The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 10, 1918, Page 10

[ SRR | i one dam increased the assessed valu- ation in Maricopa county, Ariz., from $9,000,000 in 1902 up to $64,000,000 in 1915. The Minidoka project in southern Idaho, on the Snake river, develops electric power which is used by nine- tenths of the people in the towns of Rupert, Burley, Heyburn and Paul. The high school at Rupert is known throughout the region as the “elec- trical high school,” since it is lighted and heated by power from the dam. Settlers use electricity for cooking, washing and operation of sewing machines. In 16 years of slow development the Reclamation service has shown that it can deal more economically with the natural resources of the West than any private corporation with which it has competed. If congress will pass the reclamation extension measure that Secretary Lane and Judge King have asked for, the days of wholesale robbery by big private pro- - moters will be ended. Uncle Sam will clear millions of acres of cut-over lands, and drain millions of acres of swamp lands, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, in the Dakotas and Idaho and Oregon and Washington, A new home in 'Idaho, in the Minidoka irrigation district. Although many miles from town, this simple dwelling has more modern labor-saving conveniences than meost cities afford. Cheap electricity generated by the government dam enables this farmer to heat and light his house elec- trically. The laundry, sewing machine and cooking use the same power. State ownership of waterpower would mean greater comfort for millions. ¢ * While this great constructive bill is waiting favorable action . in congress, the Wall street re- source-grabbers are trying to rush through the house and senate some sort of waterpower legislation under which the General Electric interests, the Stone & Webster interests, the Byllesby interests and their allies in the hydro-electric combine shall get 50-year leases on the billion dollars’ worth of power sites remaining in possession of the people. If they get these sites, they will develop them privately, of course. Now, if the building of dams for irrigation purposes by private inter- ests cost the farmers $67 an acre and 6 per cent interest, as_against $47 an acre and no interest when the govern- ment did the job, won’t the private power dams probably cost the while he is putting other millions of acres of dry lands under irrigation in other parts of the West and South. With each of these projects will come new oppor- tunities for community co-operation, and new free- dom from corporate graft. Cutting Costs on Farm One Way to Increase Returns From Agriculture Is of Excessive Interest and Unscientific BY A. B. GILBERT IKE all men engaged in business the farmer has two methods of increasing his returns for his labor and investment: The costs can be cut; or the selling price of the products can be increas- ed. Either or both of theose methods are the source of all increases in returns. Of the two the first is the more desirable because it means the elimination of waste and because normally a higher price cuts down the quantity of the goods that can be sold. How can the farmer cut his costs? Agricultural experts have a great deal to say about individual farm efficiency, and most of their advice is prob- ably very good. But nearly all of them are silent on the most important fact about farm costs, namely: that the more important of these costs are determined by the conditions that society im- poses and that the individual farmer is practically helpless in trying to do anything with them. Here is a list of important costs which nearly every . farmer must meet before he can have wages for himself, not to mention profits: Rent (if he owns land, interest on land value). Interest on capital investment and borrowed money. 3 Hired labor. Transportation. Supplies, such as machinery, seed, fertilizer. Crop losses and animal diseases. Depreciation ‘on improvements and equip- ment. Taxes. Running "over these costs with the thought in mind the reader will see that the farmer canido practically nothing with any of them, they are problems outside his influence. He has nothing to say about rental or land value; the interest rate, * freight charges, the prices of his necessary. sup- plies, his occasional losses from crop calamities such ‘as hailstorms, and from: stock diseases; or about taxes. He can have very little influence on his labor costs or the depreciation cost. ORGANIZED FARMERS NOT HELPLESS All that he has anything to say about i'slwhat : goes on within the bounds of his few acres; what he plants in this-or that field, whether he will raise: stock and what are the best methods, whether he shall hire another man, when is the best time to sell; whereas the big costs are all made up out- side of his land and his influence. They are giant affairs and all he can do is to accept. . Helpless as he is individually, the farmers as a whole are not without power because all together and working together they can bring about changes in the social organization. Working together they can secure political power proportionate to their ) ?mefimmmmwmmwmm*mfim&fimm SRR numbers, and this power so secured will be suf- ficient to protect co-operative enterprise which is one of the methods of getting at these big costs and to force the state to undertake certain bene- ficial activities which can not well be handled now by co-operation. N . In other words, the farmer’s problem of cutting | ' WHERE UNCLE SA The largest and most efficient reclamation projects are those mana users of electric power just as heavily in comparison with government construction fig- ures? If Uncle Sam has proved that he can build these dams cheaply, and develop electricity cheaply, why shouldn’t he do it? That’s a good question for your senator and con- gressman at Washington. and in Town to Eliminate the Waste Marketing costs is chiefly a problem for his whole class. He must realize that he is going to succeed in cutting his big costs only by acting with other farmers to make the whole farming industry more prosperous. Up to the present the farmer has tried to do the whole thing alone. From a business point of view he has been a hermit on his 160 acres; at- M HAS MADE HOMES T ——— .t o oo e o FINDE, RESERVO 9 ged by the government of the United . States. The best engineers in the world have laid out the projects shown on this map. Every black area shown is a government irrigation district. . PAGE TEN Rty