LABOUR AND THE FARMER.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 January 1914, Page 4

LABOUR AND THE FARMER.

(To the Editor.) 1. a. yollr issue of Thurs- . "ii i writes Uius: But the struggling fanner is going- to have a peep at the other side of the position very soon and the artificial joy-making apparatus of the gentle squatter "ill be met with joy-dispellers." i a , m 111 dull '3' ll1 a' business ami of somewhat a ruminant naluie, this sentence lias weighed upon my imagination until it began to dawn upon me what a intmd the struggling farmer had in H. Leger. Still there is a bit i J( V V , ■ 1,1 Jil y mind that I should like to have dispelled betore I can be quite satisfied about r/r 1^ and this is my difficulty shortly stated: During the late strike engineered by H. Leger's Socialistic friends some of the dairyfarmers' produce was in danger of being lendered unfit for consumption by being refused shipment by his stnke friends. The interest iniidied by tjie striker when he had earned it would be (say) 2d a box. Hut ho would not earn it; neither \-ould he let anyone else have the -V. The value of the box of butter to the farmer at Is per lb wo''.id be £2 l(Js, and this sum is •vvhal results from the payment to (lie natives for their light of occupation, the surveyor of the hind, the lawyer who made the deed of transfer, the bushfeller, the roadmaker. the grass-seeder, th fencer, the purchase of dairy stock, all the workers in the erection of his house and outbuildings, sawmill hands, carters, car- . penteTs, bricklayers, painters and anj other tradesmen required; also his horse and conveyance and utensils; ail this expenditure upon labour and upon his stock becomes capital of which the farmer becomes steward, adding thereto to his own time and thought and labour and the result is a box of butter. Will. H. Leger clear up the point, to my mind, where affection of the Socialist comes in—when for the matter of 2d which lu would not earn (neither would he let another earn it) he would destroy the results of the labour of all these workers whose toil is represented by the farmer.—l am, etc., DAIRY FAllMEll.