There is really no "solution" for the labor difficulty. The problem is inherent in the economic and social situation. It may be relieved here and there by the introduction of immigrants or by transportation of laborers at certain times from the city; but the only real relief lies in the general working out of the whole economic situation. The situation will gradually correct itself; but the readjustment will come much more quickly if we understand the conditions.
As new interest arises in the open country and as additional values accrue, persons will remain in the country or will return to it; and the labor will remain or return with the rest. As the open country fills up, we probably shall develop a farm artisan class, comprised of persons who will be skilled workmen in certain lines of farming as other persons are skilled workmen in manufactures and the trades. These persons will have class pride. We now have practically no farm artisans, but solitary and more or less migratory working-men who possess no high-class manual skill. Farm labor must be able to earn as much as other labor of equal grade, and it must develop as much skill as other labor, if it is to hold its own. This means, of course, that the farming scheme may need to be reorganized [(pages 86 to 90)].
Specifically, the farm must provide more continuous employment if it is to hold good labor. The farmer replies that he does not have employment for the whole year; to which the answer is that the business should be so reorganized as to make it a twelve months' enterprise. The introduction of crafts and local manufactures will aid to some extent, but it cannot take care of the situation [(page 115)]. In some way the farm laborer must be reached educationally, either by winter schools, night schools, or other means. Every farm should itself be a school to train more than one laborer. The larger part of the farm labor must be country born. With the reorganization of country life and its increased earning power, we ought to see an increase in the size of country families.
Public or social bearings.
It is doubtful if city industrialism is developing the best type of working-men, considered from the point of view of society [(page 59)]. I am glad of all organizations of men and women, whether working-men or not. But it seems to me that the emphasis in some of the organizations has been wrongly placed. It has too often been placed on rights rather than on duties. No person and no people ever developed by mere insistence on their rights. It is responsibility that develops them. The working-man owes responsibility to his employer and to society; and so long as the present organization of society continues he cannot be an effective member of society unless he has the interest of his employer constantly in mind.
The real country working-men must constitute a group quite by themselves. They cannot be organized on the basis on which some other folk are organized. There can be no rigid short-hour system on a farm. The farm laborer cannot drop his reins or leave his pitchfork in the air when the whistle blows. He must remain until his piece of work is completed; this is the natural responsibility of a farm laborer, and it is in meeting this responsibility that he is able to rise to the upper grade and to develop his usefulness as a citizen.
It is a large question whether we are to have a distinct working-class in the country as distinguished from the land-owning farmer. The old order is one of perfect democracy, in which the laboring-man is a part of the farmer's family. It is not to be expected that this condition can continue in its old form, but the probability is that there will always be a different relation between working-man and employer in the country from that which obtains in the city. The relation will be more direct and personal. The employer will always feel his sense of obligation and responsibility to the man whom he employs and to the man's family. Persons do not starve to death in the open country.
Some persons think that the farming of the future is still to be performed on the family-plan, by which all members of the family perform the labor, and whatever incidental help is employed will become for the time a part of the family. This will probably continue to be the rule. But we must face the fact, however, that a necessary result of the organization of country life and the specialization of its industries, that is now so much urged, will be the production of a laboring class by itself.
Supervision in farm labor.
It is doubtful whether we shall extend the industrial organization of labor to the open country, and yet there should be some way of administering farm labor. The growth of the tendency to coördinate farming industries, in order to overcome the disastrous effects of much of the competitive farming, will allow for supervision of labor, however, and will make for efficiency. The standardizing of agricultural practice will also do much to produce the community mind that is so much desired [(p. 97)]. On this line, Dean H. E. Cook, who has given much thought to labor questions, writes me as follows: