The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 26, 1924, Page 11

The Economic Conditions of the Landless Farmers in the U, S. By LOUIS ZOOBOCK,. Gos contention of many agricul- tural scholars that tenancy is only the first step on the “agricultural lad- der’—in other words, the first step toward farm ownership—is absolutely without any foundation. An investi- gation by the Department of Agricul- tare for the period January, 1920, to March, 1923, for 94,000 farmers in 15 states showed that 8.5 per cent lost their farms thru foreclosure or bank- ruptcy and “that.15 per cent were in fact bankrupt, but still held their farms”; that “the percentage of farm owners who lost their farms varied from 6 per cent in the North Central States to nearly 20 per cent in the Mountain States.” Another report showed very-clearly how difficult it is for an agricultural laborer to acquire a farm out of his earnings. In 26 farm management surveys made in different parts of the United States it was shown that if the agricultural workers tried to buy a‘farm of aver- age value there would be nothing left to live on in 13 out of 26 communi- ties surveyed. “In other words, even making no allowance for living ex- penses there would be less than enough to make the annual payments on interest and principal, the deficit ranging from $28 to as much as $722. In eight of the remaining communi- ties, after meeting the annual pay- ments for interest and principal, there would be less than $200 for annual living expenses. Only in three com- munities was the remainder for liv- ing expenses above $300.” The farmers, under pressure of financial capital, are forced more and more into the status of landless agri- cultural workers; it has become next to impossible for an agricultural worker to acquire a farm; this will especially become clear when we de- seribe the actual living conditions of the farmer-laborer. Extent of Farm Labor and Character of Work. In 1920 there were over 4,000,000 agricultural wage earners. Since that date the number has considerably in- creased, The type of work performed by these workers can be classified into regular and seasonal labor. The development of machine agri- cultural production; the heightened land values, caused thru the specula- tion of financiers, tend to prevent la- borers from becoming land owners and to fix them as a distinct economic and social class. The “hired man” is now an established institution on the farms of the United States. The con- ditions of work of the ‘hired” regu- lar laborers are deplorable. They are characterized by long hours, poor housing and lack of social recogni- tion. The hired men are “expected to do with their might what their hands find to do.” The type of more or less regular labor work either by the month or year; they are. boarded in separate boarding houses provided for them by the employers. Another class of farm workers lives either in self-owned or rented houses and hires out for wages by the day or month. In the South, where the Negro is the larger source of farm labor, racial lines are observed and the Negroes are separately housed and fed. In many places the hired men suffer under poor living conditions and harsh treatment. This is especially true in those places where the fac- tory system of agriculture appeared, On the huge estates operated by man- agers, the wages are often exception- ally low. The large estates embrace whole towns and counties and are a law unto themselves; they are dicta- tors of the lives, liberties ahd happi- ness of their employes, because they control the schools, churches and lo- cal governments, as well as the chance and means of labor. Not sel- dom the workers are paid in coupons or scrip which must be traded out at the estate store. The absentee land- lords, who generally live in the East or in Europe, thus sapping labor of its just dues and the local community of its income. In the South, as it is well known, considerable peonage ex- ists. , One of the worst features of farm labor is that of seasonal employment. Seasonal labor at present comprises a large proportion of the farm work- ers. It is made up of workers who hire out usually for the crop season, and those who work in gangs, at day labor, or at specified tasks six to eight weeks in duration. The industries of the cities are the greatest ultimate source of supply of seasonal agricultural workers. Thou- sands of city workers, during periods of industrial depressions, emigrate to nearby farming communities for a few weeks or a whole season in order to supplement their meager earnings. The conditions of life of this class of agricultural workers are such “as to inevitably weaken their character and physique, to make them carriers of disease, and to create in them a habit of unsteadiness and migration.” On the farms these workers are regard- ed as social pariahs; they are usually lodged in barns and stacks. "When they return to the city to spend time between seasons, “they not only meet the unhealthy and demoralizing influ- ences of the cheap lodging houses, sa- loons, houses of prostitution, and oth- er similar establishments in the slums, but they fall easy prey to gam- eee genes eee ne seem ~ self out for a season for bread and clothes for himself and family.” This description explains why the children of the agricultural laborers work on the cotton fields of the South; Thru- out the cotton regions, children be- tween the ages of 6 and 15 work in the fields performing a large propor- tion of the labor. Somewhat similar conditions pre- vail in other parts of the country. In the sugar beet fields, “children of 5 and 6, thin, weed, pull, top, pile and cover beets at the various stages of the season.” They work between 10 and 14 hours a day, which leads to countless accidents. A national Child Labor Committee says: “we saw wrists that were swollen and lame, hands that were sore, cracked and full of dirt, and knees that were sore, cracked, and calloused. The glare of the sun is a very severe strain upon the eyes of many children.” Fingers accidently amputated in “topping” the beets, rheumatism and other ailments from exposure to all weathers, were cited as being all to common. On the cotton fields of Cali- fornia children as young as four pick from sunrise to