Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-01-31
UNREST AMONG THE
 FARMERS REACHING
 AN ALARMING POINT
Many Contemplate Leaving or Cutting Acreage, Off,
 cial Says
MIDDLEMEN, LABOR
 CHIEF GRIEVANCES
Lack of Proper Agencies Between Farmer and the Ultimate Con- sumner Also is Cause for
 Complaint

Washington, Jan. 0.-Indication of a wide spread spirit of unrest and : dissatisfaction among the farmers of the country, so threatening as likely | to disturb the existing economic structure is considered by govern mcnt officials to be revealed in more than 10000 replies to a questionaire recently sent out by the post office department.
 The replies as thus far digested were summarized in a report pre- pared by George L. Wood, superin- tent of the post office departments division of rural mails, and read to the senate post office commission today by James I. Blaksley, fourth assistant postmaster-general. The views of the 40,000 or more farmers were obtained by the broad casting of 100000 copies of questionaire throughout the agricultural states asking for suggestions, whereby the post office department might aid in cutting down the cost of living.
 Answers to the questionaires as summarized by officials, show the major complaints of the farmers in numerical order to be:
 Inability to obtain labor to
 work the farms, hired help and
 and the farmers children having,
 been lured to the cities by high
 CT wages and easier living;
 High profits taken by middle
 men for the mere handling of
 food products; and,
 Lack of proper agencies of con-
 tact between the farmer and the
 ultimate consumer.
 Monv of tho rac1.ac off cial who had looked over them, prob- ably as many as fifty per cent, indi- cate that the writers contemplate either leaving their farms or cur tailing acreage under cultivation, be- cause of one or more of the three major grievances and because of the growing feeling against non-produc- ing city dwellers.
 Commenting tonight on the replies Assistant Postmaster General Blaks- lee said:
 Such condition at a time when the predominant cry is for produc- tion and still more production, can- not but constitute grave menace"
 EXcerps from number of letters, taken at random from the more than 10000 already on file at the post office, showed the trend of thought ar,ong at least a considerable pro- portion of the farmers of New Eng. land, the middle western states, Georgia, and the eastern agricultural section.
 "The time is very near," wrote a farmer at East Chatham, N. Y., "when we farmers will have to curtail pro- duction and raise only what we need for our own use, and let the other fellows look out for themselves. La- bor unions are more to blame for the high prices than any one else. Peo- pie are trying to get pay for what they don't earn"
 Declaring that the whole bonus of the high cost of living rests with the middlemen, Missouri producer advocated the establishment of ,nu- nicipal markets to be served by par eel post direct
 "I sell butter to the dealer for 45 cents pound" his letter said, "and the same butter sells to the consumer for 80 cents pound. In the distribu- tion we lose nearly half and We lose money on the butter at the first price. Such conditions are causing the farmers to leave the farms by the thousands. We have reached crisis. You may ask what we would do with the middleman. will sug- gest that it be arranged for them to go on the farm and help produce things. I understand that they might not relish working fourteen hours a day."
 "The time is coming, if not here," another letter declared, "when the consumer and the farmer will abso- lutely have to deal direct with one another. The middlemen want larger profit than we are getting, while at the same time the farmer does the hard work"