Show WORKING ON A FARM the wave of financial depression that has swept the country this season has baa been confined in its effects so far as aa they relate to actual suffering buffering for comforts and necessaries of life to the larger towns and cities it la is in these theme that the vast army of unemployed congregates gre gates its forces in the rural districts even up to the present there is the complaint of insufficient help to properly till the soli soil and harvest the crops one cause for this scarcity of labor in farming districts is an aversion on the part of many laboring men to going into the country s farm labor does not bring to them sig as much of ready cash as does employ mena in cities and this item obscures obe curea the fact th tact t in the agricultural sections there may obtained be greater comforts and more independence dence than are known to the laboring mau man who must be idle halt half the year because of dull times well known gentlemen of this city CILY who have ex agricultural interests interest being asked today whether some of the unemployed city labor could not net be utilized on farms made this reply in subs substance no they don dont donit it want to work on a farm it is in very seldom that we can find a man who is willing to leave the city and go out and work and live in the country though we can show that both he be rua aud his family would be better off than with the uncertainties of employment in town for their fod ClOth clothing ilig and lodging would be made sure but there are luxuries and style that the city affords which cannot ie be found in the country distri districts ote ax this unwillingness to work on the farm is 18 not dot confined to laboring men in the cities of the west the situation Is ts the same all over the country CM on this subject a recent issue of the pittsburgh Llis dispatch makes some remarks which we cordially lly endorse and which we can do no better than to reproduce what to is the reason of this farm labor never was any harder than common labor in the elites cities the scythe is not more fatiguing than the pick nor does the hoe require as much strength as the shovel since mowing machines and harvesters have abolished the scythe and sulky plows lows of the old fashioned kind farm fabor labor is really far easier work than common labor in in the towns it includes pure air hearty food and s eady weady wages it furnishes better opportunities tor forthe the skillful and indu erious workman to advance himself and secure property of his bis own yet the workmen workman as an a class al seem to prefer half work and nd semi star v ston in slums blume 10 steady work and good ving living 1 i in n the field there Is an idea that the example of the richer and more cultured classes in flocking to the cities creates the preferences for town life among the laborers but even that explanation fails for in this season meason when every one who is in able is seeking rural evert life ife tor for the dummer from pure choice the laborer declines to go for pay the TChe phenomenon ie one of the inexplicable features of the dayd daya tendencies but it has a great influence on the total productive results result the matter will correct itself in time men will learn that thai there is a steady living to be had bad either by working on farms for others or cultivating emall farms for themselves and those who refuse to learn that fact will exemplify the non survival of the unfitted t but until the change comes the crowding of the cities and towns with half idle labor while the productive capacity of the rural districts is but half developed will be one of the striking anomalies of the day |