CITE HOLDINGS OF BIG CORPORATE FARM INTERESTS
CiteHoldingsof Big Corporate Farm Interests Blame Strife on Clash Between Workers and Owners By FARM RESEARCH CIVIL strife, vigilante activity, strikes and violations of civil liberties which...
...D. C—Following adoption of its usual resolutions, expressing opposition to all the things union conventions go on record for, the U. S. chamber of commerce closed its 28th annual meeting here last week...
...Stuart drew five major conclusions : 1. Most farms in California are small, hiring little or no farm labor...
...Nearly a third of all farms reported gross incomes of less than $1,000 even in the prosperous year 1929...
...They are also predominant as agricultural employers, for 35 per cent of all cash spent in California to employ agricultural workers was expended by tnem...
...On April 24, 231 civil suits for injunction had been filed against a total of 45 last October 24, the first anniversary of the effective date of the act...
...Taylor stated...
...Thus one corporation in Sacramento valley owning 60,000 acres which are operated by 150 tenants is classified by the census as 150 separate farms, and the thousands of farms owned outright by insurance companies and financial institutions are similarly listed...
...however, that despite the large number of industrialized farms In California, most farms in the state are small...
...59.7 Poultry...
...This strife occurs not on family-fJized farms but on industrialized farms which hire and fire large gangs of workers, utilize armed guards, labor contractors, foremen, and piece-rate systems, and which in many instances operate canning, or packing plants...
...Although they constitute only 2.1 per cent of the farms of the state they produced 28.5 per cent of the agricultural produce of all kinds, by value...
...Percentage of Large-Scale Farms in the V- S. Located in California Fruit...
...60.1% Truck...
...and president of the American Motorists Insurance Co., was elected president...
...lames S. Kemper, president of the Lumbermen* Mutual Casualty Co...
...2. Large-scale farming in the state is not confined to fruits and vegetables but extends to grains, field crops, stock ranching, dairy and poultry...
...To describe the issue in these terms," said rani S. Taylor of the University of California is "to mislead all who understand the words 'farmer' and 'farm laborer' as they arc commonly used in other parts of the country...
...Thirty-eight corporations engaged in farming in California are described in the 1938 editions of Poor's Industrial Volume and Walker's Manual i of Pacific Coast Securities...
...At the same time, 88 criminal prosecutions had been entered on April 24, against 48 for the entire first year of the act...
...In criminal proceedings, 50 employers have pleaded guilty to violation of the act against whom a total of $266,862 in fines were imposed...
...Large Scale Farms More than one-third of all large-scale farms in the United States are in California, the census of 1930 showed, using as its definition of a "large-scale" farm one having an annual gross income of $300,000 or more...
...Resolutions approved requested scaling down of the Income tax and estate and inheritance taxes, drastic amendment, of the labor relations act...
...CiteHoldingsof Big Corporate Farm Interests Blame Strife on Clash Between Workers and Owners By FARM RESEARCH CIVIL strife, vigilante activity, strikes and violations of civil liberties which have frequently erupted in California's fields should not be looked upon as a conflict between "farmers and farm laborers," California economists told the La Fol-lette committee, whose hearings on the Associated Farmers are now being published...
...Of the 231 suits for civil injunction 208 were granted, 3 were denied and 20 are yet pending, Fleming said...
...There are 2,892 large-scale, industrialized farms which "dominate production" in the state, Dr...
...30.3 Cotton...
...4. There has been no lessening of this trend in the direction of concentration...
...Stuart pointed.out...
...3. Concentration of land ownership and of farm operation are understated by the census...
...repeal of the wage-hour law, passage of the Walter-Logan bill, and return ol relief to the states...
...At the other end of the scale, 10 per cent of the farms are shown to have accounted for 65 per cent of all expenditures for farm labor in the state...
...24, 1938...
...44.0 Dairy...
...it was announced by Philip B. Fleming, administrator of the wage-hour division...
...If anything, the trend is in the other direction...
...32.9 Crop Specialty...
...Thus, one-third of the farms in the state made no expenditures for farm labor In 1930...
...For the U. S. as a whole, it is estimated by the Social Security board that 78 per cent of the farms hired no wage labor in 1935...
...Other End of Scale The small farms are found to employ little or no agricultural labor...
...Fleming cited figures showing the result of cases in litigation over the third six-months period since the act went into effect or...
...Although California produced less than 2 per cent of the nation's cotton crop, it had 30 per cent of all large-scale cotton farms...
...Wage-Hour Cases On The Increase WASHINGTON...
...40.5 Cash-Grain...
...30.1 Ten per cent or the farms in California received 53 per cent of the State's farm income, according to Arthur Stuart, economist for the La Fol-lette committee, citing an unpublished study of the Giannini foundation based on the 1930 census...
...51.9 General...
...D. C—Three times as many court actions were begun and successfully concluded in the six months period ending April 24, as in the entire first year of the wage-hour act...
...5. Corporate operation in agriculture is more Important in California than in the country as a whole...
...C. of C. Stays Tory As Always WASHINGTON...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 19
