The Washington herald., 1920-12-31
RFDTTS BOARD
taN SAVE CROPS,
SAYS SENATOR
Urges Cooperative Buy
ing and Revival of War
Fiscal Body.

4 Senator Arthur Capper. Of Kansas,
gave out q statement yesterday for
publication in which he urged CO.
operative markets as an aid 70
ec6nomic readjustments. The state
ment follows:
VFarmers are being forced to sell
- products. wool. cotton and hides
at losses that will total $4,000, oo.ooo
this year, yet middlemen's profits
have kept up prices to such an ex-
tent that the public is compelled to
pay almost as much as before
I'VE have the most expensive and
inefficient marketing system in the
world. Labor costs which dealers
and merchants are making the ex-
ease for continued high prices are
but a cover for continued extortion:
ACo-operatiye markets Will anord
the only practical relief to the con-
sumer. They saved Europe from
complete collapse, and would save
the people of America billions or
dollars year In middlemens pronts'
During the Investigation Of the
: high cost OF living. which the Sen
ate conducted recently. It was found
a DuSn6l VI PONalCCo ANA
n farmer in Michigan received VI
was sold for 81 to IS in Washington.
we traced many sales The
farmer sold to the village dealer.
The agent of q Detroit buyer TOOK
the potatoes. The buyer sold them
10 a commission agent from WASH
ineton- The Washington whole
saler sold them to the retail dealer.
Each of these six men OF course
took their commission
The week of November 10
broke all records for shipments at
ths- Chicago stockyards- Farmers
dumped 1l1,sss head of cattle in
ak days, including thousands OF
breedlng animals. The producer In
rnany recent instances has received
cents per pound for his cattle
xeFertheless, the consumer still
says from Is to ~ cents per pound
fer bis steak.
Takes Loss on sheep
"A wyoming sheep man recently
paid s21o in freight to ship each
head of sheep to Kansas City where
he was paid s1.75 per sheep, a net
loss of IS cents. on the freight
alone, not counting the cost of
raising the sheep. Naturally he is
being forced out of business, yet
there Is scarcely any noticeable der
cline In the retail prices of food
"One Kansas farmer took a load
of twenty-five bushels Of corn to
his local elevator the day before
Thanksgiving to get his wife a pair
of shoes. He also took along the
hide of q beef. He got $3.50 for
for an ordinary serviceable pair of
woman's shoes he had to pay so.
This Is a homely example of what
Is 1happeaing throughout the coun-
Try Two young farmers at Hick-
OK Point, Tenn, killed a couple of
calves IN November. The two hides
weighed -4olS pounds. They paid
slsss to ship them to st. Louis. and
after the hides had been sold and
all expenses paid one man got back
eleven 2-eert stamps and the other
received % cents in stamps.
Two ounces have been added to
the loaf of bread in my home town,
and more than S1.25 a bushel has
been taken from the price of wheat.
aud IS cents a bushel from corn
between June 1 and December 1.
"a few months ago thirty bushels
of"corn would buy a good suit OF
clothes. Now, even with the small
cut In clothing prices. 1t requires
olore than 100 bushels of corn to
eqY the same suit. A bushel of
wheat would buy ten gallons OF
gasoline last June. 1t will buy little
more than five gallons now.
Agriculture Choked.
Lack Of credit is choking agricul-
tuFe to death. Farmers from almost
every State in the West and Middle
West have written to me In the last
few weeks complaining that they
cannot get credit under any con-
ditions-
Congress must solve this problem,
and as one remedial measure 1t
must re-establish foreign trade re-
lations 50 that our surplus crops,
livestock and cotton may find a
market. In considering measures
the War Finance Corporation should
be authorized to resume operations
at once. There is no other, way to
market the 100000 bales of this
years cotton crop and our other
great surpluses."