FARM LABOR POORLY PAID.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 28, 5 April 1907, Page 6

FARM LABOR POORLY PAID.

Men in Varloui Staton Ave filming {Jntoa to Better &&3S& QoaudltloMfe, According to the census of 1900 there are 5,321,087 daily wage earners in the United States, and of that number there were 1,522,100 who were regularly employed as farm "hands" working- by the day or month, exclusive of farmers who own and operate their own farms. Of late years farming has been yielding large profits, yet the farm "hands" have received the poorest wages of any, class of labor in the land. The scale of wages paid them is from 80 cents to $1.25 per day, or S2O or $25 per month and board. The wages for helpers, extra and regular, amounted to $365,505,921, while the value of farm products was over $4,700,000,000. The average expense for each farm so far as the labor is concerned, was $64 in 1899, while the average value of the products per acre was $4.47. White farmers paid more for their help, on the average for each farm, principally because their farms were larger. Approximately each white farmer paid s7l for his hired help throughout the year. Of course, some of these farmers did not hire any help at all, harvesting their grain in midsummer alone. But, on the other hand, some jof the "big" farmers of the corn and wheat belts paid out from SIOO to SSOO daily for helpers during the garnering seasons. It costs more to run sugar farms, $1,985 being paid for each plantation of this kind which harvested a crop in 1899. In 1689 the'price paid for the running of various cereal and produce farms is given by the census bureau as follows: Per farm, wheat and grain farms, $76; cotton, $25; tobacco, ssl; nurseries, $1,136; vegetable, $106; dairy, $lO5. Besides the regular number of farm helpers about 100,000 are employed in addition during the wheat-cutting season in the grain belts. These are known as harvest hands and are paid from $1.50 to $3 per clay. These harvest hands are now forming themselves into unions for their own protection from overwork and low wages. Many labor unions for regular farm hands are being organized in Indiana, Ohio, Kansaß and the southwest. The young [man who has made his home on the farm year after ye<ar is paid less than any other class of workers. He has had longer hours and no vacations. Hehas brought to his employer larger returns for the work than the coal miner, the steel worker or the mechanic of ordinary skill. The total expense, for instance, on an acre of wheat is $6. Of this $4,10 goes for horse hire, twine, seed, etc., while the remainder is paid to the two men who gather it and the one who plows the soil and sows the grain seeds. Theprofits upon their $1.90 worth of labor yield from $5 to $8 to their employer. Corn is produced for $5.85 per acre, of which $2.25 goes to the man and his team. Generally the horses are owned by the farmer and the man is getting S2O per month. The duties and wages of the farm hand of to-day, it may be seen, are not commensurate with the profits of his employer. ,< s, :