Show agriculture in the american system american agriculture is under the continuous necessity of organizing itself in order to compete successfully with other bra branches of industry which are highly organized gani zed there can be no doubt 1 of this as ion long as we maintain a system 0 of economics based upon individual initiative and profit and let us not be discouraged il if many organization attempts fail often these failures are due to the fact that we are unwilling to employ highly competent leadership as industry does fifty thousand and hundred thousand dollar salaries are not uncommon in american industry we need men ot of commensurate ability to read lead our agricultural movement and let us remember that the size of thia task is such that time and ions ion time is necessary in its solution iti tion the need of organization is probably pro bibly ab ioui to everybody who las bas given thought to the situation labor would be only another commodity on the american market it if labor were not organized gani zed organized it crin demand a hearing in congress and in in du cou councils nells it con can control the supply of labor by influencing immigration policies and otherwise rw ise it can coerce industry into E supplying better batter working conditions as to sanitation safety arid and arkin vr kIn homb bours it can influence wages ery cry decidedly and industry if it were operating as small unorganized units wo would engage in deadly corn petition within its own ranks and produce without ilgard to to the available market As it is industry has established excellent control ot of production ro and by centralized con 70 yol he p a sharp lookout on con coll iress ress state legislation and municipal activity because of its com mand of large wealth it has established elaborate and very of effective research agencies the very life of any industry because ot of our rapidly changing techniques one discovery discoe ery will often revolutionize an In industry austry scrapping aln g millions of dollars worth ot of equipment and making lie necessary cessa ry millions of investment in nen devices these are only a few of the obvious insults of organization in maintain ertain erlain other standards labor arid and industry organized buying bargaining 4 power in marketing storage and orderly release to prevent git gluttons ittin the elimination or of unnecessary middlemen and of fraudulent grading by buyers standardization in production each of these depends for its full development upon the unit ing of american producers on a commodity basis let us renie remember niber that we have only so much social wealth if tabor labor arid and industry get let us say four fifths of this only one fifth is left tor for the producer let us take a concrete example the rail roads under national regulations are authorized to charge rates which will give them a certain net profit on their investment libor labor let us say demands a certain wage scale the railroads are confronted with the threat of a strike and serious interruption of their operations unless they agree to this demand likewise they are threatened with resentment on the part of 0 labor unless they the ob obvious rious thing for a railroad to do is 3 to try to avoid strikes and accompanying disorder if they can raise freight rates and thus increase their income sufficiently they can maintain the vie scale demanded by labor there is no doubt of course that this procedure proc eduie has operated in the rast past arid and is now in operation in regard to the pending controversy on wages wage the present difficulty however ij 13 that industry and a agriculture ri almost prostrate cannot well stand up tip under rate inc increases as L ir if arru lural conditions condition made d it at all possible there is no doubt that increased rates would be authorized and wages maintained carl can there bo be any doubt that agriculture ri culture a needs effective organization in order to defend itself in this and hundreds hundred of other similar circumstances let it be said that there is no controversy among enlightened citizens about the desirability of high wages wag es for labor they should be kept at the highest possible point but of course no good Is accomplished complis hed by inflated wages it if other divisions of society suffer as a direct result there is however a deep seated conviction in america that we have sufficient |