The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 13, 1920, Page 5

’ -world-wide’ demand for their crops. That ‘ate aid it is estimated that 3,500,000 chil- A Few News Items and Their Meaning What the Daily Dispatches Tell Us About F arming and Other > - Lanes of Business—What Is the Answer? 5]S THERE anything wrong with farm- ing today? If so, what? -Can any- thing be done to remedy it? If so, what? These are questions that ev- ery farmer wants to have answered. == Let us run over the news columns of the daily papers and magazines and see if we can find the answers. Never mind paying attention to the editorial columns. itors want us to believe, but we prefer to do our own thinking. : The statements that follow are all summaries of dispatches that have appeared in newspapers and magazines, and with one or two exceptions they have appeared within the last two weeks. First take this one: WASHINGTON, D. C.—Reports to the depart- ment of agriculture show that stocks of wheat held on the farms and in the éountry elevators are far in excess of previous years. The same is true of stocks of cotton and other commodities. : Farmers are holding wheat, of course, not be- cause they want to be “hoarders” but because they - are offered less than the cost of produc- tion. They. were told only a few months ago, as every one knows, that they must be patriotic and produce, that there was a the latter part of the statement was true is indicated by the following: - NEW YORK—Unless there is immedi dren in central Europe will die this winter from tuberculosis or other diseases due to lack of nourishment, or from actunal starva- tion. The Literary Digest is raising a fund for their relief. Austria, Russia, Germany, Armenia and many of the Balkan states are short of wheat and cotton. HANKOW, China—Twenty million Chi- hese are in dire want. People are leaving their homes by thousands; while those who can not leave are remaining to die. Chil- dren are disposed of for almost nothing and if they can not be sold or given away they are tied to the trees to keep them from following their parents. The price of a girl 14 years of age is now from $3 to $5. They are purchased by slave buyers who ship them to cities to enter immoral re-: . sorts. 1 SOMETHING WRONG WITH MARKETING It looks, doesn’t it, as if something were wrong with the world’s marketing system ? The papers have been full of stories- about the sensational decline in wheat prices. Here are some reports about other commodities: - : _OKLAHOMA — Cotton, which sold for 87.6 cents per pound November 1, 1919, is Rt _ AV PR ST S Yo the government? Read this: selling for 15 cents now.’ 5 <z S ; . WASHINGTON, D. C.—Comptroller of " "MISSOURI—The best tub-washed wool, Thank God, we League farmers still can remedy our wrongs at the which brought $91.91 on the St. Louis mar- ket November 1, 1918, and $70.70 on the same market November 1, 1919, is now selling for $40. For their raw wool the producers are getting an average of $27. : IOWA—Farmers are burning corn instead of coal for fuel. Under present prices a ton of corn is cheaper than a ton of ceal. In addition it is diffi: cult to get coal on account of the breakdown of transportation. : MINNESOTA—South St. Paul stockyards are crowded to capacity with livestock billed to Chicago~ markets. Westetn railroads are dumping the live- stock here, refusing to allow their cars to be used between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Because of the fight between the western and eastern railroads livestock prices have been forced to the lowest point §nyears.. The luckiest shippers are compelled to ‘buy feed for their livestock at stockyard prices fixed by the “Big Five,” while the less fortunate ones are ‘taking heavier losses due to death of their animals, Are farmers justified in holding their crops in the face of these prices? Look at this: WASHINGTON, D. C.—There was a decrease of 19..ner eppt. ot = naid farmers for their They tell us what the ed- - products during the month of October alone, the de- partment of agriculture reports. now approximately at pre-war prices, while the cost of supplies, labor, etc., to raise the 1920 crop were 100 per cent above pre-war prices. Is the 19 per cent reduction in the prices being paid farmers being handed on to the general pub- -lic? Read this: WASHINGTON, D. C.