h OJ* 
Vol. I-XXXI. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 19, 1922 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. .Tune 26. 1879. at the Post NJo 4704 
0fttva at New York. N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1379. 
The Farmers and the Railroad Strikers 
W E are often asked why the farmers are not 
in full sympathy with the railroad workers 
in their strike for retention of wastes. Some of the 
labor union leaders seem to he surprised thal farmers 
and country people do not immediately rally to the 
support of the strikers, and iiiHuence public opinion 
in their favor. Mr. Samuel Gompers ought to under¬ 
stand about this after his experience at the agricul¬ 
tural convention ?n Washington last Spring, for the 
issue was clearly presented to him there. The 
farmers of the country 
generally feel that they 
have been forced into 
deflation of prices for 
their products and labor, 
while in other lines of 
industry laborers have 
been aide to hold their 
war wages to a large 
extent. The farmers 
feel that 60 minutes' 
work at farm labor 
must have the same 
value us an tour's work 
in the shop! When dur¬ 
ing (lie war prices for 
farm products were fixed 
by the Government the 
income from the farm¬ 
er’s labor was cut down. 
While the fanner saw 
the injustice of this 
plan of boosting extrav¬ 
agantly the wages of all 
other workers and fix¬ 
ing prices so as to keep 
his labor price down, he 
supported the Govern¬ 
ment. did not strike or 
curtail production, but 
did his host to keep up 
his end. Now these 
same farmers see the 
railroad men refusing to 
take the same medicine 
when we all know that 
the dose is needed. The 
Labor Hoard at Wash¬ 
ington decided that there 
must he a cut in wages, 
and a large majority of 
the American people 
seem to agree that such 
a reduction is neces¬ 
sary. Instead of taking 
such a Government de¬ 
cision as the farmers 
did. the railroad men 
strike and endeavor to 
hold uii transportation 
which, next to sunshine, 
food and water, is the 
most necessary tiling 
we know of in its rela¬ 
tion to the life of all 
the people. Briefly 
stated, this is why our 
country people have lit¬ 
tle or no sympathy with 
the railroad strike. 
In the August issue ol 
the It ('view of Revieivs Dr. David Friday of the 
Michigan Agricultural College gives some striking 
figures in showing the farmer's sidt* of this question, 
or as he calls it. the farmer’s argument against the 
strike. According to the Monthl.il Lubov Review 
there are about 42,000,000 people engaged in gainful 
occupations in this country. The following table 
gives a rough estimate of the division of this army 
into occupations: Engaged in farming, 11.000.000; 
engaged in mining. 1,000,000; transportation, 1,S00,- 
000 ; manufacturing, 12.000,000; handlers, 15.000,000. 
The 13,000.000 engaged in manufacturing are busy 
fabricating or making over the raw material which 
the 11,000,000 farmers and the 1.000,000 miners pro¬ 
duce. The 15.00o.000 "handlers” are those engaged 
in wholesale and retail trade, in public untility 
service, clerical work, or in professional, domestic 
and personal service. You will see that 11.000,000 
farmers and 1.000,000 miners must provide work for 
nearly 30,000.000 persons, who simply make over, 
handle and carry what 
the miners and farmers 
produce. 
Dr. Friday says that 
the railroad men com¬ 
pose less than 4 per 
cent of our total popu¬ 
lation, yet in 1921 they 
received as wages nearly 
7 per cent of the na¬ 
tion’s purchasing power. 
As against this the 
farmers, with over 20 
per cent of the popula¬ 
tion, received less than 
20 per cent of this total 
purchasing power, which 
represents the total pro¬ 
duct of the nation. Thus 
with six times as many 
workers in agriculture 
as in railway transpor¬ 
tation the farmers re¬ 
ceived only three times 
as much in the way of 
labor returns as the rail¬ 
road workers. Dr. Fri¬ 
day gives the table on 
next page to show the 
income of railroad men 
as compared with that 
of farmers. 
As against this in¬ 
come the farmer aver¬ 
aged $700 in 1921, and 
there is little chance 
that his average income 
will go over $750 in 
1922. Yet since July 1 
the railroad worker has 
averaged about $1,600 
income per year, and 
the combined reductions 
proposed by the Labor 
Board would reduce 
wages by less than $100 
per year. It is also 
pointed out that prices 
of farm products are 
generally decided by the 
gamble of an interna¬ 
tional market, while 
wages of railroad work- 
eft's a re not. W h il e fa rin 
prices, and thus the 
price of farm labor, are 
subject to the gamble 
of market conditions, 
weather and half a 
dozen other things, rail¬ 
road wages are fixed by 
John H. Huber of Noncalk, O., and a Few of His Watermelons. Fig. .{{L (See Next Page) 
