Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist PrinciplesSpargo, John
History
Socialism: A Summary and Interpretation of Socialist Principles
Spargo, John
Socialism
There are, then, other forms of concentration than the physical one, the
amalgamation of smaller units to form larger ones, and very often these
forms of concentration go on unperceived and unsuspected. There can be
no doubt that this is especially true of agricultural industry. Many
branches of farming, as the industry was carried on by our fathers and
their fathers before them, have been transferred from the farmhouse to
the factory. Butter and cheese making, for example, have largely passed
out of the farm kitchen into the factory. The writer recalls a visit to
a large farm in the Middle West. The sound of a churn is never heard
there, notwithstanding that it is a "dairy farm," and all the butter
and cheese consumed in that household is bought at the village store.
Doubtless this farm but presented an exaggerated form of a condition
that is becoming more and more common. The invention of labor-saving
machinery and its application to agriculture leads to a division of the
industry and the absorption by the factory of the parts most influenced
by the new processes. When we remember the tremendous role which complex
agencies outside of the farm play in modern agricultural industry, we
see the subject of concentration as it applies to that industry in a new
light. The grain elevators, cold-storage houses, creameries, and even
railroads, are part of the necessary equipment of production, but they
are owned and operated independently of the farm. There is a good deal
of concentration of production in agriculture which takes the form of
the absorption of some of its processes by factories instead of by other
farms.
VI
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