A FAMILY-SIZED FARM PLAN IS URGED BEFORE BOB'S COMMITTEE
A Famih-Sized Farm Plan Is Urged Before Bob's Committee Method Would Add to Stability of Agriculture C a r 1 Taylor Discusses Social Aspects of Problem WASHINGTON, D. C. — Development of a wide...
...This mobility will continue until, as in all old civilizations, our population has accomplished something approaching a settled economy, an economy which orients the people who farm to the basic natural resources of agriculture...
...This agency should be placed In a position financially and with personnel to handle a greater number of people and to handle thousands of farmers who today are below the-minimum requirement of their standard loans...
...Specific and concrete actions that can be taken upon several problems have become clear in the presentation of testimony thus far given, and we shall summarize those here...
...We are saying that whether the number of these people increases as it has been increasing for the last decade, or whether it remains stationary, or even whether it declines, the problems of agriculture cannot all be solved by increased migration of rural people to the cities...
...We found the typical woman in all-year hotels earning $584.13 a year," she continued...
...We are now and presumably will be for some time to come, establishing reclamation and other new land projecU which will be immediately settled by farm families...
...While there has been a decline in tenancy in some parts of the nation, as indicated by the fact that there was 16 states in which tenancy was lower in 1930 than in 1900...
...They have dealth with population pressure, especially in relation to migration, to the lack of economic and cultural oppcrtunties...
...Such exemptions are not necessarily, and probably never should be, complete exemptions from all property taxes...
...Such a system of small holdings need not be operated by hoe culture or indeed in any way other than by the use of the most modern scientific and mechanical technologies, if those who operate them but cooperate in the ownership or such scientific and mechanical instruments...
...The family-sized and family operated farm is a tradition in our civilization...
...is probably inevitable that this nation must sooner or later have a development of what Is known in Europe as "small holdings...
...Since much of our land is now owned and operated in larger than family-sized units, it would be the part of good welfare statesmanship to discover and devise means and methods by which holdings of larger than family-sized units in good land areas,could be converted into family-sized farms and made available to those who want to farm, who know how to farm, and who will resettle, if not on good lands, then on some of the poorer lands of the nation...
...but there should be tax differentials in behalf of the landowner who farms his own land, and who farms it by the labor of himself and the members of his own family' "If it be argued that such tax exemptions will tend to enhance the values of family-owned and operated farms, the answer is that this increased value cannot be transferred to a prospective purchaser unless he continues to operate th" proneriy as a family-sized farm and operates it himself...
...Pride in ownership and the conservation and nurture of natural resource*, are a part of the culture of agriculture every place in the world where home farm operatorship is in existence, even though it be the home farm operator-ship of peasant farming...
...Depending upon the commodities on the list, there is a potential additional market for approximately $40,000,000 worth of fruits and vegetables...
...They have reported on the influence of mechanization and other technical advances in agriculture, with speecial reference to the displacement agricultural workers, the .ncrease in the out-of-pecket costs to farmers, and the increased risk in the enterprise of farming...
...We are simply saying that there are enough people now on farms who are living on low standards of living, in poor houses, with poor food, with inadequate education, welfare and health services, to warrant immediate consideration of their urgent problem...
...The greatest stability of farm occupancy Is In those areas where family-sized farms predominate Almost automatically the ascent up the agricultural ladder Is easier and thus more frequent among the children of owner-operators, even though they start as hired men at the bottom of the agricultural ladder, than it Is among the children of any other farm tenure group...
...It will probably be the most secure and most zestful way of life only if those who practice it can take pride in ownership as well as operation...
...Neither do I have in mind that It shall, in all cases, be the maximum-sized farm that can possibly be operated by the labor of one family for the sole purpose of profit...
...Many of the larger machines and many scientific improvements by way of pure-bred sires and the like can be made available to even small operators through the technique of cooperation, We suggest that a series of cooperative loans, such as the Farm Security Administration is now making, be made available to both owner and tenant operators of family-sized farms, in order that they may farm more efficiently with less outlay of physical labor and with the maximum use of the latest scientific and mechanical advances...
...I am thinking of farms, varying with the geographic areas of the nation, which are sound, economical farms, and which are primarily the homes of farm families...
...There are now certain farm machines, and in fact certain scientific practices which are...
...We are interested in rural stability and national stability...
...Statements such as those just made should in no way be interpreted as advocating a back-to-the-land movement...
...This is true in our own civilization, always has been true in other civilizations, and probably will be true for a long time to come...
...May Ifi...
