Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1920-04-01
| COOPERATION BIG AID
IN REDUCING H. C. |.
Farm Products Must Be Market
ed More Efficiently and Arti-
fetal Values Discarded.
BY THEODORE MAckLlN,
College of Agriculture of the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin.

price levels and in turn to confuse
| producers seriously.
AS was expected, the great war has
! been the cause Of exceptional price
| changes. Commodities, such as wool,
metals, wheat and hogs which were
needed in carrying on the war, jump
ed to the maximum prices more rap
idly than did vegetables fruits and
other products not Immediately serv-
iceable for the army.
A serious shortage Of the first group
of articles would have been detri-
mental to the prosecution of the war;
They were Immediately in great de-
mand at such high relative prices and
in such large quantities that the farm
ers who could do so were induced to
produce them in larger proportions
than ever before.
The high relative prices for the i'm
mediate army essentials, therefore,
served several needs. The army got
what it needed for the time being and
the production of an adequate supply
was undertaken by the farmers.
Many Lines Overlooked.
With the shift Of farm effort and
industrial application from production
for normal needs to that for unusual
emergency demands, things of later
necessity were overlooked.
Now that the war is over, farmers
are finding themselves face to face
with a chaotic situation in which no
patriotic movement supports the idea
of relatively high prices to stimulate
| the production of normal needs. On
the other hand the popular movement
is persistent in a cry for lower prices
in everything that the consumer has
to buy regardless Of the dispropor-
tomato prices which result.
To further complicate the situation,
producers and laborers are insistent
that what they sell-products on the
one hand and labor effort on the other
shall be increased in price. Facts
to support arguments by those who
sell for advanced prices and by those
who would buy at reduced prices are
evident on every turn.
Neither indiscriminate advances nor
hit-and-miss reductions in prices, how
ever, will serve to solve the problem
Of the hour. A restoration of the
proper balance in relative prices must
be sought and welcomed by producers
and consumers alike before the prob
lem is solved.
Artificial Values to Go.
In order to restore the proper bal
ance in prices the consumer and pro-
Queer must accept the economic facts
which underlie or control prices Of
various products. These prices which
remain higher in proportion than 9th
ers will induce correspondence
higher than normal proportion of pro-
duction. Sooner or later artificial
holding up Of certain prices must fall
to a general level because the increase
in output will lessen the demand in re-
lation to some other products which
are more necessary over longer pc
riod of time.
There are two problems, therefore,
of prices for their products. In the
first instance there must be a restora-
ton, out Of the present chaos, OF
balanced prices for the various agri-
cultural products, not only in proper
ton to each other, but balanced in
respect to the prices of farm machin-
cry, coal, clothes, iron, steel, copper
and so on. This is a national queS-
ton and will work itself out gradual
" as a result Of the accelerating or
retarding influences of the Oversup-
ply or undersupply which prices call
forth. The extent Of oversupply or
undersupply in turn rests upon the ag-
gregate individual judgments Of farm
ers and other producers the country
over.
Cooperation VIII Help.
The second problem has to do with
the proportion Of the new normal
price level which the farmer is to re-
ceive for his share of the work in
creating and placing before the con-
sumer what he buys. In this field CO.
operation Is increasingly uS6Iul
principle, the application Of which
enables farmers, other producers, and
consumers in each case to organize
and either conduct the business of OPP
erations or hire it done; in one
case with worthy savings, in another
with increased and therefore, more
profitable efficiency, or in instances to
supply adequate service where none
previously existed.
It is the duty and privilege Of econ
omists and investigators to ascertain
the facts which must be recognized
and utilized as a basis for successful
" cooperating or otherwise conduct
ing more efficiently the marketing of
farm products. While in a concrete
way there seems to be little that in
dividuals or communities can do to
restore a new normal level of farm
and industrial prices and thereby sta
billie production, there is a great deal
that farmers and investigators can ac-