Evening star., 1921-11-27
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

BY WILL p. KENNEDY.
TIME farmer and the city man
must get closer together.
The farmer, producing the
| food supply, and the city man,
| who must be fed, have a common IN
terest to narrow the gulf of cost that
lis widening between the prices the
| farmer gets for his harvests and what
| the city consumer has to pay for
| what goes on the table.
| In recent legislation it is noticeable
| that those representing the agricul-
tural sections and those representing
! the urban centers seem to think their
respective interests are antagonistic.
| Representative Simeon D. Fess OF
Ohio, who, by the way. is chairman
of the republican congressional COM
| mittee, thoughtfully points out that
| "the agricultural sections must look
| to the centers employing the labor OF
! the country in industry for market
| in which to sell the products Of their
! farms"
|, \ r
Investigations conducted by the
soint congressional commission on
4 agricultural inquiry. headed by Rep
| resentati%e Sydney Anderson OF
Minnesota, have found that the high
| cost of living to city dweilers is due
| principally to cumulative costs be-
| tween the time the food supplies leave
the farm and their delivery in the
city homes. This mounting cost is for
the most part a labor cost. not only
the cost of railroad labor. which is 55
| per cent Of the very high and some
times prohibitive transportation
charge, but labor all along the line
milk cart drivers, butchers. etc.
But to use the railroad labor cost as
! an illustration, 1t has been figured out
that the wage bill on the railroads
| can be reduced a billion dollars. and
still nay the employees 40 per cent
more than they were getting in 1916
| while reducing the transportation Dill
| of the country 25 per cent.
The whole nub of the, economic
| problem just now seems 10 be that
wages is the one commodity that
has not come down. and that they
must come down before the business
machinery Of the country can run
again with economic efficiency.
+ y +
| Showing the effect of high freight
! rates on farm products. Representa-
| Ave Anderson has had prepared a
set of charts representing the pur-
chasing power of corn and wheat.
which the farmer produces. in terms
of agricultural implements, which
the farmer has to buy. at various CEN
ters. It takes more than 1000 BUSH
els of corn at Culbertson. Neb.. to
buy four typical farm implements
where it took less than 1000 bushels
! in 1918. At Fargo. N. D., 1t took
5000 bushels. as compared with 1000
| in 1918. At Syracuse, N. T.. 1t took
only 1900, as compared with 1000 in
! 1913-showing the advantages of
proximity to the seaboard.
| If the farmer at Springfield, ILL.,, in
1918. purchased four typical farm i'm
plements, the entire freight bill in
yolyed in the transaction-includi
y
the haulage Of the ore from the
mine, the cost Of moving the finished
machine from the factory to the farm
center, and the cost Of shipping the
corn to market to pay for the ma
chine-was $71.s0. In October. 1921.
the same transaction would involve a
transportation cost of $2S5.26. If he
purchased them with wheat instead
! of corn it would have: cost $S6.S2 in
1913 and s143.03 in 1921
| The same transaction at Kansas
! City would show, for purchase with
corn. in 1913, $10s.1s. and in 1921.
s4s0.37: for purchase with wheat.
s102.77 in 1913 and $2os.35 in 1921.
Oklahoma City gives an extreme IL
lustration: there the purchase in corn