The Country-Life Movement in the United States Part 8

While farmers seem now to complain most of the labor shortage, the difficulty is not peculiarly rural. Good farmers feel it least; they have mastered this problem along with other problems. As a matter of fact, it is doubtful whether there is a real labor shortage as measured by previous periods; but it is very difficult to secure good labor on the previous terms and conditions.

_Reasons for the labor question._

The supposed short labor supply is not a temporary condition. It is one of the results of the readjustment and movement of society. A few of the immediate causes may be stated, to ill.u.s.trate the nature of the situation.

(1) In a large way, the labor problem is the result of the pa.s.sing out of the people from slavery and serfdom,--the rise of the working cla.s.ses out of subjugation. Peoples tend always to rise out of the laboring-man phase. We would not have it otherwise if we desire social democracy.

(2) It is due in part to the great amount and variety of constructive work that is now being done in the world, with the consequent urgent call for human hands. The engineering and building trades have extended enormously. We are doing kinds of work that we had not dreamed of a half-hundred years ago.

(3) In some places the labor difficulty is due to the working-men being drawn off to other places, through the perfecting of industrial organization. The organization of labor means companionship and social attraction. Labor was formerly solitary; it is now becoming gregarious.

(4) In general, men and women go where things are "doing." Things have not been doing on the farms. There has been a gradual pa.s.sing out from backward or stationary occupations into the moving occupations. Labor has felt this movement along with the rest. It has been natural and inevitable that farms should have lost their labor. Cities and great industrialism could not develop without them; and they have made the stronger bid.

(5) In farming regions, the outward movement of labor has been specially facilitated by lack of organization there, by the introduction of farm machinery, by the moving up of tenants into the cla.s.s of renters and owners, by lack of continuous employment, by relatively low pay, by absence of congenial a.s.sociation as compared with the town. Much of the hired farm labor is the sons of farmers and of others, who "work out"

only until they can purchase a farm. Some of it is derived from the cla.s.s of owners who drift downward to tenants, to laboring men, and sometimes to shifters. We are now securing more or less foreign-born labor on the farms. Much of this is merely seasonal; and when it is not seasonal, the immigrant desires to become a farm owner himself. If the labor is seasonal, the man may return to his native home or to the city, and in either case he is likely to be lost to the open country.

_The remedies._

There is really no "solution" for the labor difficulty. The problem is inherent in the economic and social situation. It may be relieved here and there by the introduction of immigrants or by transportation of laborers at certain times from the city; but the only real relief lies in the general working out of the whole economic situation. The situation will gradually correct itself; but the readjustment will come much more quickly if we understand the conditions.

As new interest arises in the open country and as additional values accrue, persons will remain in the country or will return to it; and the labor will remain or return with the rest. As the open country fills up, we probably shall develop a farm artisan cla.s.s, comprised of persons who will be skilled workmen in certain lines of farming as other persons are skilled workmen in manufactures and the trades. These persons will have cla.s.s pride. We now have practically no farm artisans, but solitary and more or less migratory working-men who possess no high-cla.s.s manual skill. Farm labor must be able to earn as much as other labor of equal grade, and it must develop as much skill as other labor, if it is to hold its own. This means, of course, that the farming scheme may need to be reorganized (pages 86 to 90).

Specifically, the farm must provide more continuous employment if it is to hold good labor. The farmer replies that he does not have employment for the whole year; to which the answer is that the business should be so reorganized as to make it a twelve months' enterprise. The introduction of crafts and local manufactures will aid to some extent, but it cannot take care of the situation (page 115). In some way the farm laborer must be reached educationally, either by winter schools, night schools, or other means. Every farm should itself be a school to train more than one laborer. The larger part of the farm labor must be country born. With the reorganization of country life and its increased earning power, we ought to see an increase in the size of country families.

_Public or social bearings._

It is doubtful if city industrialism is developing the best type of working-men, considered from the point of view of society (page 59). I am glad of all organizations of men and women, whether working-men or not. But it seems to me that the emphasis in some of the organizations has been wrongly placed. It has too often been placed on rights rather than on duties. No person and no people ever developed by mere insistence on their rights. It is responsibility that develops them. The working-man owes responsibility to his employer and to society; and so long as the present organization of society continues he cannot be an effective member of society unless he has the interest of his employer constantly in mind.

The real country working-men must const.i.tute a group quite by themselves. They cannot be organized on the basis on which some other folk are organized. There can be no rigid short-hour system on a farm.

The farm laborer cannot drop his reins or leave his pitchfork in the air when the whistle blows. He must remain until his piece of work is completed; this is the natural responsibility of a farm laborer, and it is in meeting this responsibility that he is able to rise to the upper grade and to develop his usefulness as a citizen.

