Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1921-07-08
EDITORIALS
THE PRICE OF HAY.

heard that John Doe was selling
at $780,"
This is an agricultural commun-
lty. Until the slump in livestock
and wool the market for Our pro-
duce was taken care Of pretty well
locally. On account of the fact that
live stock was one OF Our most inn
portant industries the farmers have
been going pretty heavily into al
falfa production as this furnished
a cash crop and the prices for the
past few years have been good.
This year, however, in keeping
with the slump in live stock, the
price of hay has reached the lowest
mark in the past twenty years. The
farmers as usual seem helpless in
the matter and are complaining not
a little because of such conditions.
He is the one himself who is ask
ing the question, what is hay
going at?"
There is no adequate price set
ting method in our community.
There is one agency or medium
that does assume TO set the price
on hay, which has given rise to un-
limited criticism among the farm
ers.. We refer TO the tithing. In dis
cusSing' This question we wish it UNI
stood that we have no. quarrel with
the tithing nor the farmer, but SIM
ply desire TO see an Improvement, a
better understanding and possibly
cooperative effort to adjust mat
ters uhore: satisfactorily
1t has been the rule in the past
FOR 4sic bishop 10 set the price at
which hay would be received as
tithing7and'this has generally been
accepted as the regular. market
price. This seems. perfectly legiti-
MAZE on the lace Of the matter,
but after looking into the matter a
little more deeply we discover ccr-
tain features which seen to be OBJ
iectionable 20 some OF the farmers.
One thing seems 10 be certain and
that is that the farmer and the tith-
illS dlC III 81 SOilSC NplllllSUlplos II
is the desire of the bishop to con-
vert the tiliing into cash at the first
opportunity and when he receives
a load of hay as tithing it is at
once placed upon the market, In
order, therefore for the bishop to
treat everybody alike in the matter
he decides. on price at which
tithing hay can be bought. This
price must be placed at such a level
as to induce buyers. In order there
fore that the farmer may stand an
equal chance in selling his hay he
must. meet the price at the tithing
office.
Many tithe-payers object to this
method because in the first place
he at once becomes his own COM
petitor. For instance, the farmer
depends upon selling a few loads of
hay to keep the wolf from the door.
He is naturally anxious to locate a
buyer. If he is tithe-payer he is
brought ut once face to face with
this proposition. "Shall | take my
tenth to the tithing office and
thereby place my own hay in COM
petition with myself, or shall for
get to pay my tithing until I'have
marketed my own hay or shall |
refrain from paying altogether and
thereby diminish entirely as far as
l am concerned, all chance Of COM
petition?
The man who does not need to
sell his hay to pay his current ex-
penses will likely do the first. The
man who pays his tithing after his
other obligations are cancelled will
likely be satisfied with the second,
but the man who is weak in the
faith and considers it from pure
ly business standpoint will nine
times out of ten adopt the last and
justify himself in paying no tith-
ing at all.
We do not wish to enter into the
religious side of the question, but
as can be plainly seen, that cannot
be entirely ignored in following the
matter TO the bottom The question
is "Shall the bishop, representing
the tithing, or the farmer, set the
price of hay?" Should there not
be some arrangement whereby the
farmer would pay an honest tithing
without considering himself his
own competitor? Could not the
Farm Bureau or some such agency
call the farmers together and go
over the whole matter and arrive at
a reasonable price for their hay
We understand that the price set
by the bishops for the first cutting
this year is seven dollars a ton. This
is very fine for the buyer, but how