...Farming as a way of life and as a way of security is more nearly possible on family-sized and family-owned farms than on farms with any other arrangement or organization...
...C—Surveying the results of the food stamp plan on its anniversary...
...more easily used on large-scale than on family-sized farms...
...A Famih-Sized Farm Plan Is Urged Before Bob's Committee Method Would Add to Stability of Agriculture C a r 1 Taylor Discusses Social Aspects of Problem WASHINGTON, D. C. — Development of a wide program of family-sized, family-owned, and family-operated farms was offered to the LaFollette civil liberties committee last week as a sound and constructive method of dealing with the farm migrant problem...
...It is expected that within the next few months the plan will be extended to a total of 125 areas...
...Denmark, with a tenant purchase and small holdings program, reduced tenancy from 42.5 per cent in 1850 to less than K per cent in Ifllfl...
...The number in the working age groups in the farm population are increasing and...
...where basic natural resource are adequate, g'«id housing, good health and even other element by which individual and social well being are measured, are all more prevalent in areas dominated by a high percentage of owner-operated farms...
...We are not here raising the question of what per cent of the national population should live on farms, or what per cent of the gainfully employed should be engaged in agriculture...
...The farm rehabilitation pro0-am is doing more in a practical way to re-establish family-sized and family-operated farms than all other agricultural programs combined...
...age scale owners become more settled and tenants become more transient...
...Suggestions for solution of certain conditions have been offered at many points in the preceding testimony...
...These same characteristics arc also more prevalent among owner-operator families than among tenants and laborers where all those tenure groups live side by side in the same communities...
...in the absence of increased urban work, farm population will continue to increase for the next fifteen or twenty years...
...Family-sized, family-owned and family-operated farms cannot be created by fiat but they can be encouraged and promoted...
...These two small countries, together with Finland and tbe other two Scandinavian countries, have proven that a tenant purchase program can do the job...
...Low Hotel Wage Scales Are Told NEW YORK CITY—Declaring that half of the women and minors employed in hotels throughout the state earn less than $10.19 a week, Industrial Commissioner Frieda S. Miller told a minimum wage board that "workers in all types of hotels in various communities are receiving wages too low to meet requirements of the state minimum wage law...
...All I care to say by way of defining what T mean by this term is to say that it does not include part-time farms or subsistence homesteads at the periphery of cities, and it does not include corporation farms...
...This is a traditional corollary of farm home ownership and family operatovship, but is not a corollary of any other system of farming...
...My division of labor in presenting "Suggested Programs for Distressed Farm Families" is to advocate an increase in the number of family-sizer...
...Carl S. Taylor, of the division of farm population and rural welfare, sakl that the encouragement of family-sized farms as contrasted with large scale operations in some states "would contribute mightily" to the stability of American agriculture...
...There are a number of specific measures which will tend to increase the percentages of family-sized anJ family-owned and operated farms in the United States...
...What we shall do is to emphasze some of these suggestions and point out what appear to us to be fundamental approaches to the whole problem...
...We have the largest farm population in our history, and it is steadily increasing...
...A program of the size now contemplated, he added, will increase consumption of butter by about 56 million pounds, of eggs by 49 million dozen, and of pork by 180 million pounds...
...If family ownership can be added to family-size and family-operation, stability and population carrying capacity are further enhanced...
...it must and can be a relatively secure way of life...
...It constitutes not only a stable social unit in our whole society, but also the most stable economic unit of farm operation...
...It has been pointed out that the prospects for urban employment and expansion of markets for farm products are not sufficiently bright to warrant the faith that an expanding industrial employment will alleviate distress among farm people or correct slum conditions in rural areas...
...and to the lower income groups in the farming population...
...We do not want to be understood to be advocating farms .so small that modern mechanization cannot be used but a farm doesn't hav...
...Furthermore, it...
...The rehabilitation program operates at the lowest rung of the agricultural ladder, stays the descent into tenancy and migratory labor status, starts hundreds of thousands up the agricultural ladder...
...there has been a steady increase in tenancy since 1880 for the nation as a whole...
...The board, made up of three employe representatives, including union members, three employer representatives and three of the public representatives will set a minimum in the hotel industry...
...Here's Statement The Progressive presents below the full text of Taylor's statement: "During the last weeks members of the staff of the bureau of agricultural economics, together with a number of other persons, have presented elaborate statistics concerning disadvantaged groups in American agriculture...
...Our basic problem is how can the maximum number of persons be sustained within agriculture at satisfactory levels of living...
