Published April 1964 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of UNIT$D STATES SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Room 342. Old Senate Office Building, Washington 25 D. C. Volume IIV -- Number 16 4/17/64 BYRD' EYE VIEW A Public Service Column by SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD THE OLDEST PROFESSION FOR MEN CARRIES NO RETIREMENT PLAN The oldest profession in the United States, for men, is farming, according to a recent study of age in relation to work activity conducted by the U. S. Department of Commerce. Of the 340,000 men over 75 who are still active worker, 69,000 are engaged in farming either .s owners or tenants. Another 10,000 septuagenarians work as laborers on farms. Whether the great age of farmers is due to the invigorating character of the farming life, or to the meagerness of income which rules out early retirement, is not disclosed. But the facts seem to support the common contention that no one ever dies of hard work at an early age. The profession with the next highest age group, according to the study, is law, with more than 6,000 lawyers over 75 still toiling at the bar, or serving on a judicial bench. Real estate agents or brokers in this age group number about 5,000. There are about 4,600 active male medical practitioners past 75, and 3,200 clergymen. Working women over 75 are fewer, numbering 127,000. Most of these women are engaged in occupations connected with home and children: housework, cooking, nursing, teaching, etc. For example, there are some 4,300 women teaching in public and private schools past the age of 75. There are 3,000 practical nurses, and 2,000 registered nurses. And there are 140 elderly women chiropractors. The figures on farm income support the belief that farmers work longer than others because it takes longer to earn money on the farm than anywhere else. In 1962 the per capita income on the farm was about $1,430. But nearly a third of this--$500--was from nonfarm sources, work in town, investments, etc. There were 13.5 million persons living on farms, which means that the total farm income was approximately 12.5 billion dollars. Since the average nonfarm per capita income was $2,440, it follows that the people on the farm earned less than two-thirds as much as town dwellers. The average hourly income was $1.05, compared with the average hourly factory wage of $2.39. The best hourly income for farmers reported was on cotton farms in the irrigated Texas High Plains, where the cotton farmers averaged a whopping $6.64 an hour. By comparison, cotton farmers on the Texas black Prairie earned only 59 cents an hour for their trouble. The molt discouraging report came from small grain-livestock farms on the Northern Plains, where net loss of $1.15 per hour was reported. Sheep ranchers in the Southwest reported an hourly income of only 9 cents. But sheep ranchers on the Northern Plains earned 71 cents an hour. Evidently the amount of farm income depends a great deal on where and what and how you farm, along with how good your luck is. Farm prices fluctuate far more widely than the prices in any other industries. presumably due to the age-old nemesis of the farmer--the unpredictable weather. Each year the farm population and the number of farms grow rapidly smaller. while the size of farms and the age of farmers increase. If this trend continual unabated, we may one day find our farmland consisting of one enormous spread where food and fibre are grown entirely by automation, untouched by human hand. If a single, stubborn farmer remains on the land, he may well be 81 old 8S Methuselah. -30-