El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-10-26
FARMER GETS
SHORT END
Of DEAL
Only 35 Cents of Each Dol
lar Consumer of Food
Spends Reaches Producer.
EXTENSIVE SYSTEM"
GETS THE BALANCE
(By Frederic J. Hnskin.


those who looked beneath the
surface of things that something need
ed to be done if the agricultural in
terests of the country were to keep
pace with its other interests. Popula-
ton has been growing by leaps and
/ bounds industries have been expanding
with unprecedented rapidity, and the
I demands for all the things that the
| farmer can produce have been increas-
ing in sort OF. geometric ratio In
the days of Washington 96 out of every
| 100 people in the country were en-
gagged in agricultural pursuits; today
| only 50 out of 100 are so engaged. Then
, the producer sold directly to the con-
! sumner and got all of the consumers
| dollar when he spent it for food; today
an extensive and expensive system of
| distribution has been established
| whereby the farmer, according to the
| experts, gets only IS cents out of each
| 81 the consumer spends for his food.
Farming Is Unremuaerative.
1 The result is that farming, despite
/ all the word pictures to the contrary,
for the vast majority of farmers, is
| most unremuneratiye calling, as well
! as one requiring very long hours and
| much hard work. The farmer must be
l content with the poorest of everything.
The poorest preachesr fill his pulpits,
| the poorest teachers are employed in
| his schools, the poorest roads are the
ones he must travel He receives less
| remuneration for the hours he works
| than any other individual in the body
polite. His children realize all this
/ better than he does, and consequently
/ they seek the city in increasing num-
| bers as urban living conditions for the
| average man improve.
Does Professor Rise at AZ
An illustration of what farming ac-
/ tualIy means to the majority of farm
! ers is illustrated by a bright paragraph
in the leading daily paper of the She
| nandoah valley of Virginia, a region
famous for its farms and farming. A
state normal school has established an
agricultural course, and the paper asks:
Does Mr.. FergusOn'S course in agri-
culture at the State Norman include
rising at o'clock, getting breakfast for
the family, feeding the chickens and
swine. getting children ready for
school, chSlrning, washing, gardening,
carrying water, putting up fruit and
vegetables, getting dinner and supper,
putting the children to bed, making
and mending their clothes, and then
having nothing to do until tomorrow
Majority Have Bare Existence.
The result of conditions such as are
indicated in this query has been that
the decreasing number of farmers in
proportion to population has offset ev-
erything that has been done in the
direction of improved agricultural
methods. It has long been hoped that
the special education of the farmer
would supply the deficiencies of farm
life. 1t is true that such special in
struction has enabled many farmers
greatly to increase the annual produc-
ton of their farms. But the great ma
jority have not had the financial abil-
ity to utilize the knowledge, and so
they have been forced to continue along
in the same old rut of life, with a bare
existence as their portion
Average Farmer No Producer.
The inability of the average farmer
to utilize, under his present hampered
financial condition, the lessons of pro-
gressive agriculture is illustrated by
the fact that although there are many
hon
bushels of wheat where they, formerly
grew Is bushels per acre, yet in 1910
the average farmer was growing only
II bushels to the acre more than in
the years between 1876 and 1885 Like
wise, while there are hundreds of thou
sands of farmers who have increased |
their per acre yield of corn from 40
bushels to so bushels, yet the average |
farmer today gets crop yield only (
two bushels greater to the acre than |
he was getting a quarter OF a century |
No Loans on Land.
Various methods have been proposed |
in the past to remedy the financial i
helplessness of the average farmer, /
IA bushels to the acre and his corn /
crop of p bushels. One of those meth |
DDS was that Of allowing national |
banks to loan money on real estate |
This proposition was repeatedly pro- /
posed in years gone by. but the fed |
many year its discrimination against /
the chief asset of the farmer, his land.
l. has been pointed out that the bank /
ing laws of the past not only have dis
eliminated negatively against the /
farmer, but positively as well. Under
Is percent CT its demand liabilities,
mainly deposits. in cash. It may re-
deposit three-fifths of this reserve with
the city bank which acts as its reserve
agent, and this bank in turn, must hold
of its demand liabilities in |
cash, and is empowered to redeposit
one-half of this with the banks of the /
big cities, New York, st. Louis and
Money Goes to Cities.
The effect of this has been to send
no small part of the money of the
country banks to the big cities. The
result is that in times of urgent de-
mand, the money that the country bank !
ought to have at home for its own peo-
the needs of the patrons of the coun-
try bank cannot be met. It has proved
IN operation system that carries the
money of the country out of its natural
avenues of circulation and into Wall
street for its uses.
It is not believed by many Of those
who have investigated the subject that
{ would be possible to make over the !
present banking system to meet the
financial needs of the agriculturist.
Even a proposition to make available a
quarter of a billion dollars for loans
IN real estate would not, to their minds,
meet the situation. The farmers of the
owe over $4,000, OOC 900, of
which So out of So is secured by real
estate mortgages, and a quarter of q.
billion dollars could not, it is pointed
)ut, begin to take care Of this.
Public School Helps Some.
Summed up, although much as has |
)een accomplished in the United States
4 the direction of the promotion of the |
.gricultural interests of the nation, the /
esults have been but a small percent
ige of what they might be. The pub
ic school has brought a fair degree
# education to farm children, and IN |
Ter the present trend toward revamp- |
ng 1t and making the teaching of agri-
future its principal object, it promises
o prove a great help.
Likewise, the propaganda Of the de- I
Of agriculture has been of |
-reat assistance in what has been ac- |
omplished, and since the beginning |
# farm demonstration work it has |
pened up new possibilities The ex-
mple of the progressive farmer in a
ommunity has carried a valuable les |
on and brought some result to his |
verage nefShbor. But after all. what |
Continued on page 3. this section)