FARM LABOR
The problem of farm labor demands thoughtful and frank consideration.
Since work is an essential element in the production of all wealth, it
follows that every industry has its labor problem. The adjustment of
labor to the production of the various forms of wealth must ever
constitute one of the most important problems in any organized
society. It is often remarked that the labor problem is the chief
difficulty in farming. In a certain sense this is true, since work is
a primary element in the production of agricultural as well as all
other wealth. It is not true, however, that the problem of labor is
more difficult or more intricate than that of other industries. In
fact, that problem is less delicate than in some other occupations,
because farming is less industrialized.
It is not possible to settle once for all the problem of labor for any
occupation, since changing conditions will give rise to new questions
or new phases of the old problem. Moreover, the problem of labor on
the farm will grow more difficult as farming becomes more specialized
and as the methods of production become more complex.
However, the labor problem on the farm is different from that in the
manufacturing industries or in trade and transportation. This chapter
will not concern itself with an attempt to settle the farm labor
problem, but will undertake to state the character of some of the
differences between it and other forms of labor and to discuss some of
the changes in recent years.
A large proportion of farm work is done by the farm owner, or renter,
and his family. There is not much opportunity to profit by the labor
of other persons. In 1900 there were in the United States 1,812
industrial establishments each of which employed between 500 and 1,000
persons, while there were 675 establishments each of which had more
than one thousand employees. In the same year there were 5,739,657
farms, which employed in the aggregate 4.4 millions of people, not
including the owners of the farms. Moreover, over one-half of the 4.4
million persons thus employed were members of the families of the
farmer. In other words, aside from members of the family, there was
less than one employee to every two farmers. Since a considerable
number of farmers employ more than one person, it follows that the
majority of farmers employ no help other than members of the family.
In another particular farm labor differs from that of other forms of
labor even more widely. There are sociologic as well as economic
questions involved. Baldly stated, custom permits, and necessity often
requires, the laborer to eat at the same table with the farm owner and
in other particulars he mingles intimately with the farmer's family.
In all its bearings, this is a very important fact. It constitutes one
of the greatest difficulties in the problem of securing suitable farm
help. Industrial corporations employ as common laborers largely
Italians, Hungarians, Poles and negroes. The English, the Irish, the
German, the Swede and the Norwegian have been readily received and
assimilated in the American farming communities. The peoples of
Eastern and Southern Europe are often criticized because they do not
become farm laborers. That they do not is in large part due to the
fact that the farm hand is usually a member of the farmer's family.
Thus the supply of common labor which is today used by the rest of the
industrial world is not open to the farmer.
Farming differs from some other occupations in that it does not
ordinarily offer the laborer much opportunity for advancement. The
fireman on a railway train becomes the engineer; the brakeman becomes
a conductor. There are opportunities in many establishments for the
advancement of the industrious and clever. A man may enter their
service with the hope of being able to marry and support a family. On
the other hand, all our land laws are based upon the idea that each
farm should be of sufficient size to support only one family. Where it
does support two families, the relation is usually that of landlord
and tenant. The farm laborer, therefore, must look upon his employment
as more or less temporary. The young man who intends to become a
farmer will find employment upon the farm a desirable if not essential
preparation for his future occupation.
The introduction of farm machinery has had the effect of increasing
the price of farm labor while at the same time decreasing the amount
of labor needed. The reason is that the introduction, not alone of
farm machinery, but all forms of machinery, has made man's labor much
more efficient than formerly. Farm wages have doubled since the
introduction of horse-drawn machinery. The labor income in the
different sections of the United States is influenced by the extent
and efficiency with which machinery is used. The relation of labor
income to the use of horse power is shown by the following table taken
from a recent census:
INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY AS SHOWN BY
THE RELATION OF LABOR INCOME
TO HORSES AND MULES.
