Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-12-24
BUYING BALANCE
AGAINST FARMER
NEEDS LEYELINC
Fverv Food Producer And Con-
sumner Should Read These
Facts
BY HARRY HUNT.

buving power by the American far
mer is perhaps the greatest single
factor behind the present stagnant
industrial and business situation,
saws Secretary of Agriculture Henry
c. Wallace.
The farmer is today receiving for
his principal products lower level
Of prices than he received IN 1913
ard 1914, before the war.
But he is paying, on an average
15g per cent more for the things
he has to buy than he paid in 1913.
The result is that in purchasing
rover the dollar the farmer receives
today is, compared to the dollar he
received in 1918, worth just 38 |
cents. He must spend $3.50 to get
The same he got for 81 before the
WAY
And he has no more dolalrs with
which to buy than he had in 1913.
That is the situation in a nutshell.
Disastrous Effect.
"When we remember that approx
mately 40 per cent Of all our peo-
pie live in the country and are de-
pendent upon what grows out of the
SOIL" says Wallace, "the disastrous
effect upon the nation of reducing
the purchasing power of that 40 per
csnt-more than 4O,000,000 persons
so far below normal is obvious.
I'VE are sadly lacking in under
standing of economic laws in our
adjustment to them when the produc-
ton Of bounteous crops by the hard
labor of 100000 farmers and
their families is permitted to pay
such large part in paralyzing our
business and our industries.
''For, with the purchasing power
Of his dollars cut more than in half,
the farmer is compelled to practice
the most rigid economy. And we
must not forget that the farmer is
consumer as we'll as producer,
"He must wear his old clothes, re-
pair his old machinery, deny his fam
lily not only luxuries but comforts
must refrain from purchasing every
thing he can possibly do without.
This in turn forces the manufac.
turer to restrict his output to the
lcssened demand, reducing his own
purchases of raw material and reduc-
ing the number of his workmen.
"Mcn out of work must live on
their savings or on credit and are
in turn compelled to practice econ
2my~by reducing their buying. This
turther restricts the farmers' market,
and we start to swing through the
same circle again.,
Comparative Costs
Just how the farmer is ground be-
tween the economic millstones Of low
prices and high costs, however may
best be visualized by comparing
what he has to give today in actual
farm produce for the things he must
have to carry on his work.
To buy a $50 suit of clothes, he
must exchange 200 pounds of raw
wool, or the years clip from a flock
Of 20 sheep. He could get better
suit in 1912 for 500 worth of wool
which he could clip from IA sheep.
Today, if he needs new wagon,
1t will take the proceeds from $50
bushels of corn to purchase it. He
could have bought the same wagon in
l9l3 with 10 bushels. The price of
1arm wagons has gone up from SIT
TO STAG since 113. The price of
corn has gone down from 70 to Al
cents bushel.
A new mower today takes the price
OF 7 l-2 tons of good hay. A better
mower could have been bought in
1913 with the proceeds of four tons.
1t takes 100 bushels of oats today
to ray for a new harrow or single
harness. Thirty bushels would have
paid for the harrow in 1913 and as
bushels would have supplied the cost
Of the harness.
Cotton was low in 1918, but ton
OF fertilizer could be bought then for
the equivalent of 1870 pounds of
cotton. Today it would take 2l0
\ pounds.
A 20O-pound hog would buy so
rods of wire fencing in 1918. Today
1t will only buy % rods.
Such are the conditions the Ameri-
can farmer finds today as result of
having labored hard and well to
produce the wherewithal for the rest
OF US to live.
Penalty on Production
We have penalized large produc-
uon Wallace says. GAS a general
rule, large crop brings the farmer
lewer dollars than small crop. And
large crops very often, as in the
cases of 1920 and 1921, sell at less
than the cost to the farmer to pro-
duce.
Leon Estabrook, expert statistic
ian in the department, says The