The Glenwood post., 1921-03-26

does England doubt now the error Of
her policy She is doing all that is hu-
manly possible-to revive agriculture at
home'
Today America stands confronted
with all the problems Of reconstruction
with the admitted necessity Of price
readjustments; but surely we do not
want food prices in this country that
will discourage and destroy American
agriculture.
"The big problem, the supreme prob
lem, is not cheap food, but such an
equalization of return from factory and
farm that the empboye in the former
can afford to pay enough for the prod
ucts of the latter to keep it going. 1t
is not good thing, but. ruinous thing
for America if staple food can be
produced for half in China what it can
be produced for in the United States,
and our government permits the Chin
ese food to be brought in to the de-
obiuSlioh VI phC 2NhCAiSdA 'AuuoVhy.
There is national ruin, not national
prosperity, in such a situation.
"What advantage can there be III
arousing antagonism between city and
fam? What hope can there be in adopt
ing policies that coddle the worker in
the city to the utter destruction Of the
yynrker tho cnupfryS
"Free raw foods is doctrine Of
ruin. American agriculture has made
possible the great cities of the country.
They constitute market that for right
belongs to native agriculture. 1t is
market native agriculture must have.
The resultant Of known forces is also
known. If the American farm must,
on the one side, compete with the city
factory and with its high wages for
labor, and must, on the other side,
compete in world makrets with the COM
petitive products of pauper-labor coun-
tries, there is no guess work as to what
the ultimate result will be. Bankrupt
cy, and nothing else.'
Statistical gentlemen will tell us thar
Europe must sell US her foodstuffs or
she cannot pay the staggering debts
which are the aftermath of the Great
War. We, forsooth, must sell her the
product of our factories If the shibo-
leth of 'strade balance is to be main
tanned. Must we, then, buy what We
do not need? Must we add to sur
plus which is already the most vital
problem before us. If we must have
receiver in bankruptcy to collect our
debts, it were better that we did not
collect them and maintain our solv-
ency.
As the Record truly says:
1.-The greatest treasure any people
can have, their supreme asset, is a
strong and sturdy farming element,
sef-cOntained food supply. With that
nation is invincible and its institn-
tions inviolate.
I'VE stand, as we have said, at the
gateways Of high decision. We are 60
ing to decide now, for all time, whether
to follow the ruinous and disastrous,
the death-certain, policies which Rome
and England adopted-a program of
cheap food for the cities, no matter
what happened to the farms-or are we
going to profit from the mistakes of the
great empires of the past and present
and build our future on the sure ground
of protection Of our food supply as the
most essential of all our belongings?
To follow the old program would be
easy statesmanship-to evolve the new
and strong program will require thought
and brain exertion. But all the nice
distinctions and scientific analyses can
be made simple enough once it is es-
tablished for all time as definite, Ger
tain and fixed national policy that agri-
culture is to be protected; that when
foreign goods come in here at prices
which spell ruin to similar feasible pro-
duction in this country, then the for
eign product must pay duty sufficient
to destroy the favorable differential it
enjoys over the American industry.
Let us not deceive ourselves or be
deceived. There are two or three great
lessons that history teaches decisively.
One Of them is that the nation which