The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1922-02-03

ooO, 100000 a year. In the fiscal year
| 1917 this rose TO $4,000, 100000, and In
1919 to $500, 600, 900. Our total exr
ports in the calendar year 1919 amount
ed to $4,000. 100000 in round numbers
performance in the foreign trade
I line such as no other nation ever came
within gunshot Of before and which
probably no nation will ever again APP
proach in this generation. II was al
together abnormal and there was boz
gus element in il. Europe and the
United States were in a hectic post
war imitation and a very important
part OF these huge exports was sold on
time to debtors who were exhausting
their credit. The imitation continued,
however. well into 1920. By June OF
that year wholesale prices had risen
to 275 as compared with 201 in the
February following the armistice-
which about marks the beginning Of
the postwar boom. In year bank
loans had risen $4,000. 0oO.o 900. Federal
Reserve rediscounts as compared with
February following the armistice had
increased $1,000. 100000. Then the gas
began to go out of the balloon, Elk
port demand from exhausted Europe
began decidedly to break down.
I II happened that in the spring OF
1920 crop prospects were not very
good which tended to stimulate the
price OF farm products. But the pros
poets steadily improved. In fact, the
agricultural outturn was the largest
In fives years, grain breaking all rec
ords except that for 1915, while the
cotton fields yielded 1900 600 bales
against an average of little-more than
III ,00O, 900 bales in each Of the five pre-
sceding years-jpst at time when buy
ing power was drying up.
6 Moreover, commodity prices had been
steadily advancing for a year and a
half, going far. above the wartime level.
"A great many people were getting
restless thereat and starting a buyers
strike. Japan had gone through n
nancial panic that shook her out of
her shoes. Danger signals were fly
ing; defiation was in the air. The De-
partment of Agricultrue's index num-
Der, compounded of the price of thir-
ty-one farm products, stood at 246 in
June, as the big crops were approach
ing harvest. 1t fell to 242 in July, 225
in August, 207 in September, 191 in
October - the movement beginning
slowly and gathering momentum as
the general situation was more clearly
revealed the size of the crops was.
more definitely known and the new
grain and cotton began moving to mar
ket in the face Of a shrinking export
Now under such circumstances moth
ing except some fantastic scheme OF
government valorization could have
held farm prices even temporarily. The
boom was collapsing; we had far more
farm goods than there were buyers
for; the price was bound to fall. BY
December the index number for agri-
cultural prices had fallen to 143, by
March to 122, by June, 1921, to log, or
less than half what 1t had
been the year before. No such pre-
cipitous fan in prices had ever hap
pened before, yet the same thing In
lesser degree followed the war of 1912
and the Civil War, prices reaching the
peak after the war and falling sharp
ly. A collapsing boom. big crops and
the breakdown of European buying
caused the fall in 1920-21.
Defiation hit agriculture hardest be-
cause it is most exposed. When the
demand for steel falls off the mills at
once cut down production. But the
farms, broadly speaking. go on pro-
1ucing just the same. Steel mills In
the summer Of 1921 were producing
about one-quarter of their capacity;
but the farms, Notwithstanding last
years ruinous drop in prices produce
ed substantially the same amount of
grain as in 1918 and 1919 when grain
brought top prices. The cotton crop
was very much smaller than last
years, but that was due quite as much
% bad weather and the boil weevil as
o reduced acreage. OF course SER
es of calamitous years the country |
,ver would reduce yields, but for any
short view the farmer |
s tied to his job Of producing wheth-
II 1t ruins him or not.
When The Bubble Burst.
Other labor strikes when wages are
Railroad labor declar-
ID a nationwide tie-up Of transporta-
ion because its wages were reduced
o seven eighths of what they had
,een in 1920. That labor said: I'VE
will not produce at the reduced pay"
rs mentioned above, Doctor King fig
Tres that for producing the crop OF
920 farmers received as wages for