The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 8, 1924, Page 12

Changes in Agricultural Relations in United States (Concluded from Last Week) The census investigation found by careful records that in 1920 farmers H* high is already the toll im-| paid in cash to farm workers 1,1 posed by landholders and mort-| million dollars and that “rent an gagors? How much values are taken | board of farm hands” was worth ad- from the people by “manufacture” | ditional 262 million dollars, These of land rent and mortgage profits? | suppose to make out the total amount We have no direct answer on this | 0f wages in cash and in goods 1,363 question neither from census investi-| Million dollars. Therefore, if we ac- gations nor from any other official } Cept above estimates, then the wages investigation. All what pertains to the operations of financial capital on this field is kept in a harem-like secrecy. Census investigations care- fully record every cent paid by farm- ers to workers, paid by farmers for fertilizers, etc., but cersus reports are silent about amounts paid by the farmers. to financial capital in the form of rents and mortgage dues Economists who were irfterested in above questions, having no ready statistical material, were compelled to apply deductive metnods to find some conception about the amounts of land rent and mortgage dues, One of the most interesting estimates about this was made by the staff of National Bureau of Economic Re- search. This bureau came to conclu- sion that “income of land which goes to persons outside of agriculture” was in millions of dollars: In the form of interest on rent of In years mortgage tenants so) rere 120 560 BOE ee iwack 252 1,082 (“Income in United States, Its Amount and Distribution, 1909-1919,” by National Bureau of Economic Re- search. Figures taken from table on page 303, vol. II.) Total amount paid by farmers in 1920, according to this estimate, was then 1,334 million dollars, From explanation of this bureau (page: 305, vol. IT) how the above estimate, was deducted from avail- able more or less reliable Statistical material we can see that amounts of land rent paid by new farmers to “persons outside of agriculture” in the form of prices of land, that is, as capitalized land rent, were not considered by the bureau at all. Amount of total mortgage indebted- ness is taken by the bureau as being 4 billion dollars. But we know from the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture himself that this amount was rather over 8 billion dollars, Thanks to this and some other omis- sions in the calculations of this bu- reau their estimate without question represents only a part of the true amount which is paid by farmers « “to persons outside of agriculture.” _ gives But this estimate, even as it is, sufficient conception about crops which are gathered already now by agriculture for landholders. There was and still is ear-breaking cry in all the bourgeois press about high wages of farm labor, which, they say, destroys the agriculture, Economic (Continued from page 1) the state reported 139 job hunters for every 100 jobs in October, help is still wanted, but at lower wages and longer hours.” The Herald and Examiner of Jan- uary 5, 1924, reports a tr>> for the worse: “Superintendent 1, A, of the State Employment Agency, estimates 75,000 men out of work in Chicago alone and said there were 195 men for every 100 available jobs—nearly two to one.” And the latest report of the Illinois Department of Labor, which sums up the whole January situation, is again forced to announce a new ag- gravation in January as compared with December. The decline of em- ployes in January was 2 per cent. Pinang the most important change during the 30 days has been the col- lapse of car building. The drop of 40 1-2 per cent in the slaughtering and meat packing industry was but little more than the average for all food industries. In the offices of the Illinois Free Employment Service in oes pwn — No state, excess r supply in January was the largest that has been report- ed since early in 1922. Places could not be found for 10,000 applicants for jobs. There were in the state as a whole 166 applicants for each 100 jobs. This was measurably any time in 1923.” The of pana 1924, reported that in Chicago; large number of the offices of 31, “A De a aatianladaadlll There are folks whose constitutions THE AWAKENED BEAR A Bolshevik Ballad.