It takes everybody to build this land, the butcher and the baker and the grocery
man, the man who owns the guns, the train and the farmer cut wheat
on the Kansas Plain.
The teacher, the preacher, the housewife and the sailor, we'll all work behind
the doctor and the tailor, they're working in the city while we're working in the
woods and we'll all work together to deliver the goods and we'll all work
together to deliver the goods.
It takes
everybody to build this land and we all
depend on people we've never even met. We depend on all kinds of
specialists we never even see, making our clothing, building our houses
and getting us food and that's where I come in. See I'm a farmer growing
my own food helping to feed the city nearby. Folks think I'm independent. For
instance, the other day when I rode into town with a wagon load of vegetables, I
met two old friends, Tom and Jane. They think I'm the most independent
man they ever knew. Tom and Jane said they were going to be farmers because they
wanted to be independent. Well farming's a good life but I had to explain, nobody
can be independent these days, not even a farmer.
I'm gonna have a farm just like you.
I'm gonna raise my own food and I'll be just as independent as you. Well now wait
a minute, just raising your own food isn't enough. I'm not independent, I depend
on lots of people. For instance, today I'm depending on my shoemaker to fix my
shoes. We mean pioneers, like in the olden days. Yeah I'm gonna build my own
catalogs and I'm going to make all my own clothes. Well now look now my
grandfather and grandmother came here as pioneers
and that isn't the way they told it.
Tell you what, you get on the wagon and I'll tell you all about it on
the way home. Go on up you go.
Yes sir, you just imagine that you were in this area while it was still dark and
forest. My grandfather came here in his covered wagon and believe me he had a
sing to keep up his spirits. Come all you young fellers who have got a mind to
raise over this far off country, your fortune to change
and we'll travel up westward with our hammer and our hoe. Through the
wild woods we'll wander on the Ohio. Get up boy, get up.
Come all you young fellers, we'll travel [... ] go
and we'll all travel down. Grandpa and grandma
decided to be pioneers cause they wanted to be independent too. But right from
the start they had to depend on other people.
Grandpa couldn't have cleared the forest with his bare hands. Somebody had to
make an axe for him.
Swing that axe, sing it fine, ship that
trunk down the timber line. Grandpa depended on other men far away to dig iron
and coal to make it into steel and forge it into shape. Dig that iron down
the mine, pound that steel till the axe blade shine.
Swing that axe, swing it fine, ship that trunk on the timber
line. There are a lot of men in the mines and it forges, helping grandpa when he
swung that axe. Well it was only by using tools made by
somebody else far away.
That grandpa could shape the forest into a farm. I will build a
log cabin for to keep out the rain and I'll carve out a
plowshare for to furrow the plain. It was hard work but they had to eat. A man
can do without a lot of things but not without food. With my feet in the furrow
and the sweat on my brow and the sod on my shoulder as
I follow the plow. It wasn't much of a plow and every time it hit a stone
it broke but it did open the earth for planting the seed.
Well with grandpa out getting food, grandma could make other things they needed
like their clothing. And while you go out in hoe, I will sit at home and
sew and spin you out to kerchief on the Ohio. With the bobbin
at the center and the treadle down below, I'll spin you out to kerchief on the
Ohio. Yes Jane, grandma did make their clothing but she
also needed tools. And you'll weave me out a blanket
on the Ohio.
They couldn't have kept alive without any tools but with tools grandpa and
grandma would carve a farm out of the wilderness and make things grow.
A man needs a roof for a shelter and a shirt for to keep him warm. But most of
all a man needs food from the day he's born so it's time for a shucking of the
corn. It's time for a shucking of the corn. It's time for a shucking of the corn.
Man needs food from the day he's born so it's time for a shucking of the corn.
With their tools they could grow not just enough but even
more than they needed for themselves.
And that's when they began to depend on even more people. You see the work was
hard because the tools were clumsy. Reaping wasn't easy with a short handle
sickle. One of the other farmers in the valley knew how to do good blacksmith
work so grandpa took some of the food he had left over to trade for a better
tool. Just down the road there lives a man a farmer with a blacksmith shop he'll
make a tool to speed my hand and help me raise a better crop. This part-time
blacksmith promised to make grandpa a long handle size for some corn. By trading
that way grandpa could spend more time at farming because he didn't have to make
his own tools. Now the part-time blacksmith made good tools because he didn't
have to spend so much time at farming. By depending on each other they could grow
more food and make better tools with less work. There's plenty more than we can
eat. We'll share our crop with other farms. I'll trade the corn and sell the
wheat and get a scythe to speed my arm. With the new scythe
grandpockets swing wider and stronger when cutting down his grain. The better the
tool the more we can do and the better we can do it. Well before long so many
neighbors were trading with the part-time blacksmith that he
could spend all his time at the forge.
He became a specialist. For your cabbage corner cow he
will trade a scythe or plow.
The blacksmith is the man who does it all. Instead of the wooden plow that always
broke he made them a plowed iron. The furrows became deeper
and wider. The work was still hard but they were able to plow much larger
fields and get more out of the soil. Well better tools meant bigger crops
so some people could eat without growing their own
food. They could do other things.
That made it easier for the people who were still farming. For instance they knew
that other specialists were busy making shoes for them. For the cobbler is the
man, the cobbler is the man.
Summer, winter, spring and fall. Though your boots may crack and wear
he will keep them in repair.
The cobbler is the man who shoes them all. Though your boots may crack and wear
he will keep them in repair. The cobbler is the man who shoes them all. They knew
that other specialists were making houses for them. Good shingles for their roof.
With the mallet in his hand and the shingle on the stand.
The carpenter is the man who builds it all. Yes the carpenter is the man, the
carpenter is the man.
