Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-14
Page Six
POLITICS And FARMERS
Farming the Greatest Business In
the United States.
Some of II Of Value, But Most Of II
Not-=Prioe of Land Ever on the In.
By Frederick ]. Haskin.

BY Frederick ]. Haskin.
s Washington, D. c, February l.
why is it that farming, the greatest
business in the United States, and the
most important one in the world, does
not pay in, this country and is never
stable? N'1
That is the question which is theo-
retically before the national farm con-
ference. but there is no evidence what
ever that the conference will shed any
more light on the subject than the slsn-.
employment conference did For1 z. the
fundamental causes Of unemployment
or than the disarmament conference
did on the problem of world peace, or
than any other political conference
ever sheds on anything. So, ,.a
& 1t is an Hlupinating experience to
read the political pronouncements on
the subject Of the farmer and farming,
and then study the views OF any COM
petent student of the agrafian prob
lem and compare them. 1t gives the
innocent and unprejudiced investiga-
tor the impression that politics Is very
lal gely, the art Of lodging the facts. =
/. IT is true that there are more poiiti-
cal and legislative remedies before the
public for. solving the farm problem
than there are patent medicines for
curing eorIis. The politicians propose
a tariff on farm products, they pro-
pose to encourage cooperative mar
keting, and they have a dozen other
projects for ameliorating the farmers
lot Most OF them have been tried be-
fore and none Of them has made any
large or permanent difference. Con-
gfess has been turning out large,
quantities of legislation for farmers at
every session for generations, and yet
the condition Of the farmer has. got
steadily worse ever since about 1890.
1t is not meant to imply that none
of the legislation passed and proposed
is of any value, but simply to point
out the obvious fact that none of 1t
has worked any permanent change in
the general condition of the farmer.
The only thing which can be said is
that ever since the body of free public
land in the United States was exhaus-
ted, which happened about OF soon
after 1890, farming has been falling
into more and moro precarious con-
dition, z,. IS %Ct
TIE Price of Land. - ,,4>
1T Is not unreasonable then to as
slime some connection between the
disappearance Of free land and the,
present pnstabie and, unprofftablel lcen-
dition of farming as a business, Ever
since the free land was exhausted, the
price of land has risen steadily in this
country and to astonishing heights.
This high priced land, we are assured
by all students Of the problem, Is the
fphdamental reason why farming does
not pay, and they assure as that it
cannot pay until those land values are
somehow brought down. and stabilized.
II must be made possible for the man
who wants to farm to invest his mon
ey in land and makea good return on
the investment. And 1t must be made
more profitable for the man who owns
land TO stay on it and farm 1t than to
sell it and go to the city and invest
money in something else. These sim
pie facts are always and completely
overlooked by congress and by the
politicians generally. 1t would be
safe bet that there will be no discus
sion of this phase of the matter at the
conference. 80.
EVERY competent man in the depart
nlent of agriculture knows that infiat-
ed ana ever-rising land values are the
whole trouble with farming, and half
a dozen of them have explained the
rnstter to the writer of this article.
S"But don't quote me-" they always
end up. Their jobs are political jobs.
1.-THE opinion that something must be
done about land values is by no means
confined to so-called radicals. Col
leges and banks are not radical insti-
trtions. Yet the gist of the whole
matter is contained in some figures
compiled by, the Iowa State College Of
Agriculture and published in one of
its market letters by the National City,
Bank Of New York.
A Typical Case. .
This study comprised, among other
things, an Investigation of 1876 farms
devoted TO the raising of oats. The
average value. of the land was found
to be $3.50 per acre. The largest item
in the cost of production of oats on
this land was the interest on the mon
ey invested in the land at 51-2 per
cent. This production cost came to
1858 per acre. All other production
costs came to $15.09 per acre. Thus
over half the cost of production was
interest on the investment in land. The
study showed that on only two farms
out of the 1876 were oats produced for
less than the market price of oats,
which is Al cents a bushel. In other
words, all of the other farmers were
raising oats at a loss. They could
vastly better afford to sell their land
and put the money and their time in
something else.
This is the way the thing works. AS