Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1922-12-22
Tariff And Other Taxes Absorb
Farmers Income.

Advances in the prices Of agricultural
products will be greatly exceeded by the
increases in the cost Of living among aeri-
cultural producers under the operation Of
the Fordney- McCumber tariff act, which
puJS niyiIcT al thu commodities
the farmer consumes without giving him a
corresponding return for what he sells.
Secretary Of Agriculture Wallace. in his
annual report for 1922. testiRes to the dis
proportion between the prices the farmer
has been compelled to pay and the prices
he receives for his grain, live stock, fruits
and other products, This report shows
that the farmers Of the country have been
10 the greatest distress, with the cost of
living and the burden Of taxation growing
while their incomes have been diminishing.
while the prices Of many important
farm products have advanced considerably
over last year, this advance has been ac-
companied by equally large or larger ad-
vances in the price Of other commodities,
says Secretary Wallace. For example.
the index of wholesale prices of commodi-
ties other than farm products was 176 in
August this year 1929 as against $50 in
August, 1921.
In August and September. 1922, given
unit Of farm products could be exchanged
for only about two thirds ga per cent? as
much Of other commodities as that same
unit would have purchased in the year
1918"
August and September, 1929, were, re-
spectively IL and Is months subsequent
TO the Inauguration Of President Harding
and the beginning of the Sixty-seventh
Congress-. which the Republicans have con-
trolled in both branches by considerable
majority. Both the Republican President
and the Republican Congress came into
power with distinct pledge that they
would restore the farmers prosperity and
return the whole country to a condition of
normally" Now, almost two years after
the Harding administration and the Re-
publican Congress commenced TO function.
q member Of the Presidents Cabinet con-
cedes that the condition of agriculture is
incomparably worse than il was when the
Republican promises TO the farmer were
given and the opportunity TO make good
was first presented to the Republican re-
CINE.
II the disparity between the prices the
farmer receives for what he has to sell and
the prices Of the commodities he must
consume was so obvious and so ruinous
before the Fordney- McCumber protiteers'
tariff law became operative. what will IL
be year hence when that act has come
to full fruition in larger cost Of living
For the profiteers tariff was not designed
to benefit the farmer and won't improve
his situation in the least. II imposed
duties on grain and cattle and few other
agricultural products. but of these there are
surpluses for which the producer must find
markets abroad and at prices which are
fixed not by an American tariff law but
by the memorable law Of supply and de-
mand. The condition Of our agriculture
would seem to justify thorough study of
the International situation as II bears upon
the outlet for products Of our farms" says
Secretary Wallace.
That is true, but the present Republican
administration seems utterly indifferent to
the international situation" whether in re-
spect to its relation with agriculture or any
other interest.