Cavalier County farmers press. (Langdon, N.D.) 1920-1921, 1920-08-19
PRODUCTION ON
FARM IS VERY
uNSC|ENT|F|C
Puderbaugh Favors Cost Com.
mission To Aid AgricuI-
turalist In Work.
(By H. c. Puderbaugh, Deputy Commits
sioner of Agriculture and Labor)

(By H. Z. P~uderbaugh, Deputy Commits
sloner OF Agriculture and Labor)
1t is remarkable, when you stop to
think Of it, that the farmers of the
United States have been struggling
along, producing commodities for the
market. which is the most essential
business in the country, Cor any coun-
try for that matter), without having
obtained any adequate idea of the
cost of producing such commodities.
From time immemorlal the farmer
has sOwn in the springtime, harvested
in the fall or winter, all the time in
blissful ignorance of the various ele-
ments of cost that entered into the
making of the crop or whether he
could go on producing and selling at
the figure offered and prosper. He has
never been in the slightest degree a
factor in setting the price at which the
commodities should be sold until very
recently, and then only slightly. How
ever, he is making good progress and
in the near future he may expect to
achieve good and lasting results.
Ancient Parasite and Modern Slicker.
The peasant has long been consid-
cred as an inferior being and in an
cient times the divine right parasite
considered it as one of his God given
privileges to rob and and enslave him.
Later came the commercial slicker,
who considered it his privilege to keep
the peasant in Ignorance and then take
advantage, of that Ignorance to get
possession of his products at a very
small fraction Of their real value. He
called, that trade" and the transac-
ton business" and himself a ''busi-
ness man. He considered that if the
farmer had a living, and brought up Il
large family to follow blindly in the
fathers footsteps, that vas all he was
entitled to get and he was lucky to
get even that.
Things have changed somewhat, but
we still have the class of commercial
lists who consider themselves superior
to the farmer and who are still trying
to keep the farmer from having any
adequate idea Of the cost of produc-
ton. Their only interest in the farm
err is, that the production be kept up
so that they may have them to handle
for profit, and if the farmer only re
ceives a mere existence as his share,
| we'll, that is no concern of theirs.
These gentry have always accused
the tillers Of the soil Of being ignorant
and inefficient, but to acquire the cum
ming Of the commercialist OF today
does not require more extensive
knowledge Of mathematics, than to en-
able one to compute percentages and
add "all the traffic will bear" Ana,
while they have been accusing the
farmers Of being ignorant and inetfi-
Gent what agencies have been inter
ested In giving the farmer any definite
knowledge Of the factors which 60 to
make up the cost, necessary to inteili-
gent production and marketing?
Cost Studies Not reported.
Several years ago the United States
government appropriated funds to en-
able the department Of agriculture to
make extensive studies OF the cost OF
producing all classes Of farm products.
and today they + still studying. but
have not yet reported. After several
years Of investigation 1t was discoy-
cred that the facts disclosed were all