The Washington herald., 1922-01-25

appear on schedule the I'd of next
month.
Other Prominent Farmers.
You could say that when you
saw farmer Eugene Meyer, jr., who
runs a big New York banking
house. talking earnestly with
farmer Senator Pat Harrison,
backed up in a corner of the room.
he was negotiating the loan Of
$21.6o to meet the road taxes due
next Wednesday. and promising to
pay it back just as soon as the
mulley calf is old enough to sell
for veal.
II farmer Ring Lardner were only
mere with the rest Of them, he
could write a whole chapter about
that announcement Secretary WAL
lace of the Department of Agricul-
ture made the first day to the ef-
rect that If anyone had forgotten
10 bring along his dress-suit, he
needn't let that keep him away
from the White House reception.
You could imagine farmer Theodore
Price. who has bought, and sold
more cotton on the Liverpool and
New York markets than any other
pCISOHs
straight up to the President. with
his overalls on; and Mrs. Farmer
clifford Pinchot extending a hand,
still moist, to Mrs. Harding. with
an apologetic explanation that the
hour of the reception was so early
that she had TO come straight in
from milking without waiting to
wash up.
Would he Sacrificing Truth.
You could say all these things:
but If you should say them and not
say any more, you would be willing
to sacrifice truth and usefulness to
the merely humorous aspect YOU
can find in any event If you look
for that and nothing else.
The truth is that these men and
women prominent in other lines of
industry are not more than one in
ten among the sure-enough farm
ers, and are here with the farmers
in order that the conference may
have the complete story and cover
the field as a whole. The strik-
ing difference between this farm
congress and the sort of ne'er-do-
well rabble that Coxey and Sock
less Jerry" Simpson used to bring
looks and acts like a gathering
of the business men that modern
farmers have come to be.
The opening speech of the chair
man, Representative Sydney An
derson, of Minnesota, who is also
chairman of the Joint Congress
sional Committee to investigate
agricultural conditions. might just
as readily have been made by the
chairman of the annual meeting
of the American Banking Associa-
tion. 1t was the speech of thor
oughly equipped and thoughtful
student of fundamental economic
laws. a minute analysis of the
sequence of phenomena in the
wOrld-old cycle that begins with
panic and passes through a fixed
and regular succession of phases,
up to prosperity. and then repeats
the process over again.
Knows Economic Laws.
There was nothing whatever of
the sort of thing that you used to
hear in the last great agricultural
depression of the early nineties.
This is not a pathetic gathering
of embittered and unlearned men.
unable to be much more articulate
than to cry. We want ours" and
so unfamiliar with the laws of
economics that Wall Street could
afford to laugh at the panaceas
with which they proposed to get
it. This 1922 meeting of farmers
knows as much about economic
laws as any Wall Street banker
does.
Incidentally. one Wall Street
banker is here in the role of a kind
of guide and advisCSy expert for
the farmers. B. NJ. Baruch knows
probably more about the psychol-
ogy and other intricacies of mar
keting and trade than any other
living man. He knows all the de-
vices by which the middlemen and
the forestallers have been able to
hcrnswoEgle the farmer. and he has
dedicated himself to showing the
farmer how to beat the game. The
big farm organizations have ap-
pealed to him as a kind of Moses,
and he has come to be an important
and much-depended-on figure in
their councils
Give Lesson I'm Cooperation.
Some of the other big business
men. in a less formal way. have also
embraced the idea that the farmer
can be taught to cooperate and
practice sound and effective bust
ness methods. the same as other
lines of industry which have been
more able to do so in the past be-
cause they have been smaller and
have had the compact integration
which the farmers are now trying
to achieve.
If you are watching things from
here in Washington. II you could
see this conference and be familiar
with the strength of the American
Farm Bureau Federation. and know
the power of the farm bloc in on
Cress, you wouldn't have much
doubt that the farmer is going to
be in the saddle. He is going to
dominate the future. In the chaos
of our postwar economic readjust-
ments. this country might conceiv-
ably have taken. or yet take. any
one of several roads. 1t Is now
fairly certain that We are going to
take the path which recognizes the
farm as our fundamental industry,
and the all-to- basis
of our future policy.
VIII Dominate Politics.
That policy. under the Leadership
Of the farmer and the farmers
friends, may turn out in either on
of two ways: Either we may be-
come a closely integrated. strongly
self-contained. and more or less
economically isolated nation. with a
high tariff and foreign trade as a
second matter. and with the farmer
looking mainly to the domestic
market Or we may take the other
direction. II the farmers come to