Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-04
both ends meet.

worth is shown by the following,
which | have taken from a current
issue of Farm and Fireside:
The average farmer in the Unit
Ell States, according to government
figures, tills farm of 13S acres and
There is an average mortgage on this
leverage farm of $1715, bearing an
leverage interest of six per cent. His
gross income is $9S0.55, and out of
this he pays an average expense ac-
count of $340.15. His interest on
the N ortgage averages $105.50, SO
that his income after all charges are
deducted is $537.50. On this he must
live, educate his family, and have
fun"
Please note this is the average for
the entire United States and includes
ali the bonanza farmers and those
exceptionally we'll to do and excep-
tionally we'll situated for securing
large yields and top notch prices. 1t
is an average profit of considerably
less than four dollars an acre.
Certainly with such a showing, it
is folly 10 blame the farmer for the
high cost of living. Measured by
any just standard of a decent wage
for the labor of himself, wife and
family--for they all work-the
farmer has not only no profits, but
he has not even a decent living.
The high cost of living hits the
farmer as heavy blow as it does the
city consumer, but in a different
way and it is important for full
understanding of the problem, to
note this difference clearly.
The high cost of living hits the
consumer in the increased prices he
has to pay for the necessities of life.
The high cost of diving hits the
| Trainer in the miserable wage and
profits he gets for his capital invest
ment and the work of himself and
| family.
The consumer has the crouch, and
rightly so, because of the beggarly
quantity he can get for his money.
The farmer has crouch, and rightly
Sc because of the beggarly amount
of money he can get for the pro-
duce that has caused him such sweat
ard labor. But it is clear that if the
price to the consumer has gone up,
and the producer does not get it,
some one else does.
In the face of these facts it is evil
dent that the place to look for the
| high cost to tho consumer and small
profits for the farmer, is somewhere
! between the farmer and the con-
sumner That is to say the problem
of the high cost of living is not one
of production but of distribution.
| Between the farmer and the city con-
sumer's home there are a lot of mid
dlemen who demand a profit. Seine
of these arc evidently getting more
than formerly, and some of them, as
eliminated as they are of absolutely
no benefit either to the producer or
| the consumer.
To illuminate this question a lit
tie furth ar and show clearly that the
! causes for the high cost of living are
found in the high cost of getting the
goods from the producer to the con-
sumner, let me give you a few facts,
and ask you to consider them in their
relation to each other.
First, we have seen from the gov
eminent reports, that the farmer is
getting a very inadequate profit for
his produce. These governm ent re-
ports show that the farmers in the
rich corn belt of Indiana Illinois and
Iowa only make three and one-half
per cent on the capital invested. Sec
ord, government bulletins show that
the number of meat animals in the
country has decreased since the CEN
sus of 1910, 18,259,000. This is at
the rate of nine beef cattle, seven
sheep, and three hogs, for every hun
dred of population. The bulletin also
announces that even at the present
prices beef raising was Improbable
to the farmer. That the raise in
price of meat animals was more than
made up by the increased cost of pro-
duction.
The third fact want you to par
ticularly note is the announcement
that Morris & Co., Chicago meat
packers, mad paid SO per cent profits
this year
1t does not take very long for the
average brain to realize what these
facts mean. First, meats are going
to be scarcer and higher, and the
farmer is not to blame. When the
farmer finds meat raising, even at
present prices Improbable, when he
can only make profit of three and