Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1919-07-04
DIR. sPILLMAN's TALK
INTERESTS FARMERS
(Continued from page ffVe)

care OF the ground ana piaht anu
do all the harvest time work neces-
sary in the raising of so acres OF
wheat. A Missouri farmer can not
afford to remain idle from the 25th
of July until the last of October and
then remain idle again, so he grows
wheat. This wheat does not cost
much. He hes his horses and his
pows and his harrows-he has TO
have them for his corn. Much OF his
time would be utterly lost If he did
not have wheat, if he can make only
10 cents an acre by growing wheat
he is just that 10 cents an acre bet
ter off than nothing When he sells
his wheat at so cents he is making
20 cents per day and it is fair to
say that he is losing $1.25 a day
His time ought to be worth $3.50 u
day. | am considering conditions,
Of course. as they existed before the
war This is why it pays to grow
wheat at cost of $1.25 end sell 1t
at so cents a bushel This is no ar
gument in favor of selling it at so
cents Il bushel, of courGe.
Now, are you farmers going to get
the cost of production for what you
sell? You sell poultry and eggs be-
low the cost of production. You are
doing this end making money out of
it. Your wife and children are do
ing the work. If the chickens were
not there they would not be getting
10 cents day, which they get by
having the chickens. They ought to
have more than that, of course, but
10 cents is just 10 cents more than
nothing.
Let us get together now that we
know how to get the cost of produc-
ton.
Let us get our state agricultural
production figures authoritatively
from you people. How are we 60
ing to get the figures?
There may be a set of people who
say that farmers are a bunch of liars
and we do not believe them. Well,
then, let a college man, a disinter-
ested person, get these correct fig
ures. Your agricultural college can
easily send a man among you and
ascertain the cost of production ex-
pertly, correctly. and then publish
the cost of production and if you
find that you are getting less for
your crops than he firgues is costs to
produce them, that is the very best
argument in the world for raising
prices. / have seen it work
| saw in New oYrk city when the
dairymen went on a strike Cornell
university publish a formula which
enabled anybody to calculate the cost
of producing 100 pounds of milk
The dairymon took the formula, in
serted the prices in it and figured
out the cost of producing milk, and
said, Il ask only for the cost of pro-
duction. We are not asking for any
profit
These city people who are being
asked to pay II cents a quart for
milk which they used to get for nine
cents. 1T looks like we have not
been treating the farmers right,
they said.
Then the dealers came across and
the farmers in New York for the
first time in the history of the dairy
industry are now getting IA price
equal to the average cost of produc-
tiCn.
However, as you see, some one, in
this case disinterested person. set
out to determine the cost of produc-
ton. Let us set together now and
help our agricultural colleges. See
that we get something for this work
and when their representative come
around to you and ask you what
sounds like a lot of fool questions,
answer them civilly. Tell them
what you know. They are going to
ask YOU questions to which you can
give an expert answer. They will
figure out the average cost of pro
duction for the whole region When
you are armed with these figures you
will have no trouble in giving the
city people and the city dealers the
price to which you are entitled and
to which you can prove you are en-
titled.
Farmers today are in very much
the position in which organized labor
was 10 years ago Every different
kind OF labor had its own organiza-
ton. The different organizations
were not worlrino tooa+bor M.