Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1921-05-11
SERIOUS PROBLEMS FACING
THE FARMER
Gets Less for Products Then They
Cost Him.

Reinbeck, Iowa-A farmer living
north of town feels he has wasted
some time feeding cattle this year.
Last week he shipped to Chicago
steer which was purchased eigh-
teen months ago at S115. The steer
sold at kop prices but after the
expenses of feeding and shipping
him were paid the farmer found him
self with 73 cents left for his eigh-
teen months work with that steer.
Drive out little way from the
city, any city, and attend cross
roads meeting of farmers, suggest
the American Farm Bureau fedora
ton. Listen to what they say. Seek
the farmers viewpoint, and you come
to more sympathetic understand
ing of the problems confronting the
folks who feed you every day.
Here are typical stories from the
agrarian meetings in the consoli-
dated schoolhouse, the community
church, the town hall, or the farm
bureau Office.
Leather and Shoes.
A pair of mems shoes weighs
three pounds and is priced at S10.50.
A cowhide weights fifty five pounds
and the price today is z cents per
pound A farmer hauls hides to
town and offers to trade hides to the
storekeeper for shoes. If the store
keeper takes him up on the basis of
present prices, the farmer finds that
he is not strong, enough to carry
across the street from his wagon to
the store enough hides to pay for
the shoes.
The farmer in Nebraska has been
selling his corn at from 80 to 35
cents per bushel. 1t costs 80 cents
to ship bushel of corn by rail from
the cornfelds of Nebraska to the pro-
cessing mills in New York. Accord
ing to the most conservative figures
obtainable, the corn costs the farm
er at least 93 cents a bushel to pro-
duce.
A farmer at Iowa City, Iowa,
shipped carload of hay to st. Louis.
He got $S2.61 for it. The freight
and other charges totalled S92.13.
| An apple grower in West Virginia
took a two-hour ride to Washington,
ID. c., to transact some business.
Along about noon he Sot hungry, as
any farmer will. He stepped up
to Tony, the fruit venaer and sell
ected a beautiful juicy apple.
Apples of Gold.
He handed Tony quarter and
got back 13 cents in change. Com
pletely nonpIussed, the farmer
marched back to the box to see where
these apples of gold were raised.
Another shock. His own name was
on the apple box. He had been paid
$3.50 for the box of 100 apples, and
here was the retailer charging at
the rate of $14.40 box for them.
The West Virginia fruit grower
also had a flock of sheep to tidy
up his orchard. The sheep produced
wool. The best he could get for his
wool was 20 cents per pound. He
went to the tailor shop in Washing
ton to buy a suit ann an overcoat.
The tailor asked $155 vfor the suit
and would allow enough Wliscount on
the overcoat to furnish the outfit
for 5000. In the suit and2overcoat
not more than twenty pounds of vir-
gin wool were used, at 20 cents a
pound in the grease, 81. But in
order to buy the $500 suit and over
coat the apple grower would have
to sell 10000 pounds of apples at
the price offered him that day, 1
cent per pound. In other words, it
would take one carload of the fruit
growers apples to pay for the suit
and overcoat.