It is a large question whether we are to have a distinct working-cla.s.s in the country as distinguished from the land-owning farmer. The old order is one of perfect democracy, in which the laboring-man is a part of the farmer's family. It is not to be expected that this condition can continue in its old form, but the probability is that there will always be a different relation between working-man and employer in the country from that which obtains in the city. The relation will be more direct and personal. The employer will always feel his sense of obligation and responsibility to the man whom he employs and to the man's family.

Persons do not starve to death in the open country.

Some persons think that the farming of the future is still to be performed on the family-plan, by which all members of the family perform the labor, and whatever incidental help is employed will become for the time a part of the family. This will probably continue to be the rule.

But we must face the fact, however, that a necessary result of the organization of country life and the specialization of its industries, that is now so much urged, will be the production of a laboring cla.s.s by itself.

_Supervision in farm labor._

It is doubtful whether we shall extend the industrial organization of labor to the open country, and yet there should be some way of administering farm labor. The growth of the tendency to coordinate farming industries, in order to overcome the disastrous effects of much of the compet.i.tive farming, will allow for supervision of labor, however, and will make for efficiency. The standardizing of agricultural practice will also do much to produce the community mind that is so much desired (p. 97). On this line, Dean H. E. Cook, who has given much thought to labor questions, writes me as follows:

"The production of iron, paper, and manufactured products generally has been standardized, and the cost laid down in the market is well known, and therefore placed squarely on a cash basis. Directly the opposite is the case in the manufacture of farm crops, and so we find the family to be the farm crop-producers. The wife and the children are a part of the working force of the farm, which is not found in any other industry. In fact, our laws are very rigid in preventing the employment of women and children in nearly every cla.s.s of work, except on the farm. We find no provision by statute or moral sentiment which says that the farmer must not employ his eight- or ten-year-old boy, as is very often the case, in most laborious tasks. This state of affairs is not the desire of the farmer, but has become a necessity because of the very low prices for his products, occasioned by the intense compet.i.tion of the rapidly extending area. Our government has taken every means within its grasp to populate these large areas of cheap rich land. Of course it meant wealth to the nation, but it meant poverty to those who had established homes and investments in the older sections.

"Our methods, unlike other manufacturers and producers, are not standardized. That is, we find in every community persons having each his own conception of soil-handling, crop-growing, and marketing. In a single locality can be found an endless variety of corn, as an ill.u.s.tration. Especially is this true in the East. Surely corn growing fourteen feet high and corn growing six feet high are not calculated to bring the same results. The farmers themselves are unlike. I suppose we are distantly removed from the time when we shall have a uniform type of men and women bred for the farm. It seems to me that methods which would unify or standardize our practices and prices--within certain limitations, to be sure--would tend to unify the tendencies and the type of the people.

"In our present state of undevelopment or adjustment, I do not think it is possible profitably to pursue the production of crops with employed labor, such as we find in our manufacturing establishments; and it may be debatable whether that plan would be an improvement, so far as the social life is concerned, over the present family-plan, although I firmly believe that the time is approaching when the profits of the business will warrant a cash payment for everything done on the farm. As a connecting link between the family-plan and the future cash-plan, it seems to me we ought to take on in each neighborhood the same methods of supervision that are now employed in the factories. One man of skill and adaptability supervises the work of many. In agriculture we have but one ill.u.s.tration of this principle, namely, our b.u.t.ter and cheese factories, where one man has in charge the manufacturing of the milk of many. I think we could profitably use a similar agency in trucking, soil-handling, crop-growing, animal-feeding, and general farm-management. Furthermore, we are more in need, as the writer sees it, of this standardizing or cooperation in farm-management, than we are in the manufacture of milk products. This plan would use the family as a unit of labor on the farm, with the attendant light risk, or no risk at all; and in case of failure of crops of having to pay cash for the labor.

"The cow-test a.s.sociation is a part of this general plan of local supervision. I can foresee how there may come out of this cow-test movement, a growth which will mean just what I have tried to outline.

The man who does nothing now but the testing of the milk from each cow may develop into an expert who will give advice on soils, crops, cow-feeding, and other things (page 123).

"When the communities around certain natural centers, as the cheese factories or creameries in dairy sections, perhaps a small hamlet in trucking sections, have become thoroughly organized or, more properly speaking, standardized, we shall find it comparatively easy to bring a number of these local units together, because the individuals who form a part of the movement have learned the true principles underlying cooperation. Until these local units are worked out, in my opinion we shall never be able to form any great cooperative movement which will not break of its own weight, because of a lack of annealing processes."

_What is the farmer to do?_

"How may I secure labor?" is probably the most persistent question now asked by farmers; but it is a question that cannot be answered, any more than one may tell another what crops he shall grow, what markets he shall find, or what manner of house he shall build. This is one of the great problems of farming, as it is of engineering, of the building trades, and of factories. Each farmer must work it out for himself, as he works out the problem of fertility and machinery. He must work far ahead, and consider it as a part of all his plans.

