The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 9, 1918, Page 4

i | %W\ e PUREFP P b v P e e e od o o o KA TELIHG -cions that speculation has been used If there is anything you don’t understand about the food, fuel wheat, labor, draft or other or- ders, write to A. B. Gilbert, P. 0. Box 575, St. Paul, Minn. UNKEPT HOG PROGRAM N NOVEMBER 3, 1917, the follow- ing statement was issued by the food administration: “As to the hogs farrowed next spring, we will try to stabilize .the priee so that the farmers can count on getting for each 100 pounds of hog ‘ready for market 18 times the average cost per bushel of corn fed into the ~ hogs. Let there be no misunderstand- ing of this matter. It is not a guar- antee backed by money. It is not a promise of the packers. It is a state- ment of the intention and policy of the food administration which means to do Jjusticg to the farmers.” At that time there was great need.: of increased hog production and care-" ful studies made over a great many years showed that this 13 to 1 ratio gave the farmer enough-to encourage hog production. The price of corn (No. 2) and the price of hogs were to be the Chicago prices. In fairness also, the price of the corn would’ be aver- aged over the period of production. What has the food administration done now that it is time to make good on ‘its intention and policy? It an- nounced that for October the average packers’ droves would sell in Chicago for $18 per hundredweight and this was about $2.50 under what it was promised they would sell for. Then it - made the astonishing announcement - that the minimum of $15.50 would be maintained. No public officials) of -eourse, would do a thing like this without explana- tions that would appear plausible, at least to those not acquainted with hog production conditions. The adminis- tration is trying to make the public believe that the October and November prices are an approach to the guaran- tee. It has:-said that the farm price of corn woufil,"'be betfer than the ‘Chicago price, a juggling trick that . takes 50 cents to $1 per hundred off the price. It proposes that the aver- age price of the preceding five months be taken rather than that of the pre- ceding 12 months and corn, of course; . dropped in price during this five . months. The antics of the corn prices are peculiar enough to warrant suspi- to react on the hog situation. : The food administration perhaps was. not strong enough to make good on its promise. Perhaps it could not buck the packers in the interest of in- creasing our food supply and found it necessary to return to the other way < out of cutting down consumption here and abroad. ‘But the high officials were in position to know the limits of their power on November 3, 1917. It is hard to believe, however, that thée - end.in view—increased food supply— justified tactics which would enable the nation to“gét a year’s production of hogs from the farmer for less than™ ', - ‘the cost of produection. ; +and’ there is no representative of the A committee of four appointed to. -carry out the new ‘arrangements is headed by one. of the large packers producers on it. The packers’ prom- ise which the food administration has given to the press is to be carried out under certain conditions and under supervision which includes no produc- ers’ representative. DISCHARGE OF SOLDIERS ACCORDING to a war department announcemeat all requests for dis- charge of soldiers should be made to the commanding officer of the soldier concerned. P. C. Harris, adjutant general, has announced the following general rules governing discharge: “With respect to soldiers now serv- ing in the Unitéd States, department commanders, commanders of ports of embarkation and commanders of camps not under the jurisdiction of department commanders .or of chiefs of bureaus of the war department, have been authorized to discharge en- listed men, excepting those who en- listed prior to April 1, 1917, on their own application where there is sick- return of all soldiers to the United States at the earliest possible date, and the policy to be adopted in con- nection therewith will be published for the benefit of all concerned. “Until then it will be impracticable to entertain requests for the discharge or return to the United States of in- dividual soldiers.”