Number of horses
and mules to
Divisions of the 1,000 persons
United States Labor Income in agriculture
North Atlantic $299 1,655
South Atlantic 163 808
North Central 402 3,036
South Central 211 1,603
Western 510 5,476
-----------------------------------------------
United States $288 2,105
In one of the states of the South Atlantic division the average price
of farm labor, without board, was $12 per month, while in one of the
states of the western division the price on the same date was $31.
Why? Because in the latter case a man's labor was more productive. In
the South Atlantic division, in producing the chief crops cotton and
maize, a man uses one mule in preparing and cultivating the soil. In
the western division plowing and harrowing with six-horse teams is
common and nine-horse teams are not unusual. The cotton picker in one
day will be able to gather not to exceed 300 pounds of seed cotton,
worth not more than $15. The western wheat will be harvested by a
machine drawn by 28 horses. In the same time four men with this outfit
will cut and thresh 700 bushels of wheat, worth $500.
When the threshing machine was first introduced in Ohio, it was
stubbornly opposed by all farm laborers. "They claimed it," says
Bateman, "as a right to thresh with a flail, and regarded the
introduction of machinery to effect the same object in a few days
which would require their individual exertion during the whole winter,
not only as an invasion of a time-honored custom, but as absolutely
depriving them of the means of obtaining an honest livelihood. At a
later date, when a reaper had been introduced into a field of ripe
wheat as a matter of experiment only, every one of the harvest hands
deliberately marched out of the field and told the proprietor that he
might secure his crop as best he could, that the threshing machine had
deprived them of their regular winter work twenty years ago and now
the reaper would deprive them of the pittance they otherwise could
earn during harvest." How short-sighted they were! No class gained so
much from the introduction of labor-saving machinery as did those who
did the labor. The reason for the increase in well-being, the reason
society enjoys luxuries and comforts beyond the fondest dreams of
former generations, is due to the fact that the labor of each man has
been made so much more effective through these labor-saving devices.
The humblest citizen shares in this improvement. Not all share alike
and not all share equitably, but each generation sees its members
sharing more equitably than those of any generation which preceded it.
The proposition is an extremely simple one. If a man produces just
enough food for himself and family, he will have nothing for clothing,
shelter, or education. If, however, a man produces four times as much
food as he and his family consume, he may exchange one-fourth for
shelter, one-fourth for clothing and have remaining a fourth for
education, and recreation or savings. This is only another way of
saying that the greater the amount of any useful commodity produced by
a single day's labor the larger will be the laborer's income or wages.
Although the increase in intensive agriculture and the diversification
in farming tend to increase the need of farm laborers, the introduction
of farm machinery has much more than offset this demand. The tendency
of farm laborers to become farm tenants; or, to state it in other
words, the tendency of landowners to rent their land rather than to
continue to operate it themselves, is not without its influence upon
the labor problem.
The invention and introduction of farm machinery has accentuated the
difficulty of keeping the farm laborer continuously employed. The
decrease in the demand for farm labor and the increasing lack of
uniformity in the amount required have caused a gradual depletion of
the smaller villages and hamlets which were a source of labor supply
during harvest and other busy seasons.
The problem of keeping labor continuously employed has always been a
difficult one on the farm, because of the change of seasons and
because of the variations in the weather from day to day. There is a
wide difference between those industries which are carried on within
doors and farming, which is subject to the caprices of the weather.
Natural causes produce tremendous variations in the return for labor.
For example, in 1901 there were produced in the aggregate 3,006
million bushels of wheat, maize and oats, while in 1902 there were
harvested 4,180 million bushels. Here is an increase of over a
thousand million bushels. The same farmers tilled the same soil in the
same way as far as natural causes would allow, and yet there was a
difference in result amounting to 39 per cent. A variation of one
hundred million bushels of wheat from year to year, due to climatic
conditions solely, is not at all unusual.
