The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-04-02

of "a. 20 II made i very clear to ia
ts2stt Had liz 81: assu!i'to an la,.',:ti,
Ga:..l,t = ;,tffe... .5e IL tbs i, i:t:,l !. ~
! l., fflct. :re::.;rea i re!:or.. te be .sio
nitted to the pricc-6xing con1mitte'
with Idr. fiouston'.; consent. but y 'se'
it came t:r.e 70 present this reDors al
! Houston was conveniently out OF towI
and could not learn where he was.
therefore presented the report in per
son, and without his permission. The
price trgd upon the committee was
$3.50. for at that time farmer couit
get $2.2S for his wheat by feeding i
, to hogs. and l argued that any price
ibeiw S2.2S would induce many farmers
TO feed their wheat, result which &C
atually occurred.
The Secretary further stated at this
interview that he had made thor
ough investigation of the whole sub
ject OF cost OF production on the farm
and that there is nothing to it. He
described his thorough investigation
as follows: He had visited a cousin OF
his on a farm in North Carolina and,
had asked him the cost Of producing
cotton. Well replied the cousin.
last year had the same acreage OF
cotton as this; I used the same amount
of labor and fertilizer; my expnses
were, in fact the same for two years.
Ia one of these years I made half a
bale To the acre and in the other three
quarters Of a bale. David, there is no
such thing as the cost of producing
cotton
3. This. thorough investigation"
which may say is quite character
istic of the worthy Secretary, had con-
y;nced him of what he wanted TO be-
lievc, namely. that there is no such
thing rs the cost of production.
Mr.. Houston then said: The farmer
is not entitled to any information on
the subject OF cost Of production. His
business is TO produce. The only use
ever made Of such Information is for
agitators like this man Baer, Of North
to go out and stir the farmers
up with it, He then ordered me in
the most positive terms to stop ali in
vestigations dealing with the cost Of
The next day I received from the
an unsigned letter, sent os-
that ! might suggest any
make it effective. the first sentence of
which began: According to the agree
nent Gtalics mine) we reached in our
yesteray, the following
projects in your Office will be diScon-
.inuee. He then went on TO erume-
cate, by number, every one Of our pro-
ects dealing with cost Of production,
including nearly half the work Of the
ofice. I sent q note to the Secretary.
reminding him that these particular
had been requested by
he Federal Trade Commission. but
le did not deign to reply to this; note.
Under the circumstances we were
compelled to desist from such of this
work. as required new letters Of au-
I Immediately resolved to leave the
department. so as to be N position TO
.orce the Secretary 10 chanseselis
mind about this work.-as swcli as other
work oflthe Of1ice@of Farm Manage
nent which .hezhad discouraged from
irst. 1t was not until June following
hat I was able to complete these ar
:aggements Meanwhile. early in Jan
1ary. nineteen hundred and eish-
cen. Mr.. Z. c. Lasater came to i:,y
office and inquired as to the progress
of the cost OF production studies. ]
old him the situation. and he sug-
sested that if 7 would wait little. he
could render some assistance. I told
1im his help would be welcome.
About the middle of January. nine
cen hunrdced and eighteen. the Sec
.etary received a telegram from Mr..
Ike Pryor. president Of the American
National Livestock Association, read
ns substantially as follows: The
American Livestock Association in scs-
sion at Salt Lake City, would like to
know the status of the Investigations
IN cost of producing beef being con-
sroted by your office Of Farm Man
agement. Please wire reply IN
Tine for me to read, it to this
before it adjourns to-mor-
row at four thirty" This telegram
was sent to me to prepare a reply for
he Secrctary's signature. l prepared
substantially the following: The in
on cost of production re-
ferred to in your telgram have been
greatly extended and are being push
I'd vigorously. A report on them Will
be ready by the first Of July.
About ten minutes after sent this
TO the Secretary's Office Mr. Harrison,
secretary 20 Secretary Houston, called
me over the phone and said. as nearly
as can remember: "Spiilnlan, what
in hell do YOU mean by sending tele-
gram like this over here for the Secre-
tary TO sign, You know damned Well
he has ordered all those Investigations
Yes" 1 replied, Il know
he has ordered them stopped. but l
have a suspicion he IS going TO order
them started again What tGo you
mean by that" responded the astoand-
Cd Mr.. Harrison. Il mean just what
the words imply" was my rejoinder
"i:ut the telegram isn't l-ue.' insisted
Harrison 1t Will be true when lhe
Secretary has signed it replied.
But he wont sign il, said Harrison.