Summer, winter, spring and fall. For a sack of wheat or more he
will make a roof or door.
The carpenter is the man who builds it all.
And so grandpa and the other farmers and the cobbler and the blacksmith got
better houses and better shoes because a specialist does a better job. The people
who specialized live near each other by the banks of the river where the water
wheel could give power for machines.
A small town grew up. If you think about it you'll see that's what
towns and cities are.
Places where specialists work and trade. Yes people who trade with each other
depend on each other.
The cobbler made his own shoes. The carpenter built his own house but each did
only a part of getting his own food, clothing or shelter.
Well the town grew bigger and bigger and bigger.
It's like a tree growing. That starts from the roots like we started from the
soil a farmer tilled. As the earth gave more we were able to grow away from the
soil just the way a tree grows away from the roots. The way that the tree grows
out of the ground is the way that the city grows out of the town. The men at the
machine, the workers with the skill they're building up the city round the
factory and mill. Now the chimneys are smoking to give us all a
sign. A million men are working on the factory line. They come from the plains
from the mountains and the woods.
And they all work together to deliver the goods. Millions of specialists living
side by side and none of them gets his own food or clothing
or shelter all by himself.
Yes we've been able to grow farther and farther from the soil.
But as I keep saying a man always has to eat. A man
needs a roof for a shelter and a shirt for to keep him warm. And a man needs
a meal at the tabletop and our roots still need the soil.
It's only because we have powerful tools like my tractor that we farmers can grow
enough food for all those millions of city specialists.
The farmer is the man, the farmer is the man. Summer, winter, spring and
fall. When the springtime comes around he goes plowing up the ground. The farmer
is the man who feeds them all.
In the springtime and the fall when the corn is growing tall the farmer is the
man who feeds him all.
Yes the farmer is the man, the farmer is the man. Summer,
winter, spring and fall.
He comes riding into town with his wagon loaded down. The farmer is the
man who feeds him all.
He comes riding into town with his wagon loaded down. The farmer is the man
who feeds him all.
We farmers supply the food for the city markets. Grandpa supplied food for the
cobbler so he could spend all his time making shoes. The cobbler made the whole
shoe, the form, the sole and the upper.
And he knew the man who wore it but it's different now. Today our
cobblers work in factories and they are a different kind of specialist. Each of
them makes only part of a shoe and it takes hundreds of people just to make one
shoe but these hundreds can make more in a day than the cobbler could make in a
lifetime. That means I'm depending on hundreds of cobblers for
just one pair of shoes.
Yet these factory specialists make all these shoes for people they never even
see, people I depend on, people in all walks of life. For instance the fishermen
bringing in their catch, their scaly gold. Our ships are in the fish are caught,
the car goes on the shore, we'll dump our catch upon the docks and then sail back
for more. With a blow he wins in the morning, blow he wins high ho, fill the hole
with scaly gold and blow blow blow. It's first unload the fish we stowed that
once swam down below and when they're stored we'll climb
aboard and back to sea we'll go.
With a blow he wins in the morning, blow he wins high ho, fill the hole with
scaly gold and blow blow blow. I couldn't be bringing in the crops if they
weren't bringing in the fish supplying not only me but the other workers I depend
on like the workers in the clothing factory turning out clothes.
Workers whose job is divided among specialists the way the cob was today. Instead
of grandmom making a dress by herself, thousands are working at making dresses,
suits and clothes. Working on the clothing working all the day, cutting and the
shaping and the scissoring the way. Put them on the presses and you press them
carefully working in the clothing factory. Dress as coats and trousers make
them carefully working in the clothing factory.
And for the buildings we have nowadays you can't just call in a carpenter
like grandpa did. We need thousands of specialists just to cut the timber and get
it to the sawmill. Timber timber and that
timber's gonna roll. Timber timber and
that timber's gonna roll.
It takes a PB hook and a redwood and a 10 pound chain on a pine
and a sawmill down by the river just to get that timber down the line.
Calling timber timber. Man that timber's gonna roll.
Timber timber.
Man that timber's gonna roll. Now you take a lumber yard in the city and a police
spinning up on high and a good strong hull up a red brick wall just to heist that
timber to the sky.
Why I'm even depending on other farmers far far away harvesting wheat on the
Kansas plains to feed the people I depend on. Miners and workers in the machine
factory and lots of others.
You see Tommy with the tools we have today farmers all over the country can
produce great surpluses. These tools get their strength not only from the
arms of a man but from coal and gasoline and electricity and
thousands of men have to spend their time making the tool where only a few made
grandpa's axe or his scythe. For a tool like my tractor you need
miners who spend all day digging out tons of coal and iron. We need
factory workers who mold that iron into shape and put it together to build
tractors for farmers all over the country.
Working on the tractor working all the day turning out the motors
together up the hay.
You bolt the frame together and you heist it carefully working
in the tractor factory.
Set them on the axle careful with the wheel rubber bolts and copper
wire iron and steel.
Rivets chain hardwood heavy as can be we're all working in a tractor factory.
Turning out a tractor just for me.
So you see all these powerful tools help me to produce more food so I can feed
the people who make them.
Whoa whoa boy whoa hey you're home right now.
Come on over you go. In other words it doesn't matter what job I have everybody's
depending on me. That's right and you'll be depending on all those other
people just what you're doing your job.
So when we work we're all building together.
It takes a lot of people to build this land and everyone is landing
a helping hand.
The man who owns the mill and the man who runs the train they're working with the
farmer on the Kansas plain. In every city the worker at the
wheel is cutting out the clothing and a stamping out the steel.
They're working in the city while we're working in the woods and we'll all work
together to deliver the goods. We'll all work together to deliver
the goods.