OCR Text |
Show Wages on the Farm WAGE rates for farm labor reached their highest point in the history of this country in 1920, as national averages. As ascertained by the bureau of crop estimates. United States department de-partment of agriculture, the average wage rate for labor hired by the month was $46.89, with board, and $4.36 a day without board; for day labor-otherharr-harvestj- 2.86-withboar(t and $3.59 without board. The rate of 1895 for hirings by the month without board was $17.69 as an average for the United States, and no other year in the record of the bureau extending back to 1866 had a lower rate, except 1879 with $16.42. By 1902 this wage rate had increased to $22.14, by 1914 to $29.88, followed by $30.15 in 1915, with, no evidence of war effect. This effect appeared, perhaps, as a small beginning in the next year, 1916, when the wage rate was $32.83. Then followed rapid rise to $40.43 in 1917, to $47.07 in 1918, to $56.29 in 1919 and $64.95 in 1920. j The rate of gain over 1895 was 70 per cent in 1915 and 267 per cent in 1920. From 1915 to 1920 farm labor received a gain in wage rate as high as 115 per cent. This was one of the causes of the greatly increased cost of producing things on the farm, which lias hit the farmer so hard in the declining market for his crops of 1920. |