...If and when a farm family or a great number of farm families feel compelled to seek out better located opportunities on the land, they should be assisted to move to good land...
...We wish to emphasize, therefore, the following farts: "1...
...The plan is now in operation in 68 areas while nearly a thousand communities have applied for the stamp plan...
...If agriculture is to support the maximum amount of farm population and at the same time be a successful economic enterprise, it must not be asked to absorb a great mass of people fleeing from discouraging and distressing situations in the city...
...Such exemptions would be an inhibition to the liansference of family-owned and operated farms to absentee-ownership and a stimulation of transference of absentee-owned farms to family-owned and operated farms...
...Forty-four and five-tenths per cent of the owner-operators of tne nation have lived on the same farm for 15 or more years, whereas only 7.1 per cent of tenants have had this same measure of permanency...
...They have probably proven also that it is a two-generation job...
...Those figures are a far cry from the amount the department of labor determined necessary for adequate living, which is slightly over $1,000 a year...
...It docs this by producing the maximum amount of home-consumed products and services...
...Trie cash renters of the nation average only 3.8 years of occupancy, share croppers only 2.8 years, while even mortgaged owners average 9.2 year* As farmers travel up the...
...Food Slump Plan Fioosts V. S. Diets WASHINGTON, I...
...Farming must be a way of life: it must be a good way of life...
...We believe that these areas should be settled always in family-sized, owner-operated units, and that in so far as possible the perpetuation of this tenure system should be guaranteed to future generations...
...Much shifting will still be done ami must: still be done before- this- settled economy is evolved...
...to be capable of supporting the largest tractor and combine that the inventor knows how to produce...
...The standard of living measured In terms of educational status and attainment, participation in community and institutional life...
...This expansion, Wallace said, will result in the additional purchases of surplus foods ranging from $7,000,000 to $9,000,000 a month and will directly benefit 4,000,000 consumers...
...No one believes we will regain the ground we have lost in farm ownership or even stay our steady drift into a nation of tenant farmers unless we work constructively and persistently at this problem in a direct fashion...
...In other words, by means of the most constructive and well-supported program that we can promote, it will take at least two generations to regain the ground we have lost in the last two generations...
...Under such circumstances people return to the land merely as an asylum from distress and not to farming as a way of life...
...The yearly wage of hotel workers Is more significant than the weekly scale, Miss Miller said...
...They have always been the most stable economic units In our social structure...
...Special attention has been given to unemployment among farm people...
...We will be for a long time to come a nation of mobile people...
...In all of these 16 states except California, balanced and relatively self-sufficient farming predominates...
...I recognize that there could be much argument over the definition of a family-sized farm...
...We are going further than this...
...We believe there should be an immediate and outstanding expansion of the Farm Security program cf supervised loans...
...We had an elaborate experience in this resettlement of people in our homestead programs, but inside of two generations after homesteading, and in Oklahoma within one generation, we drifted into the tenant system of farming, and certainly we ought not to repeat that experience in newly settled areas in the future...
...It has proven its capacity adequately to support more people on the land than any other system of farming...
...The experience of that agency has already demonstrated that security farming Is possible in some of the areas where the standard of living is lowest, where farming has in the past been most precarious financially and where cash crop farming and absentee-ownership, together with other factors, have developed rural slums...
...Homestead tax exemptions on family-sized, owner - operated farms would discourage absentee ownership and encourage family-sized farm family ownership...
...To do everything we can to promote the increase in the numbers of family-sized owner operated farms would contribute mightily to that stability...
...farms...
...So-called live-at-home or security farming is a system of agriculture in which the farm family attempts to introduce into its day by day and year by year operations the greatest number of constants and the smallest number of variables...
...Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace declared that already sizable results have been achieved...
...Farming is not an occupation or profession of pride, prestige, or profit where the type of farm organization condemns large segments of those who will till the soil to the status of the proletariat, or to mere hired laborers or sharecroppers...
...In a careful statement of the problem and the need for development of such a program...
...and prepares many others who are not now capable of owner-operatorship to take that step in due time...
...Ireland, since 1870, has reduced tenancy from 37 per rent to 3 per rent...
...3 There seems to be little possibility that opportunities for urban or industrial employment will absorb all the excess farm population In the near future...
...Annual migration from farm to farm among owners i% less than one-sixth of what it is among tenants, and migration of tenants who are related to their landlords is much less than among tenants who are not so related...
...We must consider therefore, how we can enhance the opportunities and Improve the welfare of those who now are living on farms and who must continue to do so in the immediate future...
Vol. 10 • June 1940 • No. 22
