It is not possible to settle once for all the problem of labor for any occupation, since changing conditions will give rise to new questions or new phases of the old problem. Moreover, the problem of labor on the farm will grow more difficult as farming becomes more specialized and as the methods of production become more complex.
However, the labor problem on the farm is different from that in the manufacturing industries or in trade and transportation. This chapter will not concern itself with an attempt to settle the farm labor problem, but will undertake to state the character of some of the differences between it and other forms of labor and to discuss some of the changes in recent years.
A large proportion of farm work is done by the farm owner, or renter, and his family. There is not much opportunity to profit by the labor of other persons. In 1900 there were in the United States 1,812 industrial establishments each of which employed between 500 and 1,000 persons, while there were 675 establishments each of which had more than one thousand employees. In the same year there were 5,739,657 farms, which employed in the aggregate 4.4 millions of people, not including the owners of the farms. Moreover, over one-half of the 4.4 million persons thus employed were members of the families of the farmer. In other words, aside from members of the family, there was less than one employee to every two farmers. Since a considerable number of farmers employ more than one person, it follows that the majority of farmers employ no help other than members of the family.
In another particular farm labor differs from that of other forms of labor even more widely. There are sociologic as well as economic questions involved. Baldly stated, custom permits, and necessity often requires, the laborer to eat at the same table with the farm owner and in other particulars he mingles intimately with the farmers family. In all its bearings, this is a very important fact. It constitutes one of the greatest difficulties in the problem of securing suitable farm help. Industrial corporations employ as common laborers largely Italians, Hungarians, Poles and negroes. The English, the Irish, the German, the Swede and the Norwegian have been readily received and assimilated in the American farming communities. The peoples of Eastern and Southern Europe are often criticized because they do not become farm laborers. That they do not is in large part due to the fact that the farm hand is usually a member of the farmers family. Thus the supply of common labor which is today used by the rest of the industrial world is not open to the farmer.
Farming differs from some other occupations in that it does not ordinarily offer the laborer much opportunity for advancement. The fireman on a railway train becomes the engineer; the brakeman becomes a conductor. There are opportunities in many establishments for the advancement of the industrious and clever. A man may enter their service with the hope of being able to marry and support a family. On the other hand, all our land laws are based upon the idea that each farm should be of sufficient size to support only one family. Where it does support two families, the relation is usually that of landlord and tenant. The farm laborer, therefore, must look upon his employment as more or less temporary. The young man who intends to become a farmer will find employment upon the farm a desirable if not essential preparation for his future occupation.
The introduction of farm machinery has had the effect of increasing the price of farm labor while at the same time decreasing the amount of labor needed. The reason is that the introduction, not alone of farm machinery, but all forms of machinery, has made mans labor much more efficient than formerly. Farm wages have doubled since the introduction of horse-drawn machinery. The labor income in the different sections of the United States is influenced by the extent and efficiency with which machinery is used. The relation of labor income to the use of horse power is shown by the following table taken from a recent census:
INFLUENCE OF FARM MACHINERY AS SHOWN BY
THE RELATION OF LABOR INCOME
TO HORSES AND MULES.
Divisions of the United States | Labor Income |
Number of horses and mules to 1,000 persons in agriculture |
| North Atlantic | $299 | 1,655 |
| South Atlantic | 163 | 808 |
| North Central | 402 | 3,036 |
| South Central | 211 | 1,603 |
| Western | 510 | 5,476 |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------- | ----------------------- |
| United States | $288 | 2,105 |