The Owosso times., 1920-12-10
WASHINGTON LETTER.
A SHAKE-UP is NEEDED.

Washington, Dec. Especial cor
respondence)-With farmers selling
their hogs, cattle, hides and sheep at
pre-war levels, the meat consumers
of the country are still paying war
prices for meat to eat. This situa-
ton arouses State Fair Price Com
missioner Frank B. Mccain, of Penn
sylvahia, to ask, "How long will the
retailer Of beef pursue his profiteer-
ing practices and how long will the
public patiently permit itself to be
plundered by the vendors at retail
of this commodity" The question
is pertinent one and the answer in
wolves much for the future of food
production in the United States.
AS to the general facts, there is
no room for doubt. For months far
mers have been unable to sell their
hides, and according to a recent dis
patch in the Boston News Bureau,
many hide has been thrown away
because it could not be sold. Yet
reduction in the retail price of shoes
is more in the advertisements than
in the prices paid by the wearer.
Farmers are selling their cattle at
less than the cost of the feed taken
to raise them-sometimes for about
half the cost of the feed-yet the
housewife who goes to the market
must pay full wartime prices for a
slice of meat for the frying pan or
a chunk for the roasting oven. There
is possibly a partial defense for the
continued high price of shoes, for
the shoe dealer bought his stock at
previous costs; but meat is a COM
modify that passes from the farm to
the meat block within a very few
days, if not hours. Somewhere be-
tween the farm and the consumer
there is extortion that would put
Shylock to the blush.
The greatest evil of this situation
lies not in the wrong to the present
producer or the present consumer,
but in the certainty that such a con-
dition will curtail production of food
animals and bring on shortage
later-a shortage that will mean not
only want of food but industrial loss
incident to under-production The
farmer who finds livestock unprofit-
able in year when city consumers
are paying from 80 cents to a dollar
a pound for various cuts Of meat, will
see little hope for the future of his
industry. He will sell his breeding
animals in order to avoid further loss,
and the nation will suffer from the
diminution Of supply.
Naturally the farmer charges his
loss to the man to whom he sells, for
he expects the buyer to pay him the
price commensurate with the price
the consumer pays. Whether the
buyer from the farmer is in fact at
fault, may be a question, but there
is no doubt that large part of the
farmers resentment is against the
man with whom he directly deals.
That man, therefore, in his own flu
ture interest, owes it to the farmer
to help locate the actual point of pro-
fiteering and help remedy the situa-
ton.
To some extent, as intimated by
Mr.. McClain, the consumer has it in
his power to bring down the price
of meat by refusing to buy at the
prices charged, but that movement
would be of no help to the farmer,
who must have living price or go
out Of business. There is a double
problem presented-to adjust the in
termediate margins of profit in such
a manner as to enable the farmer to
get back the cost of production and
a fair profit, and enable the con-
sumer to get meat at considerable
price.
Until the responsibility for the
of prices is definitely
fixed, both farmers and consumers
will look with suspicion upon all who
handle the commodity from the time
it leaves the producer until it reaches
l.