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Show The Farmer's Union. Cost anil Productiveness sf Labor. . . rBY C..A, MADS!N.l Written for the REGiSTtut. ' : The U.: S.;.Co.TvniSsioner of ; labor is prepared to transmit to Congress his first report on the cost of production. The Comm'ssioner has for several months mon-ths been engaged in obtaining very interesting in-teresting aud valuable material. The purpose of the Labor comm ssion is to ascertain all the elements that enter into the cost of production.'"' The Commissioner's Commis-sioner's report will embody data that has never been piesented in any official report in any country. It will undertake to give with precision, not only the elements ele-ments of cost, in the production of an article; but also the efficiency of labor in the different countiies and in different lilies of industry; ind the relation be tween eftieiericy,vWages, and 'the man ner ol living t -7 ' "' ' ? The labor will be reduced tohe hdur basisjtwrf it will be possible to determine. by examination Of m laoies, me jvense relation between tUi wages ana Hie work performed for jlte wages.'VM C'.st. ut management and rep.ti 1 s and the mtetest op invested capital, wHl be set forth With a fullness, whiek.. will adrnt of tit most searching tomparisons. Now tny dear Ediior.l propose that we help that .''Commission of later' 'to investigate: in-vestigate: the position tivat farmers hold as producers in comparison to consumers. consum-ers. Uut let us .first agree on que , thing; and that is that the reason that industrious indus-trious farmers are gettin poor, is because be-cause they get too little for what surplus they produce and sell; and pay too much (or what they consume and buy. In your City of Ephraim, where people are pretty pret-ty near on"an equal" 1 piopuse that you investigate tlte average Cost of their living; liv-ing; or.to save you that much trouble, let me guess. When you take your average farmer, mechanic and common lahorer, hi consumption in fowt.raimenl; Aous,-and Aous,-and luxuries. How much per capita? I almost al-most hesitate to answer, fearing, that Ciiiliri. ijy litl-'?s. fsan insult. But I wilj venture to say, thltTTcw4o pgries on his own labor, at present, 111 what he and family, produces themselves, lor their own sustenance: it does not average over o cents per day to the individual; and many hveeon half of that. But'what kintf of living!' Is jt hecause ?they dtTJiot want to live nettetffio. It is bswause they cannot afford vo live; better, in order jt,o CoverJhe.ir iiecesSary expend-( itures. . . ' " : ' ' ' ", ' ' Let us now labor-on the proposition,; snd set it down as a maxim that equal.' ityis necessary; and if we dii'uot (oster equality, socially, politically.commercial-ly.and politically.commercial-ly.and reliti'usly, the Republic will go It is lust as appf upi'mte that thetraked truth, on this line,, be first spoken; ia Ephraim as any whertj else; and I have co , hesitancy in saying, that the" .blood qf. Ephraim especially have the mission to labor for practical oquality. as the Lqrd says:' that "One shall not have thai which is above anothBr':and therefore,, the Lord insulated the-law cf'Stewaid-ship" cf'Stewaid-ship" and "surplus property.' But the question now betore us Is, i . understaud it right; what- Ins caused this condition of the farmer, laborer and mechanicf But the.y Aave beeu discriminated, discrim-inated, against. l Tq it eoHhttuet) |