The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-09-27
HIGH PRICES ARE
 LIKELY TO STAY
Little Present Prospect That End of War Will See Re-
 turn to Old Conditions.

The prediction made by Clarence Poe, editor of The Progressive Far mer, in an article in The Review of Reviews, that the era of cheap food will never return will interest those who have hesitated over their return | ing to the land in the future because of fear that the return of peace would herald a reaction in prices of farm products, and restore conditions un- der which many farmers practically worked for their board, and others were able to show bank balance at the end of the year only by employing 1 their wives and children without wa ges.
 The condition to which reference is made is familiar to all who have Iv- these the farmer who was even we'll to-day was the exception. Lack of accounting system has kept many farmers in ignorance of the fact that they were actually selling their pro- ducts below cost. MT. Poe quotes with approval the striking statement of Ava Agee that our city consumers have been objets of harity," in that
 
 unrewarded labor of women and chill dren on the farms. This expresses in few words the thought which must casting up his profit and loss ac- Icounts.
 The price of farm products will hardly return to the old levels so long as other industries, in the centers of Iy,A ,1o4I fly for the labor of the country. It lis no secret that the chief reason why why the farms have not been able to hold the young men has been that the city offered them the opportunity to earn real wages, and paid them in cash, which were not theirs so long as they remained at home with their
 fathers The recently intensified move ment toward the factories has in creased the desire of young men to
 be financially independent. Wages
 in manufacturing and in other urban
 activities may or may not remain at present levels; that is a question for
 the future to determine. But the
 fact remains that in the readjustment
 of our economic affairs agriculture will be compelled to compete on ba- , sis of fair reward for the labor in- volved. Young men who are figuring on making careers for themselves are
 not going to be drawn into business , which obviously doesn't pay. Only r one alternative to famine would seem
 to be open-such prices for all the : products of the farms as will insure a , profit to the man of industry and ! intelligence, after he has paid fair
 wages to his workmen.
 MT. Poe points out that another req I son why crops were sold below cost
 is teasing to be a reason. It was n that millions of farmers, uncompen- a sated for their labor in the prices ot I their products, were content to keeE e on farming because they were reap
 ing the 'unearned increment in 1an6 : Ivalue.'' He attributes this to the " rapid increase in tenant farming, but : it is probable that there are other req sons. Clearly, however, the tenant il farmer cannot profit from the specu. - lative increase in the value of lant T, owned by his landlord, and he mus : have his reward in fair prices for the crops which he has to sell. The same g condition is likely to prevail as tC = farmers who own their own land, be
 cause there comes a time when ht
 cannot sell for materially more thai
 the price he paid. In many section!
 land values already have come to ! standstill. James J. Hill once point " ed out that "the actual value of tn,
 soil has already deteriorated nor, r. than it should have done in five cen L. turies of use," and Mir. Poe quote d +the late Henry Wallace as saying tha r. much Western land, while advancin, ig threefold in value in thirty years, i al actually producing less corn thai 'r then. S. The full extent of our transforma l. tion from a rural to an urban-dweIl )e ing people is appreciated by only
 few. In 1880 only 29.5 per cent o T. the population lived in cities; in 191 n, the urban population was 46.3 per cent
 of the whole. At present, owing t
 exceptional conditions, proportiO IS credited to the cities must be muc
 greater than that The back-to-th ad land movement, while it depended fo C. stimulus upon sentimental book re which described the beauties of prai h. rie sunsets, and upon theoretica nv works of the little land and a liv ,r, ing" type was a failure. The 1ur It. Idld not endure. Drawing 1ncompe o- tents to the farms was not good bus r. mess, anyway. It is now beginnin i'll to be realized that farming Is Q. call or ing requiring technical skill, bushes
 experience. and considerable executiv
 ability. The kind of man who woul
 make a master farmer could rise t
 the top in other more profitable en
 terprises. And this condition wi
 prevail until the rewards of agricuI
 ture are commensurate with the la is bor and ability involved
 of It would seem reasonable to expec that there will be, at least, no sudde en drop in food prices as whole. s- few commodities may decline, in res as ponse to the law of supply and dc
 mand, but these will be at the e1 we pense of other products. Increase on crop production as a whole will | on necessary to insure against famin
 and this can be insured only by ry suitable reward for the agriculturis -h. The reward must consist, not on ed of better prices, but, as MT. Poe sus ge gests in conclusion, of better cond
 tions of rural living generally. I Ire work out a desirable program is ITS task not beneath the dignity of 1eat