The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, April 4, 1921, Page 8

What Is the Matter With Farming? Nation Th;eatened With Disaster Unless Faulty Conditions Are Remedied, BY HENRY C. WALLACE Secretary of Agriculture DOUBT whether the people of the East realize just what has happened to the farmers of the producing sec- tions. We have the finest rural civi- lization, taken as a whole, the world has ever seen;_our farmers average very high in intelligence; they produce more per man than almost any other farmers in the world; they have adopted the most advanced system of ex- tensive farming yet developed.. Notwithstanding all this they are now in a most trying period and are suffering severe financial losses. There are two causes for this widespread agri-' cultural depression. One is the high cost of pro- duction last year. The second cause of the farm- er’s trouble is this: Prices of farm products have dropped out ‘of all proportion to the prices of other things, as well as out of all proportion to the cost of production. Now note the prices of some of the things the farmer must buy: Wages of farmhands are about 100 per cent above the pre-war normal, railroad rates are from 70 to 90 per cent above pre-war normal, such basic commodities as pig iron, coke, petroleum, lumber, Portland cement, are far above the pre-war normal—from 100 to 150, and in some cases, 200 per cent above the pre-war normal. In other words, while the farmer is selling the things he produces at prices no higher, and, for great surplus crops, lower than the pre-war normal, he must buy practically everything- he needs at prices from 50 to 150 per cent above the pre-war normal. The severe agricultural depression is in- evitable as long as such a condition exists and this depression will certainly be communicated to indus- try and business generally. PRESENT CONDITION A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT OF OUR CIVILIZATION It is a situation which should challenge the very best thought of the entire nation. If it continues the trouble will be communicated to every one. The farmers represent probably 85 to 40 per cent of the population. Anything which seriously affects their buying power will bring trouble to the people who make or deal in the things the farmer buys. It is a terrible indictment of our modern civili- zation when this great country is in the period of what almost might be called economic chaos because of our great surplus food supply, while across the seas, in both directions, almost half the world is suf- fering for want of food. If our statesmen had given more thought to getting the world back on a sound economic basis, and perhaps had spent less time on idealistic- schemes and theories, they would have rendered a greater contribution to the peace and or- derliness and happiness of the people of the earth. Now, as to this present situation, surely the duty of the department of agriculture is evident. We should do everything possible to find an outlet for this great food surplus. We should searck for ways to produce more cheaply. Our scientific men should try to find new uses for our surplus crops. We should help develop more efficient marketing sys- .-tems, straightening curves and lowering the grades between the producer and the consumer. It is a time for every man who can help to take hold. As in the days when we dragged our fire engines by hand to the scene of the fire and every good citizen rushed out and took hold of the long rope and did his bit, so we must do now. Every good citizen, no matter in what business he may be engaged, should do what he can to help the farmers through this period of depression, not for the sake of helping the farmer alone, but for the sake of helping himself. 4 THE NATION’S PROSPERITY DEPENDS UPON THE FARMER’S WELFARE ‘We can not hope to reach normal conditions until we arrive on a price level which will be fair to all our people and all products. Farm products must come up in price and other products come down until the normal relation between them has been restored. This talk of bringing prices, whether farm prices or other prices, back to the pre-war normal is morally wrong and economically impossible. We incurred a heavy national debt on the inflated prices. If we could force all prices back to the pre- war normal—which we can not—it would be equiva- . lent to just about doubling that debt. We can pay off our debts much easier if we maintain a price level more nearly the level at which the debts were incurred. Of course, the excessively high prices which prevailed during the war can not continue, but if we should try to bring about a level, say 70 per cent above the pre-war normal, everybody would be better off. ; : We will get through this period. The nation is not going bankrupt. “The f4rmers are not going bankrupt. Neither are they going to lie down on their job. Gradually farm prices will be brought into fair relation -with other prices and we will go ahead hitting on all cylinders. But there is another _thing, in the long run a more important phase of our agricultural problem, which we have been slow . “GOSH, THAT LEAGUE DIES SLOW” e %;—u\} 2 4”:6,;:'» @ 2 \ (A AT 7/ 7 ey gl 1' A ,'.9%";\ i i v “; "‘%{’;’ % J i1 77 NIRAK 1 Witz 42N Ever since the Nonpartisan league was organized in 1915 opposition newspapers have announced, every few weeks, that the farmers’ organization was “dead” or “practically dead.” But the vultures and buz- zards, as Cartoonist Morris shows, are having a weary wait. Far from being dead, the success of the League is causing more public men every day to admit the truth and justice of the rinciples for which the League has been fighting for six years. PAGE EIGHT" i s e Says New Secretary of Agriculture . Since 1915 A. C. Townley has been tell- ing the farmers of the - West these facts: 1. That farmers have been con- stantly selling their products at less than the cost of production. 2. That the farmer must have a voice in fixing the price of his product if he is to pros- per. 3. That manipulation by market gamblers and other financial interests has kept farm prices below the cost of production. For calling the attention ° of the farmers to these facts Mr. Town- ley has been called a falsifier, an agita- tor and a disloyalist, and has-been threatened, arrested and persecuted. It is interesting now to note that no - less a person than the new secretary of agriculture makes exactly the same charges in his inaugural statement. Farmers throughout the nation . will take a keen interest in watching what Secretary Wallace does - to remedy these abuses. in considering. Let me sketch briefly the develop- ment of our agriculture.' : The farmers of the United States during the past 70 years have, on the average, produced and sold grains and livestock at less than the cost of pro- duction if we take into consideration all the factors which properly enter into production costs. What I mean is that if the farmer would practice a sound system of business economy, charging a fair inter- est on the capital invested, both in his farm and his farm equipment, a fair wage for the actual labor - expended on the farm against his receipts from the marketing of his crops it will be found that he has not received for them enough to cover his actual costs. We will omit the value of the fertility of his soil which is, in effect, a portion of his capital and which he has marketed in his. crops but which we will simply throw in for good measure, although this must be replaced if crop production is to be maintained. WHY THE FARMER HAS BEEN “ABLE TO EXIST” IN THE PAST The farmers have been able and willing to sell their crops at less than the actual cost of produc- tion because, first, they have been willing to accept the value of the farm as a home, as a place to raise their children, as a part of the substantial reward for their work; and, second, because as our popula- - tion has increased there has been a steady increase in the value of the farm land. In times past, there- - fore, the young farmer who could get enough ahead to make a very small payment on a piece of land— - enough to give him a foothold—and who had a lot of hard work in him, and who had. a good wife, as most of them have, has been able, by living very - economically, denying himself and his wife the- luxuries and many of the comforts of life, to hang on, paying out on the farm and finally to see it growing into a valuable piece of property. During all this period we have been a great sur- plus food producing nation. We have grown more food than our own people could consume. As a re- sult we have had to compete with the farmers of the world in .the great consuming .markets and take prices fixed by that competition. : ) The steady increase in the value of our land and the relatively low prices for farm products has caused a constant drift of young farmers to the towns and cities where they thought they could se- cure better pay for their labor and could see better - opportunities to advance themselves in a material . way. In.some of our heaviest producing states there are not as many people on the farms today as there were 30 or 40 years ago. This movement from the farm to the city has been a perfectly nat- ural Ymovement and fully justified by 'conditions. It will continue as long as the cities offer greater financial rewards,- greater opportunities for ad- vancement, more comfortable living conditions, and better social, educational .and religious privileges.