The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1922-01-05

ure controlled. We assumed, if W
thought of it at all, that farmin,
conditions would always be as the,
were, and we put all of our nationa
thought upon the development O
: other phases of national life.
Meantime, farming condition,
changed. The free lands were taker
up and settled and the old areas be
came so populated that the farmer
could not, as had been the case be-
fore, get at small price new and vir
gin soil whenever what he had been
tilling was exhausted.
"The means of distribution also
became much more complex. In
stead of a local market, the farmer
had to deal with a national and even
an international market. And all of
this had come about not with a view
of helping the farmer-as | said, he
didn't seem to need help-but for
aiding in the growth of other parts
of the national makeup, like the
cities which did seem to need help.
at was assumed that the farmers
end would take care of itself. Hence
on the road from farmer to consum-
er there grew up a vast mechanism
in shaping which the farmer had no.
thing to do and over which he had
no control. This mechanism in time
came to exist largely for its own
sake rather than as an instrument
for either producer or
And it has reached a point where it
devours a fearfully large part of
production. Its toll isn't limited to
the support Of the terribly large
number of persons needed In man
ming the mechanism of distribution,
but in great part is a tariff taken by
speculation. That tariff is compar-
able to the extortions exacted by the
robber barons of old, because for
the tax of speculation On production
no service whatever is rendered, not
even the protection which the rob
Der barons gave their victims.
81 know of many farmers who,
during the last year, have sent pro-
ducts into the market and instead of
getting a money return, no matter
how small, have received bills for
sums covering the excess cost of dis
tribution over the price allowed for
the article.
"The wheat farmers of the coun-
try received for the wheat exported
in 1920 about $210,000,00 less
than they got for wheat exported in
1919, the volume being about the
same for each year. Yet those who
Consumer the wheat exported last
year paid about $90,000,000 more
for it than what we sold them in
1919. A toll of about $240, 900, 600
I'll allow for increased railroad rates
was taken on the road from pro-
ducer to consumer above what was
taken the year before.
"That the American farmer can
survive, a system of distribution that
permits of what | had said, is an i'm
possibility. But it alone isn't the
farmers chief handicap in the race
of life. Without the toll of specu- {
1ation, distribution costs more than I
producers can bear even when con- G
sumner shares, in the form of high I
prices for foodstuffs, a due proper G
ton of the burden. I
During the past winter, Danish
dairymen laid down butter in New a
York at prices below the cost of pro- c
with that of distribution \
added, to the American dairymen. e
And you will be more astonished "
when | tell you that much of that c
Danish butter came from COWS fed a
With feed grown in my state, 1000 h
niles from seaboard, and shipped II
the Atlantic. "
1.-THE reason why Danish dairy G.
nen could export butter made from m
North Dakota feed into our markets CT
than mid-western dairymen
ould do, is because Denmark, like g
france and England, many years ago III
cached the crisis now facing US in az
smerica, and solved it. Today when b
tub of butter reaches Liverpool, a NJ
Jane, perhaps the direct representa- as
i've of the farmer that produced the IN
utter, is at the dock awaiting it. I
he tortuous route between producer ca
consumer, even when separated ca
y the sea, has been shortened and ! n
implified for the Danish farmer, m
18th the result that he can buy our tn
eed and ship us butter very often
Or less than our dairymen can get ~
to our customers. te
$1.5O Worth of Wool in Suit MI
"a sheep-grower friend of mine pr
while packing his market W
SIS crop of wool into a warehouse, WI
oticed a ~tailor's sign across the 1el
rect from where he was working. nm
e went over and asked what a good
lit of clothes would cost him. He
,und it was all a strong man could
!, to lug to the tailor shop at two
rms the amount of virgin wool he tie