The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1919-10-10
FARMERS AND PRICES.

FARMERS AND PRICES.
While, as the Saturday Evening
Post remarks the dollar ar hour, eight
hour a day laborers have obtained
some relief from the reduction in the
prices OF the products of the thirty
cents an hour, twelve hour day farm
er, it is idle to expect that people VINO
are contributing to the increased cost
OF living through excessive demands,
are going to be able to secure any pre-
manent relief through that method.
The sooner this fact Is appreciated
the better it will be for all.
When the drive against the cost OF
living started with many spectacular
pyrotechnics upon the part of the adj
ministration, The Herald insisted that
symptoms were being mistaken for
causes and that the efforts of the gov
eminent were largely misdirected.
Subsequent events have abundantly
justified its position. 1t is true that
hogs have declined thirty-ive per
cent, that corn has dropped forty per
cent and various other products OF
the farm have gone down proportion
ately. But this situation cannot go
on for ever. The farmer alone cannot
bear the excessive cost of production
and at the same time furnish cheap
food for the world.
A drastic reduction in the prices OF
farm products, without any cores
ponding reduction in the expenses OF
producing them, will inevitably re-
duce production. The world needs in
creased production. 1t must be stimu
lated and not discouraged. But under
present conditions the very opposite
must occur. Decreased production
means an increase in price. The farm
er can produce foods cheaper provided
the prices of the things that enter into
the cost thereof are reduced proper
tionately. But that has not been the
case. While loudly demanding cheap
err food the man who is getting twice
as much as he did five years ago is
threatening strike and revolution I'M
less he is given still more.
The suggestion is often made that
the farmers can reduce the cost OF
production through the use of machin-
cry. But machinery costs money 1t
Is true that it saves some labor, but
amount to equip small farm with its
full complement of labor saving ma
chinery involves an expenditure that
is not always profitable. Moreover
there has been no suggestion OF de-
crease in the price of machinery and
implements which cost twice what
they did a few years ago. Very few
farmers have the capital to make the
investment and if they did they are
entitled to an interest return thereon
The farms of the country have been
denuded of their best labor. They
have been attracted to other and
more profitable fields where produc
ers and manufacturers pay higher
wages than the farmer can afford, be-
cause the manufacturer can protect
himself by increasing the price of his
product by the added labor cost. This
the farmer cannot do. He must sell
at what is offered him and buy at the
price asked him by those who have
goods to sell. He does not fix the
price either Of what he sells or what
he buys. In no other industry is this
true.
II will be unfortunate il through the
one.sided efforts of those who are d.
recting the campaign against the high
cost of living the production on the
farms should be decreased. There is
a great shortage of food stuffs in the
world. But it is too much to expect
the farmers alone to furnish relief
from the present cycle of higher
wages and then higher cost of produc-
ton and again increased wages to
cover increased cost of living.