Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-06-07
FARMERS DEMAND
REMEDY FOR ILLS
BY HARDEN CoLFAX
(Leased Wire Service to The Journal.
(CoDVriphf 1901

NCOpyFlBHI, 1521.)
WASHINGTON, June 4.-American
farmers two and a half million
strong, have organized almost over
night and are today in the halls of
congress demanding relief from their
ailments and the right to mode 'nize
their business affairs. They are,
perhaps the most powerful force in
the presence of the national legisla-
ture SO swiftly, silently and eff
fectively have they combined their
energies that few persons, even here,
are aware of their existence and
fewer still have even an approximate
notion of their strength. Their rep
resentatives are working tirelessly
and with almost certain prospect Of
success for the passage of cluster
of bills whose effect upon American
economic life will be measured in the
hundreds of millions of dollars.
AS the farmer sees himself he is
today, in an economic sense, the
sickest Of sick America. With his
women folks, his children, his other
dependents and his hired help. he
makes up some forty millions of peo-
pie. He has something to seA-all
CndI America eats anu much IIldI IL
Wears-and his products have droE-
ped into an abysmal market. His
purchasing power has been cut more
than half within the past year and
his needs, like those of other folks,
have increased. Because of his nu-
merous numbers and troubles he re-
CARDS his condition as the basic all
ment of American commerce and in
dustry. Through his organizations
he is seeking legislation which, he
believes, will help bring him back to
economic health.
Capper, of Kansas in the senate,
stands out today as the most skillful
and energetic of the farmers cham
pionS. His name is on almost half
dozen or more important measures
which the farmers are pressing upon
congress.
Foremost of these measures is the
Capper-Volstead bill to authorize the
formation of cooperative organiLa-
tions of farmers and permit them to
do business in interstate commerce,
1t seems strange that such author
ity should have to be sought at this
late date on behalf of the nations
bread makers when almost every
other line of business is SO organized.
But the farmers want legal author
ity, plain specific and direct, before
they proceed; The bill seems certain
of passage. Under its provisions they
expect to unite in big cooperative
societies for the purpose of short
cutting to the consumer, slicjng
down the tremendous spread between
prices paid for fruit, produce, grain
the prices paid for the same prod
ucts in the markets Of the cou try.
Apples rot on the ground of New
York-and other farmS-in the sum-
mer and fall because the prices the
farmers obtain are so low as not to
;nl. frIIit and sending
it to market, at the same time those
applies are rotting, other apples, no
better. are selling retail at five and
ten cents apiece in the eastern cities.
That situation, the farmer holds, Is
an economic sin. Milk sells in New
York today at, say, twelve cents
quart delivered; the farmer gets five,
or enthusiastically enough TO
Justify his keeping the COW, feeding
her, paying labor to attend her and
sending her milk to market. That
situation the farmer regards as an
economic wrong. The price of both
commodities, and all other the farm
er raises, should be, in all fairness,
he holds, cheaper to the consumer
and at the same time should yield the
farmer at least enough to make an
honest profit on his investment and
toll.
Cooperative organizations some
how, some time can bring ABOUT a
betterment of these conditions, the
farmer believes, and that is one rea-
son why he wants such organizations
authorized by federal law and &C
countable to the federal department
of agriculture. Another MEG sure the
united farmers of America are press
ing through congress is the bill Gre
ating a joint committee to InVestl-
gate the relatively of agricultural
prices to other commodity prices
That bill, too, is going through. 1t
has passed the senate and when the
Joint committee of ten gets on the
Job the farmer believes there Will 4e
news popping that will make most
folks either red-headed or WLla-eyeo
about some of the prices they are
having today for things not raised
on the farm. ~,
Farm prices have dropped like fall
ing stars. other commodity prices
have gently and slowly eased Gown
a bit. Why? That's what the far-
mer wants to find out and, place pc
fore the American public through an an
official committee of congress IL
eggs have gone down so per cent,
Wv haven't other things? If corr
on the cob is off 60 per cent from
high, why do the rates of pubic uti!-
ity Corporations stick up where tney
used 70 be? If beef is selling today
for half what it sold for last year.
why isn't gasoline? s. 4aa1s
In other words, the farmer feels
that he has been made, in street ian
guage, the goat. Being goaI -
no fun unless one can butt p4C
and the farmer expects to butt. He
wants to butt into the true lacLS
ahout the price drops; why every
thing he sells has slowed down mo
the scftest arket ever known Whlle
everything he buys still hangs dIoIi%'
the high point OF last year u 0"'