The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, October 11, 1917, Page 8

Ladd’s Facts—More “Treason” Speech of President of N. D. Agricultural College at Great Conference of Producers and Consumers at St. Paul---Remember, the Controlled Press Called This Conference ‘‘Disloyal”---Does This S'pe\er:ch Prove it? HE high cost of living is one of the foremost questions for discussion at the present time in every walk of life,” said Dr. E. F. Ladd, speaking at ‘he great patriotic Producers’ and Con- sumers’ conference, called at St. Paul under the auspices of the Nonpartisan league. Dr. Ladd is president of the North Dakota Agricultural college. “The laboring man, however, feels the pinch more than any other class of consumers and his problem is a serious one as winter approaches with the heavy demand for fuel, clothing and food, now all abnormally high. The laws of supply and demand have been s0 interfered with by unfair methods of hoarding, cornering and ruthless specu- lation made possible by war conditions that congress has found it necessary to take up the regulation of prices and for that purpose has enacted laws as war measures and established a de- partment of food administration for the regulation of the prices for wheat and fuel, “It was proper and natural that con- gress should consider wheat, the recog- nized staff of life, but it would have been, it seems to me, equally wise to have included, specifically, many other things, such, for example, as steel, cot- ton, corn, rice and other basic articles essential for man’s daily needs, and the cost of some of these must be .an im- portant “factor in regulating the price of farm machinery. However, a begin- ning has been made and we trust that speculative manipulation has been de- stroyed for all time. . LADD DISCUSSES THE . COST. OF RAISING GRAIN “Had the government not taken steps to prevent the conditions previously prevailing, in my judgment, after forc- - ing wheat as low as possible, we should have the speculation and gambling in- flation that would force wheat to an unheard of price and before spring bread might have gone to 50 cents per loaf, if not higher. In fact, in North Dakota this. summer bread has actually retailed as high as 22.7 cents per pound, this, too, from flour produced from wheat purchased from the farmer at a price not exceeding $1.50 on the average and in the majority of instances in North Dakota at a price less than $1.00 for the 1916 crop.” ; Dr. Ladd went on to discuss the cost of raising wheat. He gave the result of the careful system of bookkeeping institued by Datus C. Smith on the Cloverlea farm at Blanchard, North Dakota. These figures showed the cost- to be $22.74 per acre in 1916 and $24.41 per acre in 1917. A further statement of the Cloverlea farm accounts will be found in the Leader of September 27. “It will be observed that the actual cost of growing wheat on this large farm was $22.74 per acre in 1916 and for 1917, $24.41,” said Dr. Ladd. “As to the cost per bushel, that will be de- termined by the actual yield and a fair average for a number of years is our safest guide.” The average yield for North Dakota is placed by the department of agri- culture at 11 bushels, BUT THIS IS ON AREA HARVESTED. The yield is much less on the basis of the area sown, THE ONLY FAIR BASIS FOR COMPARISON. . Dr. Ladd showed that most farmers do net take into account all their costs of operation. They do not take into consideration such matters as crop rotation, summer fallow, chances of loss by hail, floods and cyclones, drought, insects and plant diseases, general overhead expense and cost of raw materials. LESS THAN DOLLAR A DAY FOR FAMILY Many even fail to take into con- sideration their own labor. They say that because they came out at the end of the year with $200 more than when they started in, that they MADE this much, when in reality, it was only pay, at the rate of less than $1 a day, for their own work and that of their whole family. : Dr Ladd related how he and Dr, H. J. ‘Waters, president of the Kansas agri- cultural college, who made the fight together on the price fixing board in the interests of the farmers, sought some information from W. J. Spillman of the department of agriculture on the actual labor earnings. This is the let- ter they received from Spillman: “Washington, D. C. “Office of Farm Management - August 24, 1917, “Dr. H. J. Waters, Dr. E. F. Ladd, Subcommittee of the price fixing committee, food control, Washington. Gentlemen: “I am in receipt of your request for information as to what is the average labor income of the farm family of the United States, and in reply will say that the average labor income, which represents what the farmer gets for his labor and managerial ability after al- lowing 5 per cent interest on his in- vestment, was shown by an extensive investigation made by this office to be $318.22 for 12 months. “The average labor income of 15,000 selected farmers, which were much above the average for the country in their earning capacity, was $422. “The total receipts: of ' the .average farm. family, after deducting the ex- penses of conducting the business, was $640.40. Of this amount interest on the because in the past in the newer sec- tions of the country the”increase in the land values has brought him some . returns; otherwise in reality when the intangible expenses previously referred to are taken -into consideration, his farm operations have, as a business undertaking, been conducted at a loss. FARMERS WANT SAME TREATMENT AS INDUSTRIES “The day has now passed for the rapid increase in price of farm lands, and if one does not include the factors which form a considerable part of the’ expenses of his operations in produc- ing any farm crop, farming will in the future cease to be a profitable busi- ness. 3 “As I see the situation, the farmer complains chiefly because he feels at the present time that he is the first to have his war profits taken away without in an equal manner affecting the war profits of other industries, especially those products .which the farmer is obliged to purehase. assumed that it costs $2 per bushel - ROTTEN! B e s A 5 B et el ———r e s o S 8 rfede ATt Ay —aaseat A This is a pretty dish to set