Williams news., 1914-12-03
MARKETING WORLDS
 GREATEST PROBLEM
WE ARE LONG ON PRODUCTION. SHORT ON DISTRIBUTION.
By Peter Radford

By Peter Radford Lecturer National Farmers Union. The economic distribution of farm products is today the worlds greatest problem and the war, while 1t has brought its hardships, has clearly em- phasized the importance of distribu- tion as a factor in American agricul- ture and promises to give the farm CTS the cooperation of the govern ment and the business men the solution of their marketing problem. This result will, in a measure, com l pensate us for our war losses, for the | business interests and government have been in the main assisting al- most exclusively on the production side of agriculture While the depart ment of agriculture has been dumping tons of literature on the farmer telling him how to produce, the farmer has been dumping tons of products in the nations garbage can for want of a | market.
 The World Will Never starve. At no time since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden have the inhabitants of this world suffered from lack of production, but some people have gone hungry from the day of creation to this good hour for the lack of proper distribution. | Slight variations in production have 1 forced a change in diet and one local l ity has felt the pinch of want, while another surfeited, but the world as whole has ever been land of plenty. We now have less than one-tenth of the tillable land of the earth's surface under cultivation, and we not only | have this surplus area to draw on but 1t is safe to estimate that in case of dire necessity one-half the earth's population could at the present time knock their living out of the trees of the forest, gather it from wild vines and draw it from streams. No one should become alarmed; the world will never starve.
 The consumer has always feared that the producer would not supply him and his fright has found expres- sion on the statute books of our states and nations and the farmer has been urged to produce recklessly and with l out reference to market, and regard less of the demands of the consumer.
 Back to the Soil.
 The city. people have been urging each other to move back to the farm, but very few of them have moved. | We welcome our city cousins back to the soil and this earth's surface con- tains- 16,O92, ,160, 900 idle acres of till 1 able land where they can make a living by tickling the earth with forked stick, but we do not need them so far as increasing production is con- cerned; we now have all the producers we can use. The city man has very erroneous ideas of agricultural condi- tions. The commonly accepted theory that we are short on production is all wrong. Our annual increase in pro duction far exceeds that of our in- crease in population.
 The World as Farm.
 Taking the world as one big farm, we find two billion acres of land in cultivation Of this amount there is approximately 75O,OoO.OOO acres on the western and 1,260, 0,000.000 acres on the eastern hemisphere, in cultivation. / This estimate, of course, does not in clude grazing lands, forests, etc., where large quantities of meat are produced.
 The worlds annual crop approxi- mates fifteen billion bushels Of ce- reals, thirteen billion pounds of fibre and sixty-five million tons of meat
 The average annual world crop for the past five years, compared with the previous five years. is as follows:
 Past Half Previous Half Crops Decade. Decade.
 Corn .(Bu) 3,934.1740o0 3.4oS.655, ,0o0 Wheat (Bu.) 3,522, ,769.000 9,257 900 Oats tBu) 4,12O.017OO0 3,50s,S15.0Oo Cotton (Bales) 19,s6S.SO0 17.541 200
 The world shows an average in , crease in cereal production of 13 per cent during the past decade, compared with the previous five years, while the worlds population shows an increase of only three per cent.
 The gain in production far exceeds that of our increase in population, and it is safe to estimate that the farmer can easily increase production 25 per cent if a remunerative market can De found for the products. In textile flores the world shows an increase ), during the past half decade in produc- tion of Is per cent against popula- tion increase of three per cent.
 The people of this nation should address themselves to the subject of improved facilities for distribution. Over-production and crop mortgage
 force the farmers into ruinOuS com.