The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1920-08-12
PRODUCTION ON
farm IS VERY
uNSC|ENT|F|C
Puderbaugh Favors Cost Com
mission TO Aid Agricul-
turaIist In Work.
(By &c. Puderbaugh, Deputy Commits
!. sioner of Agriculture and Labor)s

United States have been struggling
along, producing commodities for the
market. which is the most essential
business in the country, Tor any couR-
try for that matter), without having
obtained any adequate idea Of the
cost Of producing such commodities.
From time immemorlal the farmer
has sOwn in the springtfme, harvested
In the fall or winter, all the time in
bl1ssful Ignorance of the various ele-
ments Of cost that entered into the
making of the crop or whether he
could go on producing and selling at
the figure offered and prosper. He has
never been in the slightest degree a
factor in setting the price at which the
commodities should be sold until very
recently, and then only slightly. How
ever, he is making good progress and
IN the near future he may expect to
achieve good and lasting results.
Ancient Parasite and Modern Slicker.
The peasant has long been consid-
cred as an inferior being and in a
cient times the divine right parasite
considered it as one of his God given
privileges to rob and and enslave him.
Later came the commercial slicker,
who considered it his privilege to keep
the peasant in ignorance and then take
advantage of that ignorance to get
possession Of his products at a very
small fraction Of their real value. He
called that trade" and the transac-
ton business" and himself a ''busi-
ness man. He considered that if the
farmer had a living and brought up a
large family to follow blindly in the
entitled to get and he was lucky to
get even that.
Things have changed somewhat, but
we still have the class of commercial
lists who consider themselves superior
to the farmer and who are still trying
to keep the farmer from having any
adequate idea of the cost of produc-
ton. Their only interest in the farm
er is, that the production be kept up
SO that they may have them to handle
for profit, and if the farmer only re-
ceives a mere existence as his share,
well, that is no concern of theirs.
These gentry have always accused
the tillers of the soil of being ignorant
and inefficient, but to acquire the cum
ming of the commercialist of today
does not require a more extensive
knowledge of mathematics, than to en-
able n to compute percentages and
add "all the traffic will bear" And,
while they have been accusing the
farmers of being ignorant ana ineffi-
~cient what agencies have been inter
ested in giving the farmer any definite
knowledge of the factors which 60 to
make up the cost, necessary to intelli-
gent production and marketing?
Cost Studies Not Reported.
Several years ago the United States
government appropriated funds to en-
able the department of agriculture to
make extensive studies of the cost of
producing all classes of farm products,
and today they are still studying, but
have not yet reported. After several
years of investigation it was discov-
cred that the facts disclosed were all
wrong and that they would have to
have another appropriation and a new
cost commission to do the studying,
and in the meantime the farmer can
farm and wait the sweet will of the
U. S. department Of agriculture.
However, I happen to be personally
acquainted with one of the ablest of
the men who were engaged in making
those studies, who says they were not
so badly wrong from the farmers point
of view, but radically wrong from the
standpoint of the interest Of certain
large business concerns, which deal in
farm commodities.
The head of the department at that
time is reported to have said shat the
farmer was not entitled to that infor-
nation, that the farmers business is
to produce and not be bothering his
head about the market Did the in
formation gathered reveal a cost so
much higher than the selling price
that they did not dare to make it pub
lie?
I believe this information obtained
at so much expense Of time and
money, was deliberately denied to the
public.
The probabilities of getting the IN
formation that will apply definitely to
North Dakota, from a general survey
made by the department of agriculture
at Washington, is, in my opinion, too
remote to be depended upon. This
data is very essential to the farmers
Of North Dakota, and, II made avail
able soon, may be the means Of saving
the farmers of the state millions OF
dollars on the farm products that may
be , marketed between now and the
time when the y. s. department Of
agriculture chooses to make its figures
public.
We insist that this knowledge IS just
as essential to the farmer as like. In
formation IL It'd any one In any bust
ness who desires % conduct his busis
s roSS In an intplIirnnt and colnnetent