The Daily Worker Newspaper, October 10, 1925, Page 7

“The idex becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” -—~Karl Marx. SPECIAL MAGAZINE SUPPLEMENT ee. 0 THE DAILY WORKER. SATURDAY, Oct. 10, 1925, SECOND SECTION This magazine supple- ment will appear every Saturday in The Daily Worker. ' Statistical Background of the Agrarian Question in the United States By EARL R. | R, BROWDER. Second Articie, HAT: are the class relations in the agrarian population within the different- divisions? What special problems are presented by each agri- ~ cultural division? The following is an attempt to find a rough approxima- tion on the basis of the 1920 census. It must. be remembered that 1920 was’ @ peak year in agriculture, and that since then there has been a decided shift. downward: These figures will give us, however, a basis for later ex- amination of the changes since 1920. There ate nine divisions upon which the U. S. census is based. These are: New England (comprising Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut); the mid- dle Atlantic (comprising New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania); the east north central (comprising Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wiscon- sin); the west north central (compris- ing Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas) ; the south Atlantic (com- prising Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida); the east south cen- tral (comprising Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Missigsippi); the west south central, (comprising Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas); the mountain division (comprising Mon- tana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada); and the Pacific division (comprising Wash- ington, Oregon, California), Divisonal Differences. (HARP differences manifest them- Selves in agriculture as between the various divisions. The first glimpse of this condition may be re- ceived by a comparison, by divisions, of the percentage of acreage, of popu- lation, and of rural population. This is as follows; — ; Percentage of total Division Acre- Popula- Ru- age tion ral New England .......... 2.08 7.00 2.99 Middle Atlantic .... 3.36 21.06 10.87 Bast ‘North. ‘Central 8.26 20.32 16.39 _W. North-Central 17.18 11.87 15.21 ‘South Atlantic ........ 9.05 13.23 18.78 East South Central 6.04 . 841 13.42 W.. South Central 14.46 9.69 14.15 Mountain ..ss.s..0.28.89 3.16 - 4.13 5.27 4.08 -. Let us, very briefly, summarize the ~ most important. points of comparison contained in the above table: ‘(1) The first.three divisions (14 \ states), containing but 13.70 per cent _ of total acreage of the U. S., have al- - most half of the total population, or 48.38 per cent. ‘Within this same area, however, are less than one-third ‘of the rural population, or 30.25 per cent. This is ‘the industrial area, in which the city Completely overshadows the farm, —~ oh Mie (2) The west north central, con- ‘taining the 7 wheat states, shows the most even distribution of total and rural. population in proportion to acre. age, with the preponderance of popu: lation in agriculture. This area pro- duces almost half of the total wheat -“erop of the United States. (3) The three southern divisions (16 states) have a ratio of urban and population almost exactly the reverse of the first three divisions, spread over a little more than twice as much territory. With 29.54 per cent of total acreage, they contain 31.33 per cent of total population, of which the rural population amounts sto 46.35 per cent, or almost half of the total for the United States. (4) The last two divisions (11 States) are the “wide open spaces” of wild west fiction, and while the fron- tier is.gone, yet this area, comprising 39.59 per cent of the total acreage, has but 8.43 per cent of the total population, which includes 8.21 per cent of rural population, (5) The wide differences between these main groups, and the differ- ences..between the various divisions, indicate the extremely inharmonious and ugeven development of “‘agricul- ture, the most important aspects of which require further data to de- velop. New England Division. Sates group of six states, extremely important in the social and _politi- cal life of America, is witnessing’ a degeneration of agriculture. The ac- tual number of farms declined, be- tween 1910 and 1920, from 188,802 to 156,564, a decrease of 17 per cent. The percentage of rural population decreased from 23.7 to 20.8, which. is the smallest proportion of any divis- ion in the U. S. While the average size of farms is almost the same in 1920 as in 1850, (108.5 acres and 109.6 acres), yet the average number of acres improved dropped sharply, from 66.5 in 1850 to 39.1 in 1920:. The main line consists of dairy products. The principal product in addition to dairy is hay and forage, which occu- pies from 77 to 91 per cent of acreage: only one state in this division has a crop of greater value than hay—to- bacco in Connecticut, with 5.9 per cent of acreage, produces 43.2 per cent of total crop values, while hay, with 77.3 per cent of acfeage produces 30.8 per cent of values, The status of persons engaged in agriculture, classified by tenure of land, and . approximate numbers of each category, is: Workers ..... Tenants . Mortgaged farmers Bota 0.0... scesses. 256,000 The percentage of workers is al- most the same as for the country as a whole. The percentage of tenants much smaller, (about one-fifth) while that of mortgaged farmers is more than tiwce as large. This is another reflection of the stagnant condition of agriculture in New England, where the outstanding change for ger- erations has been merely a decline, rather than any radical change. The racial and national composition of the agrarian population in New England also differs from ‘other divis- ions. While a larger proportion are native-born whites than the general average for the United States (81.8 per cent compared with 75 per cent) at the same time the proportion of foreign-born whites is twice as high (18 per cent compared with 9 per cent), both these groups being higher than the general average because of the almost complete absence of Ne- gro farmers’ in New England while Negroes make up 14 per cent of the general total. The number engaged io naroulling is thus geen to be exceedingly small {one-quarter million’ out of tot three and a quarter million “gain+ fully occupied”), as compared with mechanical and manufacturing indus- tries with more than one and a half million, while