sunset, etc. The hours of labor of the agricul- ihe Dream oi Henry i oré blers, small private bankers and all sorts of parasites.” Such is the lot of the seasonal agricultural worker. Child Labor. In the South conditions are shock- ing. Here, as professor J. Smith has described thére is a very “large class of one-mule tenant croppers who are forced early every spring to sign papers that mortgage away their crops long before they even break ground to plant them, They must have bacon, bread, coffee, clothing, and mule-feed; they want tobacco, ribbons, chewing gum, and other in- duigences, but before the landlord will sell to them or ‘stand for them’ at the country store they must sign the papers, tho it takes the bread from their babies mouth, keeps the winter shoes from their little feet, and deprives them of their only cows that supply their babies with milk. The landlord sees to it that the pa- pers are signed either with name or crossmark, and he furthermore sees to it as a rule that the amount he ‘stood for’ comes out of the crop be- fore any of it can go for shoes, dresses, ribbons, or anything else for the personal use of the cropper. Such is the tenant system of very poor thruout the Southland, and it applies to white and negro alike. It guarantees the rent to the landlord, and it insures poverty to the tenant and deprives him of his freedom. He binds him- tural wage earners are exceedingly long. They range from 9 to 14 per day according to the type of farm, season and employer. In many plac- es, where piece work prevails, the hours are longer; and in the sugar beet fields men, women and children work literally “day and night.” This is probably true in other agricultural work done by the job. Saturday half-holiday is given only by a few individual farmers. In brief, the working day on the’ farm is longer than the working day in industry; and the agricultural workers have neither leisure for recreation nor time for sufficient rest. The wages of the agricultural work- ers are miserably low. In 1920, the ayerage monthly wage of the farm laborer was $46.89 with board and $64.95 without board. Since that date there was a decided drop in wages. In 1921, the monthly wages of the agricultural hand were: $30.14 with thruout the U. S.; in many regions the wages are very much lower than the average quoted. In the South, where the cropper system of tenancy prevails, “life is reduced fo its low- est terms in money.” A study of con- ditions of 329 farmers in Chatham and W-ms counties, North Carolina, has shown the following results: GROSS DAILY INCOME (1921) Per person daily 135 White Owners .......00000 41 Black >" 38 White Renters... 13 “ Croppers en 66 Black Renters gta 36 “ Croppers a The above figures are fairly re- presentative of the conditions which prevail thruout the South. The crop- pers, as shown, live on an average cash income of 8 cents and upon some such pauper wage the South over. Can they hope to ever secure and pay for a farm of their own? Housing Conditions The housing conditions of the land- less farmers are shocking. ‘they are characterized by unendurable filth, primitive sanitary facility and over- “| crowding. Thruout the rural regions of the United States, a marked con- trast is noticeable between the hous- ing conditions of the farm owners and farm tenants. An investigation of the Intérchurch World Movement made in 1920 in some of the best farming sections of New Jersey and Pennsylvania shows wretched hous- ing conditions of the tenant farmers; the houses were described as merely places, whose function was “to fur- nish a roof and rooms in which to eat and sleep.” In the South, the housing of the tenants is particularly bad. On many plantations, it is the custom to sup- | ply the house free of rent; the rea- {son being that most of these rent | houses “are not fit to house the land- lords’ hogs.” The houses are usually very small, consisting of two or three rooms; the negro tenant’s house oft- ten does not possess even glass windows; and “light and ventilation lare received thru the opening that is protected from rain and by a small door on hinges.” In most of the dwell- ings of the farmers “it is possible to study astronomy thru the holes in the roof and geology thru cracks in the fioor”; and it is in a building of this kind that as many as ten people are housed. The housing of the large numbers of migratory workers is beyond any description. The types of housing and accommodations include barns, “shacks on wheels,” “bunk houses,” shacks which are often mere cover- ings from the weather, etc. On the truck farms of Maryland, the camps provided for the workers are barn- like shacks; usually one or two rooms are shared by 30 to 100 persons of both sexes and all ages. In the Michi- gan sugar beet fields, it was found that 14 families of four and five per- sons, and four families with from six to nine persons were living in one room shanties. One family of eleven, the youngest child, two years, the oldest 16 years, lived in an old coun- try store which had but one window; the wind and rain came thru the holes in the walls, the ceiling was very low, and the smoke from the stove filled the room. Here the fam- ily ate, cooked and washed. In Tus- colo county a family of six was found living in a one-room shack with no windows; light and ventilation were thru the open door. Such are the living conditions of the landless farmers; conditions which they were thrown into by the board, and $43.39 without board, andj ruthless exploitation of the capital- by October 1, 1922, the figures were $28.97 with board and $41.58 with- out board. At present they are still lower. The figures show that between 1920 and October 1, 1922, monthly wages with board declined 38 per cent; without board 86 per cent while the cost of living declined only 23.2 per cent for the same period. The figures quoted above represnt the average wages of the farm-hand ists. The natural question to ask is: How to remedy these conditions? And there is only one answer to be given; remove the cause; destroy the system that generated these evils, and this can only be accomplished thru the organization of a_ strong class-conscious Farmer-Labor Party, whose slogan should be: A Workers’ and Farmers’ Republic of the United States.