The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-04-15
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH
THE BUSINESS OF FARMING
Lever of The Federal Farm Loan Board Shows
Farmers The Way Out In Great
Speech at Elizabeth City.

SPECTATORS and going broke ev-
erv two or three years; the
farmer produces two of the
three things absolutely necessary
TO sustain life and civilization
and can command his own price
for his products when once he
determines to control those prod
ucts and takes the control out of
the hands of spectators. How
the farmer can control the dis
tribution and sale of his prod
ucts how he can secure a return
for his labors that will make
farm life so profitable and at
tractive that his children will
prefer the farm to the city; in a
word. how the farmers of the
nation may pool their resources
and finance themselves in any
contingency; such is an outline
OF a remarkable speech delivered
in Elizabeth City this week by
the one man in America who
knows the farmers handicaps
and how to meet them.
The speaker was Hon. A. F. Lever
of the Federal Farm Loan Board who
came to Elizabeth City to speak to the
convention of the n. G. Drainage As
sociation. This newspaper has secured
the manuscript of Mr.. Levers speech
and give it to it's readers in full
BY F. A. LEVER.
The question uppermost in the minds
of farmers is what has happened to
bring about the present situation with
respect to the value Of farm products;
what has occurred to Justify a slump
in prices of farm products ranging from
so per cent to 100 per cent within a
period of twelve months. Certainly,
there are no less mouths to be fed now,
OF" bodies to be clothed now, than there
we're twelve menths ago. The yield of
farm products for the year 1920 was not
unusually large. The need for such
products has undoubtedly kept pace with
the supply of them. This being true,
the inquiry as to the cause for the
slump in prices of farm products be-
comes all the more important and in
teresting.
The Demand for Farm Products Never
Greater Than Now.
There are tens of thousands of men,
women and children throughout the |
world who are on the veritable verge of |
starvation and who are moving from |
place to place clothed in rags. There |
are more of this unfortunate class of |
people now than there were a year ago |
which would suggest to the student of |
that the value of things to eat !
and with which to clothe the body should
1e higher than in 1920; and to find the
reverse of it, presents a line of study
which must develop the discovery of GER
ain broad principles which govern in
he determination of prices.
Plenty of Demand But Lack of Money
or Credit.
The very first thing that we come in
contact with in the study of the prob
lemand for farm products throughout
he world but there is a lack both of
money and credit with which to make
good the demand. The starving chill
iren of Armenia need your wheat and
,orn and live stock, but they have moth
ng with which to pay you for it. The
'otton factories of France, Germany,
Austria and Russia could, if put into
'peratiOn, make heavy inroads into the
TX million bales of surplus cotton now
leld in the South, but the difficulty here
gain is that the market of Germany,
Austria and Russia are closed to the
otton producer, while the difference in ,
xchange rates makes it almost impos- j
ibIe for the factories of France to buy /
ne raw material, manufacture and sell {
III competition with American manu-
acturers and make profit. +
The domestic consumer of farm prod 7
cts is on a buyers strike. He is re-
using to buy at the exorbitant prices +
emanded by some retailers, except as Y
Q must buy to meet Immediate needs. I
MS, of course, results in a lessened g
ohestic demand which reflects itself in 7
riccs.
The domestic manufacturer, the
.hoesaler and the jobber because of
le uncertainty of the price of the raw
iat"rial and the demand for the finished +
foduct are, as it were, dancing the
esItation dance, and they too are in the
'arket only to fill immediate demands. p
Restoration of Confidence. v
The problems and difficulties of ag- a
culture at this moment are fundamen-
ii IL character. They cannot be solved Il
the application to them of expedi-
nee Or nostrums. The trouble is deep
eated and requires a major operation.
, can not be cured by the application 0
poultices and salves. The knife OF
ie surgeon is necessary. The patient
mighty sick but he is more fright j
leC than sick and before we can hope