The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-04-26
TOBACCO SITUATION IS IMPORTANT
FACTOR IN ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT

lions of pounds of 1918 leaf to France
this year.
Corn Makes Good Fire.
In any reference made as to get
ting back to normal" let us not con-
slider panic prices. Time was when
Kansas and Nebraska burned corn,
also Iowa, in spots. because corn not
only makes a good hot fire but was
then actually much cheaper than coal
The writer recalls getting into the
warm office of a country hotel one
wintry night, chilled from ride from
station to the hotel. A large box OF
corn stood back of the stove near the
wall and as four or five cold and be-
lated travellers Rugged the stove the
night clerk gathered up an arm-full
of corn and piled it into the stove,
which soon turned to rosy, comfort
ing red.
Should that now seemingly impos-
sible condition ever again confront us
we would not consider we had gotten
back to normal; not by any means.
Millions of eggs have been sold at six
to eight cents a dozen in country
towns. That price will never, in all
likelihood, ever be normal" again in
this prosperous country. Indeed, 1t
Is safe to say that normal prices in
the future will be based on much
higher average level, all along the
line and leaf tobacco is to be no ex-
ception to that general rule. 1t Is
| Just as well to take that fact into
account right now, rather than later;
| II will be better for all concerned in
| the tobacco industry. This, however,
does not mean prohibitively high
prices 1t simply means live-and-let-
| live policy, from cellar to garnet Of
| the entire structure built upon the
seed beds of the tobacco farmer.
Modes Of Living Change.
When the average farmer or coun-
| try carpenter, or what not, could buy
three DOWNRIGHT pounds Of pork
chops for twenty-five cents and could
get enough boiling meat" to full-feed
| a hungry family of fifteen at dinner
| for the same money one might buy all
| the smoking" he could use in a
month for twenty-five cents, or less.
| What tobacco grower got for his leaf
then is no criterion Of its cost and
! real value now. Old things have not
| become new; on the contrary they
| have become obsolete in every depart
| UleUL VI COIllAClSC dAo lAOuoSiy. SAi
! tastes, modes of living, habits OF
| thought and ideas of the indespen-
! sibles to a sane and comfortable exist
! ence have all undergone stupendous
changes and that greatly for the
better There is no discountiRg
! this fact The old pessimist who
wrote that man was made to
mourn" is no longer quoted as an
! authority. The new gospel teaches
. that man was created to enjoy life,
| to be happy, to work under sanitary
and healthful conditions and to have
| time for recreation and rest, aside
| and apart from every duty upon which
| his livelihood might depend.
! The raising of tobacco, we take 1t,
is not a particularly clean, delightful
and easy business, which runs itself.
There is lot of real work and some
little expense attached to getting
rich in tobacco culture, in our judg-
ment. There are all kinds Of weather
and crop vicissitudes to be taken into
account, for the tobacco farmer, like
all other farmers and fruit growers, is
one of the greatest gamblers on earth.
| First of all, he CANDLES with nature;
with weather and seasons, with floods
| and drouth, and lastly with and as to
trade conditions and the whims and
moods of those who SCI price upon
his product.
! Ito be continued)