before the Nonpartisan league farmers. But there is one good thing about it—the farmer does not have to eat it. who drew this cartoon, pictures the Kept Press (“kept” When the dish is uncovered the farmer's the stench. Foss calls the smell charges of by Big Business organs against the farmers, putrid cheese. their leaders. the garbage pail! investment amounted to $322.16, leaving as a labor income the figure I have just given you of $318.22. This includes the services of his wife and children as well as himself, This also includes what he received towards his living from the farm, and therefore, repre- . sents the total labor income of the farm family. “Very truly yours, “(Signed) W. J. Spillman,. Chief.” FARM LAND PRICE WON’'T ALWAYS INCREASE “It will be observed, therefore, that the average income on the farm for the services of the farmer, his wife and unemployed children, amounted to $318.22 per year at the time when this data was collected,” continued Dr. Ladd. “This includes not only his own income and pay for services, but also that of his wife and children and in addition what he received includes his living expenses from the farm and as indicated is, therefore, the total aver- age income of the farm family. Cer- tainly this is a small income and it is only possible that he should prosper LEAGUE. Throw. the cheese out the window, Mr. Farmer, and let . vl Secgioly Ly O QF It stinks. Foss, by Big Business) as nose is assaulted with “treason”, “disloyalty”, and so on, made their organization, their cause and it pollute to grow and market wheat and that in an open and unrestricted market the farmer was sure, with the shortage in available world supply of wheat, of $3 per bushel, then when the price is fixed at $2.20 there has been taken 80 per cent of his supposed war profits, He asks that other industries be treat- ed in like manner. He says, for ex- ample, that in 1914 steel billets sold for $19 per ton, while in June, 1917, they sold at $98.75 per ton. Corn in 1914 at 71 cents, and in June of the present year $1.71; sugar in 1914 at 4.2 cents, in June of this year 7.5 cents; bituminous coal $2.20, now $6; flour $4.59, now $13.89, and on wheat that should have warranted flour at $8 to $9 per barrel. FARMERS ANXIOUS TO BAR SPECULATOR “And now the wheat farmer asks, are there to be like scalings down for these products? And he is not wholly pa- tient in walting for an answer but feels that the action brought against his products should at the same time be brought against those of other pro- If it'is 10. Ibs. bran at -$2.20........ ducers. Personally I believe this will be accomplished in the near future, “The farmier is anxious that the speculator or middleman, who is manipulating the wheat, shall be .wholly eliminated and the consum- er be given the products at the cost to the farmer of producing plus reasonable profits for manufactur- ing and distri’buting. “In the days'of-the country miller when a grist mill was a common fea- ture of the countryside and before the days of the giant roller process flour mills and their millionaire owners, the farmer took his wheat to the mill and for each bushel got ‘his grist of 50 pounds of flour and by-preducts, leav- ing-10 pounds with the miller for toll ‘‘The farmer would get for his bushel (60 pounds) of wheat: . . ° 38 pounds of flour. 10 pounds of bran. 2 pounds of middlings. “Now if the farmer gets $2 per bushel for his wheat ‘he would get for. one bushel of wheat: : 26% pounds of flour. No bran.- 4 No middlings. “Under the old system he got five. sixths of the weight of his wheat back in flour and by-products. Now he gets less than half, ~ e ‘He must now pay: : $7.55 per hundred for flour. $2.20 per hundred for bran. $2.70 per hundred for fine middlings. .. $2.60 per hundred for coarse middlings. - ““So his. loss is: 1134 1bs. flour at $7.55.......$ .86 8-10 .22- 2 1bs. middlings at $2.65.... .05 3-10 g $1.14 “His loss on a bushel of wheat ex- pressed in money is $1.14. ‘His loss on 1000 bushels of wheat expressed in pounds and money is: - Flour, 11500 pounds or.....$868.25 Bran, 10000 pounds, or .... 220.00 Middlings, 2000 pounds or.. 53.00 Farmer's total loss on 100 bushels wheat is..$1141.25 “If the. farmer was now under the old system, for a bushel of wheat, after paying the miller for grind- in it, he would have left: ; 38 Ibs. flour at $7.55......$2.87 10 Ibs. bran at $2.20....... .22 2 lbs. middlings at $2.65... .05 3-10 Total ....... ARG ....33.14 He actually gets now only 2.00 He and other consumers now. lose = on ' every bushel .................$1.14 THIS IS ONE REASON FOR THE HIGH PRICES “If we were now under the_ old sys: tem the farmer who raised 1000 bushels of wheat and milled it would get back from the mill: 4 10000 pounds of bran ......$220.00 2000 pounds of middlings .. 58.00 and have 11500 pounds of flour to sell, worth $868.25, besides, and over and above what he does get under the pres- ent system. : ‘He could feed the bran and middlings to his livestock and spend the $868.25 for more mill feed and thus have $1141.25 worth of. mill feed for his livestock. Because he gets none of this under the present system is one of the reasons why we are short, both farmers and livestock, and must pay 80 much more for what we eat. “The price of $2.20 per bushel as fixed by the wheat price committee is, in my Judgment, reasonable, providing other industries are likewise considered, and 1s 20 cents above what would have been received by the farmer had it not been for the efforts put forth by all those of the wheat growing belt who gave their full_support to this undertaking. The committee living in the wheat belt are more familiar with the wheat farmers’ problem than those remotely removed, tro:p the farmers of the winter and spring wheat belts. It was, therefore, essential that much data be procured and presented for the use of the com- 5 mittee as a whole and the splendid efforts of the members of congress and o; the United States treasurer and the several committees from the Dakotas and Minnesota helped immensely in securing the price finally agreed upon by the members of the committee, The splendid work of all these forces to- PAGE EIGHT SN e e R e e SR e i IR Y i,# e R _:i.___.»_.A. b e il