Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1910-01-28

5. N. Lyell & Co. Take Issue With
Other Dealers. Who Blame the
Farmer for High Cost of Living.

'drhier ior high IOSt OF Living.
The majority of men engaged in SELL
] ing for profit things ordinary people eat.
| who were asked yesterday to give some
good reason why the prices of meat.
eggs and butter, not to mention other
things, should be as high, exclaimed
without exception, ''The farmer!'' and
they included the exclamation point.
1t seems that the farmer, according
to them, is the villain and, at the same
time, the pet Of the country. He is the
man who raises the cost of living, they
profess, while he exists luxuriously.
Meat is high, the meat men protest
because the farmer gets such a high
price for his grain that hogs and steers
are expensive. Butter is high, the but
ter men exclaim, because the farmer
gets such high price for his grain.
steers and porkers that he buys an auto
mobile and takes il easy instead of
churning batter. And eggs are high.
the egg men proclaim, because the
farmer runs around in the automobile
so much that while the population of
men. women and children has grown
the population OF hens has remained the
same.
when is it all going to stop?'' is
asked of the people who sell things to
eat and, although they say it guardedly
and qualifiedly, what they mean to say
seems to be Break the farmer-take
all his money away. Make him go to
work and raise more grain, feed more
hogs, breed more chickens, milk more
cows. Let him rise with the sun as he
used to do. Let him work until night
as in the good old days-and then we
shall have plenty OF food and lower
prices"
Mr.. John Batter, of Batter Bros,
large butter dealer, when asked to ex-
wholesale, said;
Butter is bringing about 10 cents
more pound than it used to. That is
due to the lack of production. The
country has grown and the demand has
increased, but the production has re-
manned stationary. The farmers are
getting money too easy; that's what is
making the trouble. They get big prices
for everything. A lot of them don't
feel like getting up at 8 o'clock in the
morning and milking go cows before
breakfast. They lie abed until 9 now
and take an automobile ride.
Everything a farmer raises means
big money to him and he takes his
chances on getting the greenbacks out
of the ground and letting hard work,
like Dreaming butter, alone. There is
no butter trust. A number of men meet
in Elgin, Ill, every Monday afternoon
to fix the price at which they will sell
butter and they control q great deal of
1t, but there is no trust. And the people
who sell butter in the local market that
is brought from up the State run along
at the Elgin prices pretty much. -
Baltimore Sun.
BALTIMORE, January %, 1910.
VIRGINIA CITIZEN,
Irvington, Va.
/ notice in today 8 issue CT the "Sun"
replies given by some commission mer-
chants of our city for the high prices
prevailing for meat and other farm
products. / must take issue with them,
for do not believe that the farmersas a
rule ride around in automobiles nor are
they to blame for the high prevailing
prices for farm products. / am glad to
see that he is getting ssome reward for
his life Of toll. For the last twenty-five
years the farmer has barely made his
expenses and that by close economy.
While grain and most of the farm pro-
ducts have been selling at low prices
(up to the present timel he has been
forced to pay high for his labor, and it
has cost him more to support his family
and to run his farm. yet he has been
forced to sell his farm products at prices
that did not pay to produce them.
Another aspect of this situation should
be borne in mind, causing his sons to
leave the farm and seek the city life.
AS soon as his sons have completed
their education father as q rule will
want to know what John had in view.
as to his future, (they having talked
over the result of the farm that father
has been taking care of while they were
at college,. John will say to father:
"Well, there is no money in farming"
so he decides to go to the city. The other
sons follow his example as they arrive
at manhood. Finally the old folks are
too feeble to stay at home on the farm
alone, so they too sell the farm, which
in all probability will grow up in pine
bushes, thus curtailing the supply of
farm products, and as these people are no
longer producers but consumers there
is but one result, viz, less farming and
more consumers of farm products. What
happens. in this case is repeated by
hundreds of other families. With pres
ent good prices prevailing the result is
changed. John. when he returns from
college asks father how he has gotten
along with the farm. Father will answer
that he has made some money, that he
never got better prices for his grain,
lambs, calves, beef cattle, poultry, etc.
John then will say to father, az wish
that you would buy the farm opposite
our home, as am sure that if you have
made money the last year, there is some
money in farming and can make a
success of it, and besides it is much
better for me to have my own farm
than to accept clerkship in some city,"
Millions of Europeans come into this
country every year and farming is being
neglected, consumption increasing and
production diminishing. This is the
cause of high prices, for farm products
and not that the farmer sleeps late in
the mornings, or that he rides in his
automobile.
When the farmers can make money
all other enterprises succeed. Mr..
Jones, a merchant in the village, arrives
in Baltimore and buys his stock of
raj n L a