transportation alone engaged 215,000. ‘Dersons in New 5 ond land, There are more than 53,000 farms (over one-third of total) that are less than 50 acres in size. Of these about half are less ‘than 20 acres each. Over 29,000 farms report no horses; almost 27,000 report no cattle; over 70,000 report no swine. The average number of horses to the farm (aver- aging only those farms which kave horses) is 2.4, as against an average for the entire country of 4.2. The same figure for swine shows 4.5 per farm against 12.2. This must be off- set, to some extent, by the higher value of livestock per head in New England. The value of implements, per farm, is lower than jin any other division except the southern, being $590. The same thing is true of value of livestock, which averages $1,042 per farm, More than one-third of the number of mortgages are upon the smaller farms. It may also be assumed that those farms without livestock are principally among the smaller ones. Upon the basis of these figures, the category of poor farmers, those who- are so deeply indebted for the “prop- erty” which-they hold as to be prac- tically. propertyless, and whose means of production are limited to a few tools and their own labor power, can be estimated at 35,000. Of the remaining 122,000, we can assign 57,000 to the position of “mid- dle” farmers, possessing the average amount of farm property but in an economically precarious position; and 65,000 as well-to-do and rich farmers, who possess enuf property, implements, livestock, etc., to feel se- cure in their livelihood. The latter figure is the number of farms of 100 acres and over, whose implements and livestock average in value, according to size of farm, from $2,000 to $9,000 per farm. Of these, over 40,000 are sufficiently well-off to own automo- biles, while 24,000 have gas or elec- tric. lights installed ih the farm houses. The proportion of farms with water piped into the houses is larger in New England, by far, than in any other divisivn, totaling 74,954. This last item, wh ‘ch in many states would be almost decisive in classifying the farms invived as “‘well-to-do,” car- ries no’ so much weight in New En- gland on account of the swiftly de- clining condition of agriculture and the fact that this territory is so much longer settled than the rest of Amer- ica, and is hemmed in so tightly by industrial communities which press their commodities even into the de- clining agricultural districts, Classification of agrarian population in New England, in terms of our orig- inal thesis, may be tentatively sum- med up as follows (in round num- bers): Workers ...... A ware 99,000 Poor farmers. ....,........... 35,000 Middle farmers ............ 57,000 Well-to-do farmers ...... 65,000 ° PORE oe ee 256,000 Applying the same tests, and ex- amining the same relative figures, for the other divisions, it will be neces- sary for economy of space to sum up. each division more briefly, noting only the’ outstanding differences in each division. ~ 4 Middle Atlantic Division. wre a total “population of 22% millions, | ‘the middle Atlantic division has a rural population of something over 514 million, of whom 660 thousand are “gainfully occupied” in agriculture, Of this later figure, approximately 425 thousand are oper- ating farms. In an area comprising ee eae ap eee aE Ee a ae oro gree Ee ame eneeee ee en nee een 3.36 per cent of the whole of the . S., this division contains 21.06 per oh of the population. Slightly less than 3 per cent of the total populd- tion are actively engaged in tilling the soil. (Contrast this with the di- vision showing the greatest percent- age, east south central, with more than 20 per cent). This is chiefly a dairy-farm divis- ion, with the next most important products being hay, potatoes, tobacco. Agriculture here is fitting itself tothe production of those things required by the cities in a fresh and constant stream, and to such auxiliary 4nd gub- sidiary crops as fit into such a scheme. Other pertinent items, summarized, are: Number of farms, decreasing (more than 48,000 farms abandoned between 1910-1920; acres per farm, no change (most of abandoned farms are small, so average of those remaining shows slight increase); tenantry, 20 per cent, decreasing between 1910- 1920; «foreign-born, about 12 per cent, and increasing proportion; Negroes, very few (only 1,536 in 1920); aver- age equipment, buildings, $3,153 (largest of all divisions), machinery $845 (exceeded only by west north central and Pacific); livestock $1,334 (exceeded by four divisions), Approximate numberg in each gory, accofding td gur MHMicatiol 6 farmers» would, be. (inground anja’: ers): WE OURONG Fie. ciks cient 235,0000 Poor Farmers .. -. 70,000 104,000 Middle Farmers Well-to-do ++6251,000 TAG i isssiiccrieniiien 660,000 East North Central Division. HIS division approximates closest to the general average for the en- tire country, and at the same time presents the most rapidly changing conditions; for the census period 1910-1920. In 1920 it had 21%4 mil- lions population, of which 39.2 per cent was rural, as compared with 1910 when it had 18% millions of which 47.3 per cent were rural. With an in- crease of 314 millions in the total, the rural population actuall pon 2 mt by 200 thousand. With 698" per of. the country’s total acreage, ae n- tained 20.32 per cent of the popiila- tion as a whole and 16.39 per cent of the rural population. A little less than 8 per cent of the total population are actively .engaged in agriculture, numbering 1,633,790 of whom 1,084,- 744 are farm. operators. Dairy farming is the backbone of this division; the two largest crops are corn and hay, with wheat and oats hext in order. Potatoes, minor cere- als, tobacco, play a smaller part. Poul- try and eggs contribute a considerable sum to the total production. This division presents a more diversified and balanced production than the others, but here also can be seen at work the process ‘of specialization. Dairy farming is becoming more and more the dominant element, ~~ Other items: Number of farms, de- creasing (38,743 less in 1920 than in 1910); acres per farm, increasing (large farms increasing in number, smalt farms going out of business); tenantry, increasing (27 per cent in 1910, 28 per cent in 1920); foreign- born, 13,3 per cent in 1920, decreased from. 16,7 per cent in 1910; Negroes,, very few and decreasing. Average equipment—buildings, $2,666; machin- ery, $725; livestock, $1,403; number of farmers’ automobiles, 513,000. (To Be Continued) *