Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers

1947 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Irish Independent, 24.02.1947

Reply To Mr. Frame

Elizabeth F. Bobbett (General Secretary, Irish Farmers’ Federation), in the course of a letter, writes: I have been asked by Mr. Walter Kerr, chairman of the Barndarrig Ploughing Match Committee, and other farmers, to reply to Mr. Frame’s most unjust statements. Mr. D. D. Frame owns a farm and professes to take a kindly interest in farming matters, even acting as chairman to Rathdown Ploughing Committee, at which annual dinner he will shortly preside. It ill behoves him to go behind closed doors to insult and unjustly attack the farmers.

Mr. Frame is such a clever businessman he must be also a clever farmer. We challenge him to produce his farm accounts for the past ten years, and show his profits; they may be substantial, as he being also an industrialist did not lack capital and equipment as did most “plain farmers.”

Another point to note is that Mr. Frame’s industry can guard against losses. When his coal supply is cut short he can shut his factory and dismiss hundreds of employees, but when the farmers are faced with a stoppage in their industry, such as the present period of four weeks’ snow and frost, they cannot close down their factories and dismiss their staffs. They have to keep men employed under most difficult and harassing conditions to carry food to the animals in the stables and in the fields, and suffer many losses in live stock and crops. Were the farmers to sit down till the snow was gone, the food situation would soon be felt by town dwellers.

Last, but not least, were it not for the work of the farmers and their employees in producing such a huge amount of exportable wealth there would be no imports to keep Mr. Frame’s industry working.