the American people that a sound basis 

 for solving industrial-labor relations 

 may be found in agreements which pro- 

 vide first, reasonable living wages for 

 workers; second, reasonable returns 

 currently for capital invested and right- 

 ful rewards to management resource- 

 fulness and ability. After meeting these 



requisites, would it not be well to con- 

 sider an allocation of remaining profits 

 to capital, to management, and to work- 

 ers in proportion to their contribution 

 to final results? It is known by every 

 thoughtful person that America became 

 the greatest Nation of the world be- 

 cause of the resourcefulness of men. We 

 have seen the sons of rich men become 

 paupers because of their inability even 

 to take care of inherited riches. We 

 find generally that the real captains of 

 industry arose from humble surround- 

 ings through the channels of hard 

 work, of long study and uncompro- 

 mised effort. In other words, it has been 

 either the resourcefulness or the neg- 

 lect of men that have determined their 

 social and economic destiny. 



Are we to throw aside these long 

 years of experiences and record for the 

 dreamy ideas of impractical economists, 

 cheap politicians or any of the alien 

 theories that have entered the borders 

 of America during the last 20 years.' 

 Practical, hard-working people made 

 America and it is the same kind of 

 courage and determination that will 

 protect America in the days ahead. I 

 fully recognize we are long past the 

 horse-and-buggy days, but I am one 

 who yet believes that ignoring the fun- 

 damental principles underlying govern- 

 ment and the experiences of horse-and- 

 buggy days will not serve the true in- 

 terests of American boys and girls in 

 the days ahead. It is time America 

 awakes to the fact that there is no 

 Utopia. The issues are great, the stakes 

 are high. We have nothing to draw 

 from any nation of the world except 

 the bitter experience of their strife that 

 has led America and taken Americans 

 through two world-wide wars. It is in 

 America and in America alone that we 

 will find the solution to our domestic 

 and international problems and it is as 

 Americans and Americans alone that we 

 must and will find the way. 



SANGAMON HIRES 

 ASSISTANT FARM ADVISER 



Lyle D. Kerley of Brown county has 

 assumed his duties as assistant farm 

 adviser of Sangamon county. He was 

 recently discharged as a captain after 

 serving four years with the army air 

 forces, three years of which were spent 

 overseas. 



Kerley was graduated from the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois college of agriculture 

 and at the time he entered service had 

 been in charge of the USDA swine 

 breeding project at the state univer- 

 sity where he also served as an in- 

 structor in the swine department. He 

 is married and the father of two chil- 

 dren. . , 



DECEMBER. 1945 



31 



