The Washington herald., 1921-03-19
UNREST GENERAL
MSOUTH, WHERE
FARMERS SUFFER
Many, in Debt Already,
Find Difficulty in
Getting Credit.
ANXIETY ABOUNDS.
Forced to Sell Their Products
At Great Loss-Outl0ok
Is One of Gloom.

Is One of Gloom.
ny RAY sTANNARD BAKER.
4 United States Senator, rising
the other day in his seat in the Sen
ate chamber. declared with some
thing of a rhetorical flourish that
the American farmer faces ruin"
He was demanding instant relief
in the form of expanded credit IA
cilities to meet the crisis. While he
himself was from the South. he un-
doubtedly represented not only the
cry of distress that Is arising in
his own cotton and tobacco country.
but that of the vast Western empire
of wheat, corn. cattle and sheep,
which Is equally stricken.
Il is easy, of course, to prove too
much by statistics, especially when
one gets into the billions, but so
good an authority as the Depart
ment of Agriculture has issued es-
Inmates for the principal crops of
1890 which lend some colo- to the
Senator's statement.
These estimates show that while
production of the principal crops of
the country Except wheat), was the
greatest in our history, the value
was 5000, ,o0o. 900 less than in 1919
the estimates being $4,000, ,000. 900
for 1913 and $1,000. 100000 for 1890
IA drop of IS per cent. This loss
is As great as the total value of all
farm crops for 1909.
Loss Ii Disquietins.
Even though this estimate of
loss proves to be $1,000. 10000 or
so too large. yet it is sufficiently
serious as affecting the greatest of
our industries-agricult be
highly disquieting.
Certain II Is that there is wide
spread unrest among farmers. with
insistent appeals to Congress for
measures of relief and a powerful
movement toward organizations of
various kinds.
Let us examine in detail certain
typical phases of this agricultural
unrest: While. of course, the cotton
farmer has very different problems
on the side OF production and mar
keting from theTwheat and cattle
farmers Of the West. yet the essen
tial economic disaster which has
overtaken them is Identical. Neither
can sell what he raised In 1890 for
enough to, meet the cost Of produc-
tion. let alone making a profft: both
are looking forward to the crop pros
poets of 1921 with dubious eyes.
They hold country auctions next 10
the court house at SmithheId. N. c.
One day in December I saw the per-
spring auctioneer doing his utmost
to sell. a pair Of good mules for Ss5
each. Last year such mules could
not have been had for $3.50 each. I
saw a rather scrubby cow and calf
knocked down at s50-about one
third what 1t would have brought a
year ago.
I found also the markets here. as
everywhere in the South, glutted
with distress" cotton, farmers haul
ing In their product and selling IL for
IL to II cents a pound. when they
had expected to receive at least 30
cents a pound. They had good war
rant for expecting reasonably good
prices, for cotton sold in late July at
4, cents a pound. and the average
price in 1913 for the entire crop ex-
ceeded zs cents pound.
Production Costs Found.
/ obtained the figures of cost of
production in numerous cases, which,
of course, in 1918 were exceptionally
high. Here Is an actual itemized
statement of what il cost per acre in
a very favorable location in North
Carolina. where the product was a
bale to the acre:
narrowing and breaking one
acre ....B.. $500
Running rows. sowing fertiliz-
er, and planting ng..... $50
One bushel cotton, seed 200
One-half ton fertilizer. 5000
Chopping, three times. 100
Cultivating by plow. 500
Ticking. -..... ................ 28.0O
Ginning and hauling. ....,. $50
Iotaf. ....-..-.... .$ge 90
This includes nothing for taxes,
rent on land. or insurance. It rep
resents only actual outlay in money
and labor and no Overhead" at all.
Now the bale of cotton that cost
sse to produce-not counting "over-
had" was selling Qncluding the
seed at about ss5: a net loss of
s11. And this was rich land and
produced far more abundantly than
the average land in the South, which
Yields only one-third of a bale to the
acre
An exhaustive study made by the
Department OF Agriculture of the
cost of producing cotton. including
overhead" in 1s18-when the costs
were lower than in 1s20-places the
figure at % cents a pound. or Sis
for the bale. At present 1890 prices,
say II cents. this would mean a loss
of s45 a bale.
Much Cotton In Fields.
There could truly be no more vivid
illustration than this of the present
state Of farming in the South; in
any other business but farming it
would mean utter ruin.
found many fields of cotton un-
picked, some that would never be
picked at all. In some cases ii paid
the tenant-farmer better to desert
his own crop and his obligations to
the landlord and hire out to neigh
boring farmers to pick their crops.
In the face of this debacle of the
prices which they receive for their
products they find costs of every
thing they buy. in spite Of recent re-
ductions in certain articles, still ex-
high. Shoes, clothing,
harness. lumber. machinery. and,
above all. fertilizers, on the basis
Of present cotton values. are far
harder to obtain this year than in
the wears before the war