The Washington herald., 1921-03-18
SOUTHERN FARMER,
HARD HIT, PLANS
|. TO HELP HIMSELF
Present Economic Situa-
tion Brings Realization
OF Old System Faults.
NEW SPIRIT EXISTS
Organization Is First Move to
Self.Aid-New Spirit
Abroad in Land.
p, RAY srANNARD BAKER.


1t is common to hear, the farmer
and especially the Southern farmer
blamed for his outcry about the
present Agricultural distress and to
ask why he should be demanding
help of Congress.
did he not make large profits in
1918 and 1912"
Relatively speaking, he did.
Farming was never before SO pro-
fitable in America and certain crops
calling for intensive hand cultiva-
tion made astonishing records,
There were farmers in North Car
olina who made as high as 500. an
acre on tobacco and striking stor-
les could be told Of the profits on
other commodities.
What then have, they done with
all the, money!. Us =.
1t is intimated that they squan-
dered 1t in an orgy Of extravaganza
when they should have put 1t aside
for this rainy day of 1890. II ID
sometimes even intimated that what
they are getting is good enough for
them!
1t is true, indeed. that there vas
a great wastage last year among
farmers-exactly as among all other
classes of the population There
was. for example, q tremendous au-
tomobiie Invasion OF the South. a
stupendous building of garages. an
oceRn of gasolene burned up.
The telephone that great hu-
manizer of country life. has been
spreading: and IL perhaps too many
automobiles have been purchased.
most of them are cheap cars, which
have added untold values to decent
community life in the country.
1t is only in the last few years
country has begun to break up and
q new community spirit. . new i'm
pulse toward local self-help. has
been developing.
Surplus Wasn't Large.
Another thing-while the income
of the farmers in 1917. 1913 and
1918 looked large In dollars COM
pared with other years. the surplus
actually left to them was by no
means as considerable as- 1t appears
upon the surface. In the irst place.
the increase in prices of farm prod
ucts was never more than one
Jump ahead of increased costs Of
living. In the second place there
was q tremendous paying on of old
debts.
Merchants exhumed accounts that
had been dead and charged on for
years. IL was harvest time for the
merchants. But there was finally a
surplus-in the aggregate q large
one. Some of II was wasted, as !
have said, some was saved, and !
found long-headed farmers here and
there who were cautious enough to
keep q good part Of their money.
These men are now out of debt
and able to hold their cotton for bet
ter prices, or, IL they have to sell,
they can 20 into the coming cotton
year with some confidence. But this
great proportion Of the surplus.
am convinced. went into actual i'm
provements and enlargements Of the
standards Of life.
In 1918 and 1919 the agricultural
South, both land owners and tenants,
had a taste of q better way OF life.
more of the common decencies and
comforts, a better chance to educate
their children, a little greater op-
portunity to get glimpses beyond
the horizon of their dull. ordinary
lives, and now the curtain seems to
be dropping upon that pleasant
scene and they feel themselves
headed back toward the old morass
of crop lien farming-a kind of
slavery to merchants and bankers
with bitter and forced competition
among themselves to sell at q loss
to q glutted market valuable
product which they. have grown
without any real knowledge of mar
ket requirements or any organiza-
ton for mutual. projection.
A DiRerenee. h, There.
It may be said, of course, that the
farmer is here only sharing the pain
ful experience of nearly all other
classes of our people in time Of
readjustment and defiation. But
there 10 this deep and fundamental
difference: a return to, normal con-
ditions, the prewar life, for the great
proportion of merchants; bankers,