—The department of labor found that in the month of October the average price of food paid by'the .consumer in the United .'States was lowered 3 per cent. What will be the result of forcing the farmer to. sell his products at less than the cost of produc- - tion? These dispatches indicate the answer: OHIO—There was a net decrease of 60,000 men and boys over the age of 15 working on Ohio farms in the last year. For every man who returned to - farm life during the year, seven left the farm, a survey shows. There are now 29,000 abandoned farmhouses in the state, as compared with 18,000 a year ago. ! NORTH CAROLINA — Nearly 1,000 tobacco box,” is the caption that Cartoonist W. C. ballot : Morris sent with this telling picture. growers, representing practically every large to- . bacco-growing county in the state, organized a per- manent tobacco growers’ association pledged to plant no more tobacco until this year’s crop is sold at a profit. : ALABAMA—Southern cotton growers, unable to sell their crops at the cost of production, have agreed to cut their cotton acreage in half and raise on the remaining acreage their own food, being un- able to pay the prices demanded by local merchants. Many daily papers, in their editorial columns, urge farmers to sell their products and take their losses. They say all lines of business have been compelled to do the same. Let us turn to the news ¢olumns of the same papers, especially to the finan- cial columns, and see what we find: : _ WASHINGTON, D. C.— Senate Document No. 259 shows the profit of one coal company during the war was 7,856 per cent. Coal prices now are higher than during the war. o ‘ WASHINGTON, D. C.—The federal trade com- migsion reports that northwestern flour mills made PAGE FIVE , b Farm prices are ' L [ “WE sTILL CAN voTE> | an average profit of 24.4 per cent during the last five years and 44.7 per cent the last year. WASHINGTON, D. C.—Sixteen thousand resi- -dents of the United States report incomes of from $50,000 to $100,000, and 2,358 report incomes of $100,000 to $150,000, while 67 men have an income of more than $1,000,000 a year, according to the latest report of the bureau of internal revenue. The total number reporting taxable incomes were 4,425,- 115, a 25 per cent increase over the previous year. NEW YORK—Net profits of United Cigar Stores <company in August showed an increase of more than 100 per cent over -August, 1919. NEW YORK—The recent $20,000,000 Bethlehem Steel certificates issue was oversubscribed more than two and one-half times. NEW YORK—The Cuba Cane Sugar earned div- idends of- $17.69 a share on its common stock dur- ing the year ended September 30, 1920, as compared with earnings of $7.77 for the previous year. NEW YORK — American Steel Foundries’ net earnings for the nine months ended September 30, 1920, were $6,434,743, as compared with $3,751,659 for the same nine months of 1919. : NEW YORK—Despite price reductions by the so-called “independent” steel com- panies, Judge E. H. Gary announced that “the United States Steel corporation would maintain prices at their present level and _intimated that if any change were made an increase might be expected. NEW YORK—The Burlington railroad plans to issue $60,000,000 stock dividends and $80,000,000 bond dividends to be tributed to its stock and bond holdess ' bonus. : Is the farmer getting any help from the government? - Read these items: WASHINGTON, D. C.—Secretary of the Treasury Houston told farmers the gov- ernment could not possibly lend them money- to hold their crops until they could get the cost of production. HELP FOR BANKERS; NONE FOR FARMERS NORTH DAKOTA — Eighteen banks “have been compelled to close their doors. The state bank examiner announces this is due to the fact that farmers can not sell their crops for enough to meet their obli- gations and also because the federal re- serve board’s ‘“deflation” policy prevents the banks from getting needed credit from the federal reserve banks. . IOWA — Farmers who are borrowers prices, in order to get money into Iowa banks, according to speakers at a group meeting of the State Bankers’ association. Are other interests getting help from the Currency John Skelton Williams ki announced that New York banks which 2 getting millions of dollars from federalr serve banks at rates from 41, to 6 per cent are lending the money out as “call money” to Wall street speculators and getting 25 to 30 per cent for it. WASHINGTON, D. C.—Millions of dollars of postal savings deposits are being loaned to banks at 215 per cent interest. The government borrows this money back from banks for current expenses at 5% and 6 per cent. WASHINGTON, D. C.—~—A government loan of $9,630,000 to the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford railroad has been approved by the interstate . commerce commission. The commission also has approved the extension of a government loan of $1,840,700 to the Erie Railroad company. Don’t you think the government might treat the farmers as kindly as it treats the big bankers and the railroads? Don’t you think that the city papers, that are telling the farmers that they must be content with reduced prices, might spend a little time singing the same song o Judge Gary, the coal barons and the - railroadg? must market their products despite low - i