In many or most cases, it resolves itself into a question of personality,--of making a place that is worth while to a good man and then of the farmer interesting himself in the man. One can now hardly expect to secure labor on demand for brief periods, for the scheme of things is more and more in the direction of continuous employment; and the old range of prices cannot hold. If the farmer's scale of business is small and operates only for a part of a year, he cannot expect to secure the best and most reliable help.

The farmer will find increasing aid from public labor-distributing bureaus, for these agencies must extend with the extension of population and the complexity of industry. In time, the state and nation will provide competent machinery for placing working-men where they can best serve themselves and society, thus relieving both employer and employed from much waste of effort. As farm labor is not a separate difficulty, the problem will tend to better and better solution along with the rest.

If the distributing agencies are not now wholly satisfactory, the farmer must recognize that they are only beginning, and that he should cooperate with them. The problem of utilizing the immigrant, for example, is one of distribution; but distribution is really not accomplished merely by sending a certain number of immigrants to a certain number of places,--immigrant and employer must find the situation to be mutually satisfactory.

Any effort which a.s.sumes that labor must necessarily come to the old-type farm, is only temporary. The farm must readjust itself to meet the labor problem. In the meantime, through the labor bureaus, by looking long ahead, by organizing a labor club in the community, by some person acting as a labor agent and supplying farmers as they need, by trying to make a year-round activity in the neighborhood, the situation may be met more or less.

THE MIDDLEMAN QUESTION

To make farming profitable is no longer a question merely of raising more produce. We have pa.s.sed that point. We now have knowledge and experience enough to enable us greatly to increase our yields, if only we put the knowledge into practice.

_Farmer does not get his share._

But the farmer, speaking broadly, does not get his share of the proceeds of his labor, notwithstanding the increase in the price of farm products. A few farmers here and there, producing a superior article and favored by location or otherwise, can be quite independent of marketing systems; but the larger number of farmers never can be so situated, and they must grow the staples, and they are now at the mercy of many intermediaries. The farmer's risks, to say nothing of his investment and his labor, are not sufficiently taken into account in our scheme of business,--risks of bad years, storm, frost, flood, disease to stock and crop, and many things over which he has practically no control.

A merchant in a small city may want as much as twenty per cent commission to sell produce, and then retain the privilege of returning to the grower all the product that spoils on his hands or that he is unable to sell; he invests little capital, takes no risk, and makes more than the man who buys his land, prepares the crop months in advance, and a.s.sumes every risk from seed-time to dinner-table. I am citing this case not to say that it is a subject for public control nor even to a.s.sert that the merchant's commission is intrinsically too great, but only to ill.u.s.trate the disadvantage in which the farmer often finds himself; and the farmer may even have no escape from this disadvantage, for all the merchants within his market region may agree to sell his produce only on such terms, and he may be obliged to accept these terms or not to sell his wares.

The manufacturer knows the cost of his products and charges his price.

The farmer usually does not know the cost, and in general he makes no selling price; the prices of his staple produce are made for him.

That the producer does not secure his proportionate share of the selling price in many products is a matter of the commonest knowledge, and much study has been made of the question. If the question is put in another way, the consumer pays too great a margin, in great numbers of cases, over the cost of production. The following press item, coming to my hand as I write, is an example (given for what it is worth), although not extreme: "The government of New York, and not the government in Washington, is where the people of this city must look, if they expect to see reduction in living expenses. A bushel of beans, for which the producer in Florida receives $2.25, with the transportation 50 cents for the 800-mile haul, should not cost the New York consumer $6.40 a bushel.

The producer receives 35 per cent of the final price, the transporter 8 per cent, and the dealers 57 per cent. This is not a fair division. The problem is not one of trusts, tariffs, and other Washington matters, but simply one of providing straight and cheap ways open from all gardens and farms to kitchens and tables."

The poorer the country or the less forehanded the people, the harder is the pinch of the usurer and the trader, and all the machinery of trade is likely to be manipulated against the defenseless man who stands stolidly between the handles of the plow.

Of course, such conditions do not obtain with all products. In some of the great staples, as wheat, the cost of transportation and commissions is often reduced by compet.i.tion and scientific handling to probably its lowest terms. But that there are abuses and extortions, and remediable conditions, in the middleman system--by which I mean collectively all traders between producer and consumer--no one will attempt to deny. The farmer cannot rise to his proper place until the stones are taken off his back.

The abuses must be checked and discriminations removed, whether in the middleman trade itself, rates of express companies and other carriers, or stock-market gambling. The middleman system has had a free field to play in, the wealth of the country to handle; it has exercised its license, and in too many cases it has become parasitic, either protected by law and custom or unreachable by law or custom. It is a shame that our economic machinery is not capable of handling the situation.

_Relation of the question to cost-of-living._