lean. 
1924 
Progress By Compromise 
An A. A. Wednesday Evening Radio Talk Broadcast From WEAF 
415 
I T is a natural desire of all men to share fully 
in the progress of civilization. To secure an 
equitable portion of material goods or wealth, 
of human comfort, of intellectual advantage, 
of opportunities for personal enjoyment and hap- 
By A. 
MANN 
Dean of the New York State College of Agriculture, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
. x-- ~i' witnessed continual compromise, out of which 
piness, according to the standards of the day, is a recur ever new conflicts, merely to be compro- 
motive of all normal persons. In the larger devel-s- mised again. 
opment and expression of personality, there is an! With the third great force of production, organ- 
ultimate purpose common to all civilized beings, ized agriculture, moving into position, are we 
When we consider the higher aims and ends of life, merely to have a new form of compromise? 
we find that the interests of all persons have much Probably so. It is the most evident means of 
in common. 4 forcing adjustment of interests. As society now 
On the other hand, when we contemplate the 
way in which people strive to progress toward the 
fuller life which all want, we find that conflict and 
competition of interests is the most characteristic 
fact along the road. Clashings of interests, one 
group or person seeking advantage over other 
groups or persons, self-interest driving men to 
demand the utmost for themselves regardless of 
the well-being of others, create a perpetual con¬ 
flict in life in the midst of which it is hard to real¬ 
ize that in the last analysis men’s fundamental 
wants and needs have very much in common. 
* * * 
About the middle of the last century men dis¬ 
covered the possibilities of great industrial devel¬ 
opment through combinations of capital and the 
organization of vast industrial corporations. The 
evident advantages of such large-scale production 
captured the thinking of the people and there 
grew up a great industrial structure, founded on 
organized capital, which is doubtless permanent 
and is a gain to civilization. But with 
its growth and power and position, it 
sometimes disregarded other great in¬ 
terests of the people, and in some of its 
actions and demands it became ruth¬ 
less, so that checks, both legal and vol¬ 
untary, had to be set up. 
One of the early shortcomings of 
capitalistic industry was the tendency 
to disregard the rights of the workers. 
As a consequence we find, beginning 
about 1865, the emergence of organized 
labor to protect the interests of the in¬ 
dustrial worker. Since the formation 
of the American Federation of Labor 
in 1885, the movement has gained 
rapidly in size, power, and position. 
It, too, has become overbearing and 
ruthless in some of its demands, sacri¬ 
ficing at times the general interest to its 
particular interest. Checks, both legal 
and voluntary, are beginning to appear, 
as the excessive demand of certain 
groups are losing to organized labor 
the support of public opinion which has 
been one of its greatest assets. 
During the last decade we have wit¬ 
nessed the emergence of a third great 
competitive force, organized agricul¬ 
ture. Farmers have, from stern neces¬ 
sity, moved slowly but surely into a 
position of organized strength to claim 
for themselves a greater share in the 
rewards of service, in the making'of 
laws, in the creation of national policies 
and social adjustments, in the progress 
of civilization. It was an inevitable 
development as a defensive movement, 
and it is in the public interest as well as 
m the farmers’ interest. There was no 
alternative. 
During the last forty years, the pub¬ 
lic has been conscious of a conflict be¬ 
tween organized capital and organized 
labor. In an important sense, as 
William Jay Hudson points out in his 
book on the New America, progress in 
industry during this period has been by 
compromise. There is competition for 
control between the wage-earners and 
the wage-payers. As a result, we have 
operates, no other course seems open to farmers. 
Collective bargaining is a necessity. Farmers 
must deal with the economic structure as it is. 
Yet, reason tells us that the right solution of 
economic problems is not to be found in the tri¬ 
umph of one organized group or class, or by com¬ 
promise of classes. Experience with progress by 
compromise has brought pain and hardship, it has 
involved human and material waste, it is unsocial 
in a large sense. It means the exploitation of one 
group by another, or each by the other, or the un¬ 
organized general public by the organized forces. 
Unsatisfactory as it is, we seem to lack a better 
way. There is needed a new program of progress 
which recognizes the larger interest of all the peo¬ 
ple, which brings economic values into their right 
relation with human, social, and national values. 
To talk thus is to be accused of deserting the 
field of “practical” solutions to indulge fancy in 
supposedly “idealistic” solutions. Yet ideals have 
their defense. They have ever been the forerun¬ 
Tf you believe in tax reduction sign the 'petition below, get your neighbor 
to sign it, and send it IMMEDIATELY to American Agriculturist, 
4-61 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 
TO THE GOVERNOR, THE LEGISLATURE, AND TO \EVERY 
OTHER PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN STATE, COUNTY AND TOWN 
GOVERNMENT IN NEW YORK, PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW 
JERSEY .; 
WHEREAS, first, taxation has increased in this nation more than four times 
since 1913, and in our State and local governments more than three and a half 
times, and 
WHEREAS, second, this burden of taxation, particularly for State and local 
governments, falls heaviest and directly on farmers and farm property, amounting 
to 16.6% of the farmer’s income in 1922, stopping agricultural prosperity and 
fast becoming absolutely insupportable, and 
WHEREAS, third, the general basis of taxation is INCOME and not PROPERTY, 
and 
WHEREAS, fourth, our national. State and local governments have made little 
real progress in cutting out unnecessary officers, government departments and 
appropriation bills since the end of the World War, therefore be it hereby 
RESOLVED: First, that we, the undersigned, are unalterably OPPOSED TO 
THE EXTENSION AT PRESENT OF ALL NATIONAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOV¬ 
ERNMENT ACTIVITIES. 
