The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-03-19
REDUCE CROPS
IS TENDENCY
OF FARMERS
Cotton Growers and Corn
Planters Cut Acreage -
Must Revise Taxes, Pass
Tariff, Start Foreign Trade.
MUST REVIVE CYCLE
BY MARK SULLIVAN

me farmers throughout the country
are making up their minds how much
they shall plant and raise the coming
year.
The decision they make this month
largely fixes the size of crops we shall
have in the fall, that, in turn, fixes to
a large degree the amount of food this
country and the rest of the world will
have to eat, and the amount of clothes
and other goods that will be available
for ALL
Furthermore, the amount of plant
ing the farmers determine to do, will
to a large degree fix the limitations of
our foreign trade at a period a year
ahead of us, which is just about period
according to everybody's hope, when
We ought to be getting into our stride
back toward "normalcy"
Have No Inducement.
1t must be said, that the farmers
have not much to induce them to plant
large crops, in fact, it has been i'm
pressed upon the farmers, that it will
be mistake to plant large crops this
year, the day Senator Harding's party
left Florida on his way to assume the
presidency, group of politicians rid
ing through North Carolina, picked up
cooOPAuo bdulCl ACWopdpSl, luS ne
leigh Observer. which is sold at all
the larger stations in that state. The
principal subject of the news in Mr..
Daniels paper on the particular day,
was how little cotton should be plant
ed. and the prevailing burden of argu-
ment, was that certain agreements,
which the farmers had made to re-
duce their acreage did not go far
enough and that the acreage ought to
be still further restricted.
Facetious remarks to the effect that
Josephus was working to undermine
the new Republican administration,
were met by the plain sight of a bet
ter reason from the car Windows
fields with last years cotton still un-
picked and the porches of the farm
houses stacked with unsold bales.
This determination to keep the new
crop small, is almost universal
throughout the cotton country. II
does not originate solely with the
farmers, nor with the newspapers that
represent the farmers. 1t is an atti-
tude of mind that is shared by the
entire business community in those
states.
Ban on Planting.
A leading banker in Florence, S. c..
for example, is said to have announced
a policy of willingness to carry his
patrons loans on last gears cotton
crop over for another year until 1922.
but only with the proviso that these
borrowers shall not accept any cot
ton at all this season.
AS to new borrowers, this bank is
quoted as being willing to lend money
for the purpose of planting a new
crop only on the condition that the
borrower name a date by which he
promises to sell or let the bank sell
for him the holdings of old cotton that
the borrowers still holds on hand.
Parts of Oklahoma have adopted plan
which calls on individual cotton plant
ers to seed only as large an acreage as
he can gather with his own hands.
That plan would work out in Oklaho-
ma producing this year about half the
cotton it produced last year.
Banks Tied Up.
In yet other parts of the south the
banks are so tied up that from 20 to
80 per cent of the farmers will not,
under any conditions, be able to bor-
row enough money to carry them
over and get the supplies necessary
to plant crop A Baltimore periodi-
cal which is almost an official organ
for the business men of the south, is
advising the planters to reduce their
acreage by so per cent, on the theory
that 1.-The small crop would sell for
more than a large crop"
1t NAV be that this tendency toward
planting very much smaller crops is
more marked as respects cotton than
as respects graham yet persons who
come to Washington. from the dis
tricts where corn is the chief crop,
saw that conditions there are quite as
discouraging as in the cotton country.
In one of the largest Mississippi val
lev states, it is said that fully half of
last years crop is still on the farms,
unsold and without any prospects of
selling. Farmers caught in these con-
ditions are obviously not going to feel
strongly like planting a maximum
new crop.
Hardships Result.
This condition of distress expresse ses
itself in serious human hardships, and
serious human hardships tend to eX-
press themselves in radical political
movements. In large areas Of the west
fully third of the farms are operated
by renters, and these renters being
left at the end of the year with an
unSaldDle crop, nave not Oeen aOle 10
pay their obligations. and are being
dislodged, and reduced to the ranks
of wage-earners except where this fate
is avoided by wise leniency on the
part of the owner.
Large numbers of other farmers
have bought their land on installment
payments, or have given heavy mort
cages: as the installments or interest
payments fall due. the farmers are un-
able to meet them. And there is Gre
ated a complete reproductions of those
conditions which in 1898 caused such
acute economic distress in the west
and led to the rise Of populism and
later the Bryan movement.
Serious Situation"
Some time ago, had letter from
one Of the wisest men west of the
Mississippi River, which spoke of a
probable revolt against the Republi-
can party The writer said: "The
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