—By JOHN S. CLARKE. of over 4,000,000 farm workers seem to be a little more than total pay- ments to people who own nearly two- thirds of all “land in farms” and very much outside of these land— for doing nothing there! The new relations in agriculture, which are established now on large seale as permament and enable “per- sons outside of agriculture’—finan- shrink from “bloody” Revolutions, Whe at such upheavals “never could connive”; They can hear the distant drumming of the one that’s But they “hope it doesn’t come while they’re alive”, surely coming, They admit the putrefaction of a regime of reaction Would make, with satisfaction, Satan grin: But if you dare to mention that it is your firm intention To root it up by force—why, that’s a sin! When a man is sentimental, and his heart is soft and gentle, Yeu can wager that his head is soft as well; From the wit of his decision you can fix on his condition, his mission is what God alone can tell. An unpalatable crisis isn’t piquanted with spices, And you’ve got to stick a mental pin in this— The warfare of the classes isn’t honey or molasses, And you'll need a sharper weapon than a kiss. Can you call to recollection an eventful insurrection That Privilege has never labelled CRIME? From a strike for better wages to that glory of the aves, When the guillotine was working overtime! Call it ghastly, call it bloody—but assiduously study The foundations of a justified revolt! Then against a Reign of Terror weigh a thousand years of error— Ye may then with sober judgment fix the fault, Prithee! say who disregarded, who rejected or retarded, With a selfish and tyrannical design, Each and every declaration by the spokesmen of a nation— The peaceful “Third Estate” of ’eighty-nine! When the royal butchers blustered and upon the frontiers mustered, When Brunswick’s sanguinary thirst beset him, When he swore that he would slaughter until blood was cheap as water— Had the folk to stand with folded arms and let him? When they heard Reaction thunder, do you genuinely wonder That a people born anew should burn with zeal? Do you think they’d hesitate or shrink from, stringing up a traitor, Or to tear the filthy guts from a Bastille? If you cannot feel elated o’ver a king decapitated— : One who never tried to act upon the square— Then, for God’s sake, take your exit from the movement, do not vex it, For it isn’t just exactly your affair. For the wolves again are howling and the hyenas are scowling, And the jackals they are prowling on the plains, For the peasant, soldier, weaver, from the Volga to the Neva, Have risen to their feet /with broken chains. While the tyrants sat a-scheming, they, instead of pious dreaming, Hitched Emancipation’s wagon to a star: And the seal of their reliance, and the gage of their defiance, Was the bullet-riddled carcass of a Czar. - ; And you'll find the counter-plotters, with a horde of foreign rotters, In the land that hasn’t time its wounds. to lick! 3* You will find them just the.same—minus manhood, minits shame— At a foul and filthy game to turn the trick. ree But the folk who work the double are the folk who strike the trouble; Had I but a single rouble I would bet it, ; That the knaves now teasing Bruin are INVITING blood and ruin— And I hope it won’t be long before they get it. - sone By OSCAR PREEDIN, cial capital—to snatch enormous quantities of values directly out of agriculture, in their development are creating the following conditions: - First, The land suitable for agri- culture is going over and most-of it is already in ownership of non-culti- vators, Second. Previous free farmers- owners are transformed into tenants or in nominal owners who are de- pendent from their mortgage holders and are temporary on the bridge leading to tenancy or to the class — of workers. Third. The system of tenancy, as established at present in the United States, differs from systems of ten. ancy in other capitalistic countries with centralized land ownership by the fact that the class of land owners is here invisible, being in a physical ° unity with ruling financial capital. Fourth. This unity is in itself the possible highest centralization of land ownership. In regard to tenants this creates such economic depénd- ency from land owners which no- where existed in capitalistic rela- tions. In regard to special agrarian interests this allows to utilize means about which the separate classes of land owners in other countries could only to dream, because opposition to _|measures for increase of land rent, which land holders in other countries met in gropps of manufacturers, trades and even bankers, is here ex- cluded by the ve holding. with financial capital. _In regard to foreign relations, imperial- istic forces in politics of the United States are increased and made more parasitic, more reactionary and, therefore, more inclined to oppres- sive measures as at home, so abroad. Fifth. The financial capitol of the United States in changing the rela- tions in agriculture is changed itself and by its increased means and power for oppression and exploitation will rapidly create conditions where the. large oppressed and exploited masses will be pressed’as never