Second, that all of our national and local officers should give immediate at¬ 
tention to THE GRAVE NECESSITY OF LARGE REDUCTIONS IN ALL GOV¬ 
ERNMENT EXPENDITURES, to the reduction of government personnel, to com¬ 
bining and simplifying government departments and activities, to the need of 
short legislative sessions, to smaller expense accounts for public officials, to 
passing fewer laws, and in short, to the necessity for practicing the same economy 
in public affairs that farmers are constantly obliged to practice in the production 
of the necessities of life. 
Third, that we as farmers are not interested in credit or any other unsound 
farm relief legislation, BUT IN TAX REDUCTION. 
Fourth, that taxation, both State and national, be maintained on all luxuries, 
as for example, chewing gum, tobacco, motion pictures, etc. 
Fifth, that tax reduction be made TO ABOLISH DIRECT PROPERTY TAX. 
A REDUCTION OF INCOME TAXES IS NOT SATISFACTORY. The farmer’s 
income is from his property holdings and therefore his assessed valuation, par¬ 
ticularly on paper, is high. The reduction of income taxes, while government 
expenditures are still so high, will inevitably result in greater taxes on property, 
chiefly FARM REAL ESTATE. Signed eventually by 100,000 farmers. 
ners of later practical operations. The world 
needs ideals to-day as much as it needs anything. 
Much of the present sag is the result of abandon¬ 
ing high ideals which swept the nations during-the 
recent war time. With a growing complexity of 
economic and industrial relations, there is need for 
a program of guidance into which some new ideals 
of value, of social rights, of human relations, ad¬ 
justments, and responsibilities are projected. 
The difficulty of establishing new methods of 
procedure is the greater argument for their con¬ 
sideration. 
The better solution of economic and industrial 
problems will be found, if ever, not in the conflict 
and compromise, but an impartial and right 
reason. By a slow process of education there must 
be built up a sympathetic knowledge of compara¬ 
tive rights and points of view of all the great 
classes or groups of interests, of what is equitable 
in human affairs. There must come a procedure 
which is expressive of the many-sided good of the 
whole people, which senses the real import to a 
democratic commonwealth of contemporaneous 
economic movements and problems. And it must 
include the simple ethical principle of paying for 
what one receives, and giving in return that for 
which one is paid. Capital has been accused of 
unwillingness to pay for labor received. Labor is 
to-day suspected of organized unwillingness to 
give labor in return for what it is paid, to limit 
output and to force wages up. Farmers suffer be¬ 
cause the price ratio of the products of their labor is 
grossly out of line with the things they buy; be¬ 
cause, under present conditions, they 
are relatively greatly underpaid for 
their labor, on the one hand, or, on the 
other, do not receive in their purchases, 
proportionate value for which they pay. 
Social justice requires that the mass 
of the people shall be put in the way of 
progress—not merely the fortunate 
individual or the group which may 
gain predominant power by reason of 
greater strength. Persons should share 
in the returns in proportion to the in¬ 
telligence, labor, and risk they contrib¬ 
ute, not in proportion to power or posi¬ 
tion. There is needed a new conscious¬ 
ness of values, of the essence of human 
progress. We shall approach a right 
solution of the increasingly complex 
economic situations, not by drifting, 
not by ignorantly and indifferently 
accepting the situations, but by facing 
them resolutely, responsibly, and in¬ 
telligently. And in the solution, the 
principle of organization will have a 
place—a larger place. 
Name (write plainly). 
Address. 
(Paste blank paper to this petition for additional names.) 
In the Land of the Finger Lakes 
(Continued from page 412) 
development of this special industry. It 
seems surprising that a grapevine is almost 
as long lived as an apple tree and vineyards 
fifty years old are by no means unknown. 
A large part of Keuka or Crooked Lake 
lies within the county. This is the only 
one of the Finger Lakes with an irregular 
outline. In shape it suggests a capital Y 
and the section of land running down some 
nine miles between the two arms of the Y 
is very largely given over to grapes. It is 
surely true that the area on which grapes 
grow well is larger than was deemed suit¬ 
able, in the past. A grower told me that 
years ago it was supposed you could not 
grow grapes unless one end of the row ran 
down into the lake and the first plantings 
were directly upon the steep lake bluffs 
which in some cases were laboiiously ter¬ 
raced for that purpose. Gradually the 
vineyards have been carried farther back 
from the lake until now many of them are 
out of sight and apparently pretty well be¬ 
yond the influence of the water. 