. % FAVORING REGULATION NUMBER of different lines of business have expressed them- selves in favor of continuing the pow- ers of the national food administration and a recent statement of the National Board of Farm Organizations has this to say about it: 3 “Complacence with the policies of the food administration on the part of grocers and others is very likely due to the fact that their representatives are in the food administration in charge of the divisions affecting their own vital interests. Until farmers or- ganize in a business way, until local | THE HAPPY HOG COMMITTEE | ATELL (EM . | WE PROTEST 2 o id NO FOOL FAR MERS BROUND How happy the gentlemen on this committee look! There’s a big reason for it. They are managing the new hog production regulations, and there is no farm- ers’ representative among them or in sight. With Packer Wilson as chairman, this committee is all set to play that favorite game called “friends of the farm- er.” “If‘closed-door management wouldn’t make a packing trust happy, the trust . has no hope for happiness in this world where all its treasures are. Gartoonist Foss also sees the humor in the reported vigorous protest of the packers against the new regulations which take from $1 to $2.50 off the price of hogs. They were probably thinking of . their farmer friends. ness or other distress in the soldier’s family, or where he is needed to re- sume employment in an industry or occupation where there is urgent need of his sérvices, provided such dis- charge will not disrupt or cripple an existing ‘organization, and if the sol- : -dier’s service can be spared. “With respect to soldiers now Wer- seas, no. definite policy with regard to their return to their home station has- been formulated. When a state of or- der has been restored overseas and the military situation has improved to such an extent as to justify the with- drawal of American‘troops, the war . department will -adopt the. most ef- fective and speedy means to hasten’the ' PAGE FOUR | associations federate into state and national organizations, and until more of the national farm organizations unite for mutual protection, organjzed business interests. will retain their present - ascendancy in the food ad- ministration and elsewhere.. In the meantime production of the necessary - food will be lessened and the consum- ers as well as farmers will suffer.” DANGEROUS COST STUDIES SECRETARY HOUSTON of the de- partment of agriculture wrote the United States senate on November 7. -explaining ‘that a great deal of data on the cost of farm production-gath- ered. by the department was . invalid, particularly the figures which were confirmed by the careful investigation of state agricultural officials. The matter will be pushed by farmer or- ganizations and probably by the senate agricultural committee. The secretary, however, is in a very delicate position. Accurate studies of farm costs and farm returns would reveal the glaring inconsistency be- tween the theory of cost plus a reason- able profit which has been demanded for the business world and the condi- tions under which the farmers operate. No one could publicly declare that the theory which is right for the big in- dustries would not be right for the farmer; consequently accurate cost studies would be an irresistible argu- ment for reform in the farmers’ mar- ket and conditions of production. This means that the secretary of agricul- ture can not produce accurate farm cost studies without revealing our present gross abuses. The plain truth is that the farmer’s production can not be put on the same basis as that demanded by general business—cost plus a reasonable profit —without fundamental reform. It can not be done without pulling the teeth of monopolies~through - government ownership, regulation and taxation, as well as the stimulation of co-operation. Neither the department of agricul- * ture nor any other branch of the na- tional government is ready for this fundamental reform, and consequently the reasons for it must be kept in the dark as much as possible. THE RECONSTRUCTION ISSUE HE big problem :which the reac- tionary elements in congress see in reconstruction is not that of finding land speculators who would be willing to umnload their land.at fancy prices or that of reclaiming government- owned land at uneconomic cost, -but of finding soldiers' who would be foolish enough to take this land and carry the interest charges without fundamental reform in the conditions under which the farmer buys, produces, matkets and lives. - *- ; 3 After the shouting is done and the full measure of praise given to the boys, we will find that_there are a number of interests who must get theirs no matter what happens to the soldiers: Land ° ulators, monop- olizers of natural’ resources, market combines, ‘financial interests. The politicians have to find ways to let these feed and at the same time pro- - -vide something for the boys that will enable them to escape the indignation of the people. The Leader hazards the * prophecy that it can not be done, and the people should watch carefully lest they be taken in again l.' by mere flim- flam. G R : P CANADA PROVES N, D. POSITION- : M‘ILLING‘ and baking tests of our 1918 wheat crop show that there is practically as much bread in a bushel of No. 4 as there is in a bushel of No. 1 Northern, and only slightly " less in a bushel of No. 6. : Here is a case where the farmer g of it by having pric 10 gusdes Wigh -and baking qu. the worst