to find ways and means and to use them for a change of the order itself, which is founded on oppression and exploita- tion. The Train from Jena. — In the train from Jena to Weimar, Germany, a workingman was reading the special election edition of the Communist newspaper. A candidate for the Landtag of one of the cap- italist parties who was sitting beside the working man was highly indig- nant when he saw the paper and asked the. yorkingman whether he knew what distance thgre is between a respectable person alfa ‘a criminal. The workingman calmly took a tape measure out of his pocket, measured the space between himself and the candidate for the Landtég and an- swered “75 centimeters.” Depression and Unemployment labor agents which used to line West Madison street are closed because no one is hiring workers.” “Few Jobs Can Be Supplied.” The November and December re- ports of the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin show that since Aug- ust, month to month the number of employed workers fell, and in De- cember reached a point 7 per cent below the peak of 1923, The Federated Press reports from San Frahcisco: “Unemployment is rife in California, and the employ- ment agencies are reaping a harvest.” The Gompers agency, the Interna- tional News Service reports: “Each day 5,000 men and 500 women apply for work at the Los Angeles City Employment Bureau. Do they get the jobs? What do they do when they don’t get the jobs?: Organizer George -E. Bevan doesn’t sa ae that: ‘Few can be supplied’.” Federated Press reports from New Orleans on February 2: “Conditions in this city from the standpoint of the workers are deptorable. Despite official reports, unemployment is on the increase.” The very.important report of the New York State Department of La- bor issued in the middle of Feb- ruary establishes the fact that un- employment is steadily growing in New York City too: “ went down about 1 per York factories in January. three successive decreases in No- vember, December and January have now brought the level of employment somewhat lower than it was in Jan- uary of last year.” IV. All these figures do not give a complete picture of unemployment. All these statistics speak only of the factories and mines which were shut down and which discharged their workers or of establishments which work only part time and threw out a part of their workers, But beside this factor we must take into consid- eration five other factors, if we are to measure the magnitude of unem- ployment. These factors are: 1. The hundreds of thousands of farmers ‘who have become bankrupt and have moved into the cities to become industrial workers. 2. The at migration of Negroes from the South to the industrial cen- ters of the North and Middle West. 3. The immigration from Euro) which, altho limited, increases t number of those seeking for work. 4. The immigration from Mexico which makes itself felt, in the steel]the decre industry in Illinois especially, 5. The seasonal unem ent of agricultural workers migratory road construction workers who in winter time are forced to seek work in cities and industrial centers. All these factors make unemploy- ment a mass phenomenon today. Vv. The economic depression, curtail- ment of production and pinot wa ment is releasing a new offensive of capital against the workers. The power of resistance of the unions is - ~ very much weakened because the workers drop out en masse. The bosses are making wage cuts every- where and more and more generally. Most of the categories of workmen accept the wage cuts without any re- sistance (for instance, the complete- ly demoralized railroad workers). Some categories put up some fight (the clothing workers). Other sec- tions of workers again, are willing to continue the present wage rates in spite of the increasing cost of living (United Mine Workers). How the depression is wearing down the power of resistance of the workers is shown best by the January report of the Department of Labor: “Con- siderable numbers of wage increases have been reported each month of 1923, increasing rapidly each month from January to May, when 1,279 were reported, and then decreasing to 147 in October. During these months decreases in rates were re- ported from 1 to 9 establishmenta only, each month, but in November reases totalled in e’pven in- dustries.” The number of strikes is ever sing as the depression and unemployment is . The teport of the New Yeck Mite be partment of Labor says that there were 105 strikes in New York state © Sixty of in 1923. strikes were during the four-montn per‘fd from March to June, each month there- after showing a smaller number of strikes, with. December “Making what was practically a record in in- dustrial “peace in this state.” unity of land | w REESE RRA. rad - on tene aE MME