The New York herald., 1921-12-12
The Liquidated 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 than a clear under
standing by the public OF just what
1T 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 ab-
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: Tn
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 a bushel in Chicago, could buy
= 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
a'heat used to buy fuel for the farmer
IN the West at the rate OF six or
eight bushels of wheat for ton of
coal. Now, with dollar wheat, twelve
and even fourteen bushels will not
tuy him the ton Of coal.
What is true of shoes or clothes
or coal is also true of harness, wag-
oas, implements, tools and other
equipment. It is true Of the lumber
for the farmers buildings and the
hardware and paint for them. It is
true even OF transportation.
The farmers corn at 45 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 % cent corn. Before the war
inhation period 40 cent corn in the
primary market meant 80 to 80 cent
corn to the farmer. Dollar wheat,
which in reality is now 20 or 80
cent wheat for the farmer, was So
or 90 cent wheat before the transpor-
alton charges were about doubled
up on the farmer.
The farmer cannot prosper when
II takes half OF what he gets for his
corn to land il in his selling market.
The farmer cannot live when his
crops win 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 a return or even enough
OF a return on his labor his invest
.uent and his risk in the business of
feeding the nation.
And when the farmer cannot make
living the country cannot prosper.
When the 100000 workers on the
farm get nothing out of their labors
- sueni in the general buying mar
o- the country the bottom must
cgn,e out OF these general markets.
Iha ountry's fundamental purchas-
ina power, which begins with what
colAcB out OF the soil. must be able
10 exercise itself 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 As cents in Chicago to
the war imitation figures OF S1.75 a
bushel again, and wheat from 81 up
70 S2.50; cotton from II cents UP TO
30 cents pound ard cattle and hogs
from 81 and $40 up to SIC and $22 a
hundred weight. The farmer knows
now and everybody knows that when
food prices go skyrooketlng 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 a dena-
tion OF abnormal costs all along the
line. Then the farmers bushel OF