The New York herald., 1922-01-30
MONDAY. JANUARY so, 1922.
The Farmer Insists on Dehation,

lhe Farmer Insists on Oena0On.
The action taken by the agricul-
tural conference in Washington
shows that the American farmer
knows what is the matter with his
business as a seller in the markets
of the country and the world and
what is the matter with himself as a
buyer in those markets. His trouble
in his operations as seller and in his
operations as buyer is that while agri-
culture has suffered general and
drastic dehation, little or nothing
else has.
Under such conditions when the
American farmer goes to market to
dispose of his crop he must part with
1t for song. But when he goes to
market to buy his materials and
supplies he must pay fabulous prices
for them as compared with what he
gets for his wheat or corn or other
products. And he knows why.
Howard LEONARD, president Of the
Illinois Agricultural Association,
showed in the agricultural confer
ence that the farmer knows why he
cannot buy as he used to buy with
the proceeds of the sale Of his
products when he quoted figures to
prove that IAN Illinois farmer worked
sixteen hours day for four days to
pay for the labor of one laborer in
Chicago for one hour, and a railroad
engineers monthly wages equaled the
net return of forty acres of Illinois
farm land"
J. r. HowARD, president Of the
American Farm Federation. showed
in the conference that the farmer
knows why when he said "the aver
age railroad worker receives $1,000 a
year compared with s400 to $500 that
comes to the farmer. Yet the farmer
must buy the same clothing and the
same fuel as the laborer."
And the conference showed that
the farmer knows why when it de-
bated at high pressure the report
calling on the railroad workers and
coal miners to take reductions in
wages so that freight rates might be
brought to normal basis. 1t showed
that the farmer knows why when II
all but unanimously adopted the fol
lowing resolution, with only SAM
GoMPERs voting against It,
I'VE insist that the railroad cor
porations and railroad labor should
share i'm the deflation of charges now
affecting all industries. This Is es-
sential to the restoration OF normal
conditions in agriculture and 1t is
essential to the welfare of the en-
tire community"
This is literally and gravely true
rs to the whole public. There is
not man, woman or child in the
country who is not affected by the
high freight rates both in respect
of the food consumed by American
families and in respect of the mate
rial transported for working up by
American wage earners.
Tt is particularly and tragically
true as to the American farmer who
has nothing left from the sale of his
crop after he has paid the freight
on shipping it to the market where
he sells it. The major cost OF oper'
ating the railroad which hauls the
crops is labor. The major cost OF the
coal which drives the locomotive is
labor at the mine, in transporting II
and turning it over to the carrier
consumer as to the farmer consumer.
So the American farmer is work.
ing. in truth. for the labor organi
cations which handle his products
and produce the supplies he must
have. The farmer knows it. He is
not deluded into believing the solu
tion of his problem is reinflating his
crops. He knows this would make
everything else higher, as 1t did in
the war.
The farmer wants to end all inla
ton. He is not going to stand fol
it any longer. He is going to compe
the denation for those others which
he has had to take for himself. Ant
the way he is obtaining through the
agricultural bloc in Congress the
things he demands in Legislative
matters should make it clear enough
60 the innationists he is after will
his political pitchfork that he means
70 use all his power TO bring down I,
earth again the costs now pyramidet
on his head.
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