The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-12-22

marshal. These appointments would
also be in line with the policy of the
old gang and are contrary to the
wishes of large number of the peo-
pie of the state. Senator McCumber
may have aspirations to return to the
senate but his stand on Federal ap-
pointments indicates that he is not
representing the voters of the state
at present but rather is representing
Alex Mckenzie, and, while Alex Nc
kcnzie may still throw a great many
votes his way we do not believe he has
the power to re-elect him.
THE LlQUlDATED FARMERS
PLIGHT.
In his annual report the Secretary
of Agriculture discusses at length
the plight of the American farmer,
and there is nothing more important
for the country that clear under
standing by the public Of just what
it is that now ails the farmer. The
trouble with the farmers business,
his living and his state Of mind at
this crucial juncture is not the price
of wheat or cotton or even corn. The
trouble with the farmer is the price
of other things which he does not
produce but must buy to continue his
farming and to keep body and soul
together.
Agriculture is about the only thing
in the whole United States which has
been thoroughly liquidated from alb
normal war imitation. But because
other commodities, compared with
the farmers crops, have been scarcely
Debated at all there is no purchasing
power left in his harvests. Secre-
tary Wallace says on this point: SIN
times past some of these crops have
sold at lower prices per sale unit ex-
pressed in dollars and cents, but prob
ably never before have our farmers
generally been compelled to exchange
their crops per sale unit for such
small amounts of the things they
need"
What he means is that in the days
before the gross imitation which came
with the war the farmer, although
his corn might be worth only so
cents bushel in Chicago, could buy
a good pair of shoes with six bushels
of that corn; now it takes fifteen or
twenty bushels of his corn to buy
the same kind of shoes. Ninety cent
wheat used to buy fuel for the farmer
in the West at the rate Of six or
eight bushels of wheat for a ton of
coal. Now, with dollar wheat, twelve
and even fourteen bushels will not
buy him the ton of coal.
What is true of shoes or clothes
or coal is also true Of harness, wag-
ons, implements, tools and other
equi pment. 1t is true of the lumber
for the farmers buildings and the
hardware and paint for them. 1t is
true even Of transportation.
The farmers corn at As cents in
the primary market at Chicago does
not mean an actual As cents to him
1t means, when the freight and ele-
vator charges have been taken. out:
20 to rs cent corn. Before the war
initiation period As cent corn in the
primary market meant 80 to 35 cent
corn to the farmer. Dollar wheat
which in reality is now 70 or 80
cent wheat for the farmer, was IS
or 90 cent wheat before the transpor-
tation charges were about doubled
up on the farmer.
The farmer cannot prosper when
it takes half Of what he gets for his
corn to land it in his selling market
The farmer cannot live when his
crops will buy for him only half the
necessaries of life they bought for
him in the pre-war years, when no
body dreamed that he was getting
too much Of return or even enough
of return on his labor, his invest
ment and his risk in the business of
feeding the nation.
And when the farmer cannot make
a living the country cannot prosper
When the l3.O00000 workers on the
farm get nothing out of their labors
to spend J, thu general buying mar
kets of the couatry the bottom must
come out of THESE general markets
The country's fundamental purchas-
ing power, which begins with what
comes out Of the soil, must be able
to exercise itseH or there is no chance
for any other purchasing power to
be effective or permanent.
But restoring the farmers purchas-
ing power does not call for putting
corn up from 4S cents in Chicago to
the war initiation figures Of $1.75 a
bushel again, and wheat from 81 up
to $3.50; cotton from II cents up to
30 cents pound and cattle and hogs
from 81 and $40 up to SIG and $22 a
hundred weight. The farmer knows
now and everybody knows that when
food prices 60 skyrocketing every
thing else goes even higher. The
economic problem cannot be worked
out that way.
What the farmers crucial situation
does call for, precisely like the gen
eral consumers situation, is della
ton of abnormal costs all along the
line so that the farmers bushel OF
corn or wheat, his bale of cotton, his
hundred weight of cattle or hogs will
buy for him the implements and the
goods he must be able to buy II ne
is to stay in the business of feeding
the nation and is himself, with the
proceeds from the sale of his crops.
to put purchasing power into the gen
eral markets of the country for the
benefit Of other producers. - N. Y.