Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-02-21
Iowa Farmers Not
ProGteering Says
y. S. Department


printed on its front page an article
signed by one OF its stan correspon-
dents. devoted to what purports to
be an exposure of profiteering by
farmers in Iowa. The article Is full
of inaccurate statements and mis-
interpretations of facts. say farm
| management specialists Of the de.
partment of agriculture. These In
accurate statements and misinter.
pretations are not peculiar to the
particular newspaper in question.
They have been made or insinuated
| by considerable number. OF news
papers and other publications. But
! the staff correspondent Of this par
! ticular newspaper Very accommodate
| ingly chose, as the scene OF his story,
| the one place In the United States
| where his statements could be most
definitely disproved by the depart
ment of agriculture. The division of
| land economics, office of farm man
| agement, has just completed q
| study of the recent increase In land
| values in Iowa and is IN position to
| indicate the conditions that actually
! exist in that state.
| Here is a typical paragraph from
| the newspaper article:
Land values all over this agricul-
| tural region have been inflated to a
! preposterous extent. The big boom
| started in Iowa last summer and has
| been booming ever since. Last year
| there was an unprecedented turn
| over in Iowa farm lands and values
were artihCially increased by specu-
| lators to such an extent that land
| formerly selling at $50 an acre found
willing purchasers at $500, $500, up
| to $500 an acre."
"FormerIy" Was Thirty Years Ago.
The most interesting, and appar-
emily the most agile, word OF that
paragraph is formerly" Land was
formerly selling at $50 an acre in
Iowa. But formerly was thirty
years ago. Not since about 1890
have farm land values in that state
ranged anywhere around that figure
| And these lands are not selling at
| $500, $500, and up to $500 an acre,
as the correspondent says. The
average selling price of Iowa farm
! land is not higher than $3.50 to $2I5
| an acre. Out of 1900 instances OF
actual sales on which the depart
ment gathered information. less than
a7 dozen represent prices of $500 and
| less than per cent represent as
much as $500 an acre.
The impression is created all the
way thru the article that the high
prices of food are caused by the high
price OF land. The fact is. however,
that the prices of foods rose and the
rise in land values followed. The
further fact is that if the government
were to take from the Iowa farmers
by taxation nearly all of the net
earnings of farm lands. as sinSie
takers advocate, prices of farm prod
ucts would still be as high as they
are now. unless lowered by some
other cause. Prices Of food products
have moved UP in approximately the
same proportion as general prices
and in response to the same world
wide causes-war scarcities and cur
| rency imitation. If prices of farm
products were to any degree lower
than they are, they would be entire
ly out of line with the prices OF
other products.
How Land Values are Based.
Every economist knows that farm
land values are based on the earn
ing power OF land as manifested,
largely, by its rent, and that the
earning power and rent are the re-
suit of prices of products in relation
to the expense of production. Dur
ing the war prices or food products
rose rapidly, and expense of produc-
ton, for time, did not rise with the
same rapidity. The result was that
farmers made somewhat larger net
earnings than formerly and, conse-
quently, found it possible to pay
more for land than before.
Here are other statements from
the article:
The farmers in this region are
richer today than they have ever
been in their lives, and this means
that nowhere on earth before has the
man who tills the soil profited as
these folks are proflting.
To-day it Is the east which is pay
ing tribute to the money barons Of
the western farms.
Moreover, unless the east keeps
on being held up by the prairie
spectators who have driven the
cost of farm lands up to the absurd
figures, and continues to pay interest
on the watered stock or fictitious
values now represented in these
farms, in the form of abnormal and
outrageous prices for wheat and corn
and meat, the western bubble will
break.
so long as the consumers stand
for being robbed. existing values caa
! be maintained. When the consumers
revolt and refuse to pay. the bubble
will be pricked, and when the ey-
plosion comes, great will be the
casualty list among those arrogan
agricultural gentlemen who now
levy tribute upon the whole world,
High prices of land must be main
tanned or else the bubble Of fictitious
values will burst"
Riches tribute" robbery" and
like words are short enough to serve
and ugly enough for anything, bu,
they have Observation-Disclosures Of being
too indefinite. Fortunately tho facts
are available. One OF the studies
made by the department Of agricul-
ture included group Of s4< farms
in the richest portions Of Iowa. The
average net income Of these farms ir
1918, with no allowance whatever 70,
interest on the investment In land