American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man”— Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 112 ' For the Week Ending July 7, 1923 Number 1 
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Farmers Must SolveTheir Own Problems 
Legislative Cure-alls Will Not Bring Prosperity 
I F the farming interests of America can 
devise no sounder methods of maintain¬ 
ing their proper place in the economic 
scheme of things than a resort to legis¬ 
lative cure-alls they are inevitably doomed 
to disappointment. 
I see no reason why farmers need to ex¬ 
pect hope from anything that does not also 
offer hope for labor; and labor long since 
abandoned any dream of salvation through 
politicians. 
This conference, called by those whose 
present trend of thought at least is toward 
political remedies, must turn its 
feet toward paths that lead into 
the economic structure itself if 
it wishes to work real benefit 
and point to lasting and sound 
methods. 
I have heard much about the 
alleged disproportionate income 
of industrial wage earners and 
farmers. Some have pointed out 
that one of the things greatly to 
be desired is an increased market 
for wheat. They propose to pat¬ 
tern after industry and teach the 
people to eat more wheat. Let 
me remind you in passing that 
you will not induce people to eat" 
more wheat if you threaten the 
income out of which they buy 
wheat. 
Farmers complain of the state 
of their market to-day. I join 
with you in lamenting the in¬ 
adequate income of the farmer, 
but I venture to assert that 
the income of the farmers can 
never be greater if industrial wages are 
either to stand still or go down. The product 
of the farm is largely bought by the popu¬ 
lations of the cities and the populations of 
the cities are composed mostly of wage 
earners. 
There is throughout America to-day a 
comparative state of prosperity because 
there is a comparatively high average buy¬ 
ing power among the workers. Wages are 
not what we would like them to be in a great 
many cases, but at least they are not the 
wages of poverty. They are wages that per¬ 
mit workers to buy and to exercise some 
choice in the range and quality of their 
buying. 
The state of the farmer may be described 
as an economic maladjustment; and that be¬ 
ing the case, it can be righted. It seems 
easy to rush to the law-makers, and ask for 
law. Let me assure you, out of a long and 
active experience, that there is no great 
magic in a law. You will not stop the eco¬ 
nomic machine and reverse its operation by 
the enactment of a law. About the best that 
a law can do is to go along with a ripening 
public sentiment or a rip_..ing economic de¬ 
velopment. 
There are many law-makers, some farmers 
and some wage earners who forget that we 
are living in an industrial civilization. The 
By SAMUEL GOMPERS 
economic forces of our time ride on, develop¬ 
ing and changing in accord with the progress 
of human needs, invention, and the supplies 
of raw materials. The dominant character 
of a civilization is and must be reflected in 
its customs, its laws and its manner of life. 
Study history to find out about that. 
Law-makers a decade ago were furiously 
engaged in trying to “bust the trusts.” Politi¬ 
cal campaigns were fought on that issue. 
The graveyards of the decade are not filled 
with the remains of busted trusts, but they 
are well populated with the skeletons of for¬ 
gotten laws and law-makers. The trusts are 
greater than ever. It has been possible to 
curb some of their practices and to prevent 
some practices, but the essential structure 
has stood because it was economically right 
and moreover economically inevitable. 
I point to these things to help make clear 
my thought. The road to right practices, 
right developments, right compensations for 
various kinds of useful service is not through 
Congress or State Legislatures. These may 
lend a helping hand and they may clear the 
road; but they cannot build the body of our 
effort nor shape our course. 
Let us look at the specific economic condi¬ 
tion affecting the farm community. 
In the last ten years there has been no 
increase in the farm population of our coun¬ 
try. Despite this, the farms raise crops to 
feed an addition of 14 millions in our popula¬ 
tion and enough to increase annual farm ex¬ 
ports from seven and one-half million tons 
a year to seventeen and one-half million tons 
a year. 
The per capita volume production of our 
farms has increased amazingly. The in¬ 
dustrial production has likewise increased, 
but the industrial workers have found a way 
to command for themselves a standard of 
living that has progressed somewhat in ac¬ 
cord with and in relation to the increase in 
volume production. 
Europe talks about its proletariat, and 
it has a proletariat. Europe talks about 
its peasantry, and it has a peasantry. The 
United States has neither of these, for 
two reasons. It has neither the economic 
conditions nor the state of mind that pro¬ 
duces a proletariat and a peasantry as 
those classifications are understood in Eu¬ 
rope. Even if we had ever had a pro¬ 
letariat and a peasantry, which we did not, 
mass production would have put 
an end to both. Because Ameri¬ 
can cities have no proletariat, 
American industrial wage earn¬ 
ers are free in mind and in fact 
to proceed to work out their sal¬ 
vation through organization and 
cooperation within their indus¬ 
tries. Our minds are not frozen 
by any ingrained sense of be¬ 
longing to a given status. We 
are free to accept whatever facts 
we find and to use them as seems 
best. That applies with equal 
force to our farms. And let me 
add that the farmers of our coun¬ 
try will, if they know their his¬ 
tory, proceed to find remedy and 
improvement through organiza¬ 
tion within their industry. There 
are all manner and varieties of 
evangelists shouting from the 
house tops, demanding miraculous 
works from politicians, and the 
poor politicians are being driven 
to desperation. I am perfectly 
willing that they should be driven to despera¬ 
tion; and there are a lot of political crooks 
and charlatans whom I would joyfully see 
driven clear out of the game; but all of that 
brings home precious little bacon, either to 
farmer or wage earner. 
If the wage earners of our country had 
not the sense and the courage to organize, 
nobody would have much sympathy for them 
and nobody would take their complaints very 
seriously. Gentlemen, the temptation to say, 
“go thou and do likewise,” is almost be¬ 
yond my power to resist. 
I should like to give you another reason 
for resorting to your own power, your own 
capacity, your own intelligence. You will 
not admit that you have not the intelligence, 
for almost anyone of you within hearing of 
my voice could tell what is wrong and how 
to fix it. I think most Americans do that 
with great facility. You know what is wrong 
and you know what ought to be done, but 
when it comes to doing it you are not in po¬ 
sition to act as a unit, to pool your thought 
and your power for a single purpose. You 
are disorganized. 
The best knowledge of an industry or an 
occupation is to be found within that in¬ 
dustry and that occupation. Farmers know 
more about farm problems than anyone else 
{Continued on page 10) 
Whether You Agree With Him or Not 
W HETHER you agree with all that labor organizations have 
done or not, you will find little to disagree with in Samuel 
Gompers’ article on this page. This speech was delivered at Chicago 
on June 20 at the conference on the wheat situation, which was try¬ 
ing to devise ways and means of giving the wheat growers more 
money for their product. 
“Sam” Gompers was the first president of the American Federation 
of Labor since its start in 1886, and with the exception of one year, 
has been its president ever since. This is a remarkable record in 
leadership particularly of any great new organization that has had 
the bitter ups and downs that labor has been through. Through all 
that time, Gompers has been opposed to, and has fought down radical¬ 
ism. He has retained his leadership through stormy and critical 
periods mainly because he used his great ability towards constructive 
ends. 
Nearly all farmers will agree Mr. Gompers is right when he says 
that farmers cannot hope to get help from politicians, but should 
resort “to your own power, your own capacity and your own 
intelligence.”—The Editors. 
