New Britain herald., 1921-11-05

-----s ------- - down to correspond WltA tho prices of what it has to scDl
 Tns Is q direct cut-acrose-lots as sorttun that brings homo the truth
 with emphasis which cannot be cs- capped 1T Is n truth which 1t would be national madness to ignore. one element in the country cannot be prosperous while another is poor fl we arc to have prosperity
 An idea of the difficulties under which the farmer Is laboring can be passed between a prospective custo- mcr who wanted to buy wagon and Drcm X Company of Moline, llln which has for years manufactured vehicles suitable for agricultural uses.
 To farmer wrote as follows:
 'l need a wagon and my dealer
 wants the price of G5O bushels uf
 q
 Hitn 200 hughols of corn before
 in. var The harness man wants
 lbr price of wagon load of
 hides for a No. I harness. sim
 pIl cannot see my way clear to
 buy wagon, harness or anything
 elE" that 1 can possibly manage
 tn get along without"
 Tha reply of Deere & Company is culEhtening, In part, it is;
 Our present price, F, Q. B, Moline. on H farm wagon, is 100 per cent. higher than our price of 1911. At th,s price We are selling this wagon at approximately 20 per cent less than our cost The cost to you at Culbert- son, Nebraska. however, does not bear the same relation to the pre-War price, for the reason that in 19l4 the frcl2ht on q farm wagon from Mo- line 10 Culbertson was sl.37 & hun drcd. inc present rate, including the var tax, is s2.32.
 A farm wagon weighs l,200 pounds. The difference in freight of 95 cents per hundred makes the transportation on th,S wagon alone cost $l1.40 more than 1t did before the war. The in creased transportation costs upon the mate erjals that go into the wagon are even greater than this amount.
 When you come to pay for this tr.s, t,rh l,n l. f the Chicago market, you have still greater disadvantage. due to the fact that corn has declined since 1914. The freight on corn from Culbertson to Chicago in 1914 was 24a cents a or approx imatey 1t cents a hushc; today. with the 2 per cent. war tax included, it is 47 cents 8 hun drcd, or approximately 26 cents per bushcl, So that you pay 12 cents bushcl more to get your corn to Chi cago than you did in 1914,
 You state that it requires $50 bush els of corn to buy a wagon today. At 12 cents bushel increased freight this means that you are paying the railroads s7s.OO more transportation on the corn necessary to buy this wagon, therefore your increased con- tributon to the railroad company in getting this wagon out there and shipping corn enough to Chicago to pay for it, is %S9.4O.
 You can well see from this that 1t is absolutely impossible for any of us to get back to a normal basis of prices until the cost of transportation is very materially reduced. You ask us when conditions will change; we tell you, when transportation costs are gotten back upon a reasonable basis"
 The foregoing is quoted at length because 1t is a vivid example of what the country is passing through.
 Hopeful signs from the middle west are contained in the October state menL of the Federal Reserve bank of Chicago district. Business Is improv- ing steadily, the statement saying:
 "No material change in credit cen titions Tn the Seventh Federal reserve district has taken place dlu Ing the 1 last month. Liquidation of loans is but the usual fall de- 1 mands are appearing which tend to offset the reductions.
 These demands, including those for financing the feeding of live stock, nave been cared for thus far without | increasing materially the aggregate | Of loans to customers or borrowings | at the federal reserve bank. Reports | the cattle feeding sections are de- vcloping and will reach larger pro- portions in the next month.
 Some advance in prices during ! September and the first part of Oc- | .Obcr is evidence of an increased | business activity and hence has been | 3 factor in the credit situation. AL though some of these increases are , jue To anticipation of 8 decreased | supply rather than to an increased , demand, they indicate that goods are moving, which will improve credit 'ond tions,'