The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-08-22
Unsatisfactory Prices on Both
Buying and Selling.
Conditions So DepIOrable Many
Are Leaving Soil.
PRICE OF PRODUCTS DROPPING
Yet Labor, Machinery and Food
Is on the Incline.
With 1t All Comes the States
Greatest Crop Production.

A new wave of unrest-caused by
unsatisfactory prices on both the buy
ing and selling ends-is sweeping over
the farmers of Kansas Ralph Sny-
der. head of the Kansas farm bureau
organizations. and ]. c. Mohler' sec
retary of the state board of agricut-
turs- agree that conditions are reach
ing an alarming stage, and farmers
thruout the state are making known
their feelings in no uncertain Terms, Terms
The average price the Kansas
farmer is said to be getting tor ms
wheat is not more than 40 Genus
bushel The prices of all other farm
products are unsatisfactory IoW' yer,
the farmers complain that the prices
of all commodities they are compelled
10 buy remain high. And the result is
that the farmers are getting more
''riIed up" than they were a year ago
when they formed taxpayers organ
izations in almost every county 10
force a reduction of taxes.
Ralph Snyder. head of the farm bu-
reau saws conditions have become so
deplorabfe that farmers IN large num-
hers are giving up their farms-Quit-
ting the game which they have be-
come convinced is nothing but a los
ing game.
Serious Situation.
You can hardly paint conditions
blacker than they are for the farmers
at the present time J. c. Mohler, OF
the state board of agriculture, said.
Prices of farm products have kept
on dropping, regardless OF the tact
that they reached production cost
levels long. long ago. Wheat is sell
ing around 40 cents a bushel-giving
the farmer on an average OF some
thing like 50 an acre for his wheat.
Yet. the price of labor. the freight
costs and the cost of. everything the
farmer has to buy, from machinery to
groceries remains high-so high that
the farmer cannot pay 1t with 20 cent
wheat
1T is a most discouraging condi-
tion," Mohler added, and he explained
that the Encouragement is more keen
ly felt because this is a year in which
nature apparently meant for the
farmer to get into a prosperous con-
dition. IF the corn prospects ma
terialize." MohIer said, kansas will
break all records in general crop
production this year. Yet, in this, our
most bountiful year, the average
farmer is unable to make both ends
meet"
Letters Are Received.
Scores OF letters are being received
by he agricultural agencies here COM
planning of conditions. ]. p eleven
ger, a prominent Douglas county
farmer, wrote the following letter to
the state board of agriculture:
THE outlook for the farmer is worse
than q months agO-not in crop pros
poets but in the way OF what he has
TO pay for things he has to buy in
comparison to what he receives for his
produce
department Of agriculture at Washing
ton desire to aid the farmer they
should cooperate ia a thoro inyesti-
cation Of farm product prices and see
that the farmer receives a Just return
for his labor in comparison with other
enterprises. Nearly war prices prevail
in a gOodly number of enterprises, one
uf such being coal
"Our family has 112O acres of as good
land as there is In eastern Kansas. 1t
is clear from debt, yet we have not
been able to make , per cent clear on
the investment representing 500 an
acre which was paid 20 years ago.
Let us all get on our toes and do some
successful basis. Sincerely yours,
u. p. CLEVENGER."
c. c. Isley, way out at Dodge City,
believes that the farmer will not get
relief until he takes the bull by the
horns" and does something for him
self In writing of conditions he said:
of course, nothing can be done
until agricultural sentiment awakens
because the New York banker is af-
fected only indirectly and his concern
is only secondary. Our concern is
primary. yet We don't do anything
about it"
Blames Federal Reserve.
1t is said that a large number of
farmers who are unable to make ends
meet this year. despite their good
crops, ara laying a large part of the
blame on the federal reserve bank
board, which they believed forced de-
flation too rapidly. and which many
believe forced the farmers to take
lower prices while all other classes
were allowed to continue to charge
all the traffic would bear
However. the manufacturers, and in
some cases labor is being blamed fer
the unfair balance of the scales. It
is said that the farmers purchasing
power, as compared with that of 1918,
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