Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-06-18
ara sunnosed to sneak

! ting agriculture back where II be-
longs in this country is an education
al campaign to show that the farmer
/ is just as much entitled to profit as
anybody else. 1t is time to disabuse
the public mind of its delusion that
every farmer is a hayseed and that
every hayseed ought TO be an eco
nomic slave.
The next thing is to bring Wash
ington to All understanding of the
fact that the nation s. farms are still
far and away the greatest asset the
nation has, and that it is just as es-
sential to be concerned about the
farmer getting a good price for his
crops as it is to see that the union
workman gets so many dollars for
eight hours work, together with
compensation insurance and a multi
tude of other benefits. The business
world rejoices when American steel
is sold for a good price in Argentina
or anywhere else, and the business
world should rejoice equally when
American cotton or American wheat
brings a price in foreign markets
that enables the producer in this
country to earn reasonable profit.
Down in Texas some of the oil
| ~, a oro quito n banonoo
they have discovered that they can
bring in peanuts and soya beans from
| the Orient at a lower price than that
reigning in the American market
They say they are going to import
great quantities of these oil-bearing
materials. The American farmer is
just as much entitled 20 protection
against the cheap farm labor of the
Orient as the American manufacturer
| is against the pauper labor of Europe.
! If Chinese peanuts can beat Amer
lean peanuts down to the point where
the American can no longer compete
and earn decent profit, there ought
to be tariff on Chinese peanuts,
and it ought to be stiff one.
The case is merely typical A year
ago, for instance, Washington per-
mitted the British to unload great
quantities of Egyptian cotton on the
American market, with the result
that American high-grade cottons
were depressed in price until they
sold below cost of production. Yet
all the time the government was
Withholding from the market great
quantities of it's own war materials
in order not to break prices. That is
the kind of treatment the farmers
have been getting from Washington
right along for more than half a CEN
fury. That is why they need group
representation at the capital. They
have been neglected because they
permitted themselves to be neglected.
The boil weevil has cost the ma
ton hundreds of millions or even
billions of dollars, but whenever it is
proposed in congress to appropriate
few millions with which to combat
the pest, there is an immediate pro-
test from senators who have been
taught from infancy to believe that
no farmer is entitled to any consid-
Grafton.
There would be plenty of money
available for fighting the boil weevil
and the corn borer and other destruc-
tive agents if there were groups in
the house and senate definitely com
mitted to the protection of the agri-
cultural interests of the United
States.
Today the factories are robbing
the farms. There is no equality of
attraction in wage or hours. Men
who labor long and sweat much in
the open fields can make far more
money by laboring little and sweat
ing less in the manufacturing estab-
lishments. So they go to the fac
tories. The drain is steady one, so
steady that already it threatens the
nation with an absolute food short
age. AS a people, we are getting
perilously near the rocks, and we
are going to run afoul of them UNI
less we turn honest and give the toll
er in the fields a fair show.
We suggest to Secretary Meredith
that he do not content himselr mere
ly with popularizing his department.
W. h