Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1917-01-05
FARMERS ARE BLAMED
WRONGFULLY CHAR GED
WITH "HIGH COST OF LIV.
ING"
By MASTER c. B. KEGLEY.
(From The Agricultural Grange
NeWS)

OF weights and measures, New York,
is charging the farmer with the
high cost of living" He accuses the
farmer with Understanding the
crop production in order to boost
the prices" Mr.. Hartigan has this
very uncomplimentary remark to
make of the farmer: II DO not
charge the farmers with being out
and out dishonest, but the least that
can be said is their action was un-
patriotic"
Who ever heard before of anyone
charging the farmer underestimate
his crop yield? On the contrary the
farmer is "bear" on the market,
selling his crops seventy times out of
a hundred directly from the field.
This, in effect, is gambling that the
price will not 60 higher and giving
to the bear" on the market the ad-
vantage of immediate delivery to
smash down the price.
Doctor John Dill Robertson, Chi
.cago health officer, stirred to action
by the Jump in the price of eggs,
seized 100000 eggs held in city
storage. This is shutting the barn
door after the horse has been stolen.
To destroy any number of stale eggs
would not have the slightest influence
in reducing the high cost of living,
even though supplemented by the es-
tablishment of a municipal cold
storage plant as Doctor Robertson
proposes.
1t is we'll for those who are
blaming the farmer for the high cost
of eggs to note that these seventy
two million eggs were in the hands
of city spectators. The producers
had sold them at much lower than
present prices, and it is these city
spectators and gamblers who will
profit by the jump in prices, not the
farmer. This Chicago egg case is
typical of the food supply situation
in general.
If Doctor Robertson would propose
municipal marketing, coupled with
the cold storage plant, he would be
hitting somewhere near the remedy
for the ever-lncreasing cost of living.
If all our cities, big and little, would
establish municipal markets, cold
storage plants and slaughter houses;
if, in addition to this, they would
devote special attention to reducing
the cost of distribution between pro-
Queer and consumer and in getting
rid of the gamblers in all the neces-
saries of life, they would produce re-
suits worth while.
This attempt to put the blame on
the farmer for the increase in the
cost of living is ridiculous from the
economic viewpoint, but a national
tragedy when it is seen to be part OF
a movement of the exploiting inter-
ests to make dad blood" between
the city workers and the farmers.
The slogan, Feed America First"
is mighty catching to stampede the
harassed city jewellers to demand an
embargo on food products, and has
all the potency of red flag to bull
to inflame the farmers against the
labor classes and get them to fight
all labor legislation.
Reduced to its last analysis this
plan to place an embargo on food
products means that the farmer is to
be robbed of his share Of prosperity
and made to bear the entire burden
of the increased profits of manufac-
turers and merchants and increased
wages to city workers. The anti
dumping clause in the last revenue
bill will prohibit the sale Of import
ed merchandise and manufactured
articles at a less price than similar
articles manufactured in the United
States, thus requiring the farmer to
continue to pay after the war is
over the enormous war prices now
being placed on our manufactured
articles and merchandise. Provision
has also been made to give our mer-
chants, manufacturers, and bankers
a free hand in combining to capture |
trade, and now these advan- |
tages are to be supplemented by an
on the export of farmers
articles-for wheat,
corn, pork, beef, butter, etc., are his
articles. To place the
product under an embargo
would result in nothing less than
ruinous prices for the farmer, a veri-
table gambling orgy for the food
spectators, and the development of
a spirit of enmity between farmers
and city workers that would take
quarter of a century to heal. This
dividing of the nations workers
would inevitably result in the re-
enforcement of big business, with
increased power to exploit both the
producer and the consumer.
We deny that the farmer is. or has
been at any time for the past forty
years, getting more than bare living
price, and now to place an embargo
on his production would not only be
unjust in the extreme but from the
city workers standpoint the worst or
folly.
III