The manufacturer also has far greater control of his labor. When it
rains, he has a roof over his workmen, and hence the work is not
interrupted. When it grows dark, he turns on the light and the work
continues. If it gets cold, he lights the fire and still the work
continues comfortably. It is not so in agriculture. There is a great
variation in the working efficiency of men employed in farming. In a
certain locality there were twenty-one days of rain in the thirty-one
days of May. The next year between June 5 and September 5 in the same
locality there was not half an inch of rainfall at any one time.
What is true of labor is also true of machinery. The farmer must
purchase machinery which he can use only a few days in the year, while
the manufacturer, for the most part, employs his machinery continuously,
sometimes day and night. While natural causes prevent the farmer from
using the same business methods, or from being able to calculate his
profits with the same precision as is possible by those following
manufacturing and mercantile pursuits, it is nevertheless important that
farming should be planned to avoid, as far as possible, the influence of
natural causes. Certain kinds of farming are less dependent upon natural
causes than others. Wisdom and foresight can do much to avoid, in all
farming, untoward influences. The clever farmer seldom complains about
the weather.
Farm machinery has made unnecessary, and hence unprofitable, some of
the labor at which children were formerly employed. In the not distant
past many, perhaps most farmers, owed their prosperity in large
measure to the labor of their children. A large family, especially of
boys, was a valuable asset. Even a generation ago conditions were not
far different, and two generations ago were quite the same as those
described by Homer:
"Another field rose high with waving grain:
With bended sickles stand the reaper train:
Here, stretch'd in ranks, the level'd swaths are found;
Sheaves heaped on sheaves here thicken up the ground.
With sweeping stroke the mowers strow the lands;
The gath'rers follow, and collect in bands:
And last the children, in whose arms are borne
(Too short to gripe them) the brown sheaves of corn.
The rustic monarch of the field descries,
With silent glee, the heaps around him rise.
A ready banquet on the turf is laid
Beneath an ample oak's expanded shade.
The victim ox the sturdy youth prepare:
The reapers due repast, the women's care."
There is also another reason why the age of the employed has been
raised. It is due to the growth of higher education. Where formerly
the farmer's children between the ages of twelve and twenty-one did
most of the farm work, now many of them at the same age are attending
schools and colleges. The sons of a man, who a generation ago found no
opportunity to get beyond the district school, graduate from high
school and college, and thus spend most of their time in study until
they are past twenty-one years of age.
Labor unions have doubtless caused a scarcity of farm labor by
increasing the proportion of the created wealth which goes to the man
who labors without capital. When a man can obtain fifty cents an hour
for laying brick, he does not wish to work in the hay field at twenty
cents an hour, even though the difference in the cost of living may in
great measure offset the difference in wages.
There is a growing tendency to perform work by what is called contract
labor. Thus a person may agree to weed and hoe sugar beets at a
certain rate per acre. He, in turn, employs a force of cheap laborers
which he sends from farm to farm to do this work. The harvesting of
fruits and garden crops is not infrequently done in some such manner.
In one instance a contractor of laborers of foreign birth has been
furnishing them for all kinds of farm work. He keeps 20 to 40 of these
laborers on a small farm, furnishing them a dwelling and selling them
food supplies. Farmers telephone for help when in need. The contractor
receives $1.65 for a day's work and pays the laborer $1.50.
It appears from the preceding considerations that there are open to
every farmer at least three methods of increasing the efficiency of
farm labor. He may make every day's labor more efficient by use of
labor-saving machinery and the employment of it in the most efficient
manner; as, for example, using three 1,500-pound horses to his farm
machinery instead of a pair of 1,200-pound horses. He may modify the
character of his farming in order that profitable labor will be more
continuous. He may modify the method of employing labor; as, for
example, by introducing the system of contracting labor for specific
purposes where feasible.
Increase in the price of farm labor is not an evil. It is an
indication that labor applied to agriculture is becoming more
productive and hence more profitable. Since more than one-half the
labor of the farm is done by the owner and his family, the farmer is
benefited through the rise in price of farm wages. The more that labor
can be made to earn upon the farm, the better it will be not only for
the farm owner but for society in general.