The Ocala banner., 1922-02-03
WHAT Mr.. HARDING DID NOT SAY

President Harding at the opening
of the National Agricultural Confer
ence was most sympathetic in dis
cussing fne plight of the American
farmer but he was careful not to
mention the causes of this economic
misfortune.
The President talked about every
thing except the essentials. What he
refrained from saying is that the prop
erty of American agriculture depends
on the foreign demand, and that this
foreign demand having been lessened
because of political and economic in
stability in Europe the farmer is pay
in the price of isolation.
Millions of people in Europe will die
from starvation before spring because
they cannot get American food. 9th
er millions will manage to exist, but
their vitality will be permanently
weakened by reason of malnutrition.
There is enough food in the world to-
day to feed the world, but the ma
chinery of distribution has broken
down. 1t has not broken down be-
cause of crippled railroad, or because
the farmers are not organized, or be-
cause there is no ST. Lawrence Canal,
or because the banks do not make
longtime loans. 1t has broken down
| through the collapse of European
credits and the economic disturbances
that have resulted from an unstabiliz-
ed peace.
| In many places American farmers
are burning corn because it is cheaper
than coal. In other places European
villages are starving because no means
exist by which they can obtain this
corn or its equivalent The President
again expresses his naive astonish-
ment that 100000 bales of cotton are
actually worth more to the producer
than 100000 bales and that 7OO.-
00O,000 bushels of wheat would bring
more money to the farmers than L.
OO0,000000 bushels. Yet that is SO
simply because the foreign need can
not be converted into a commercial
demand
The American farmer must cross
the Atlantic to find the real reason
why he has been so remorselessly
liquidated during the last two years;
but if he stopped to think he might dis
cover that the beginning of his diff
culties conceded with the refusal of
the United States Senate to ratify the
Treaty of Versailles and help guaran-
tee the peace of the world. The econo-
mic disintegration of Europe has been
rapid since the treaty was beaten, and
the American farmer is among the vic
tins.
No other one cause has contributed
more than the inability to fix the Ger
man reparations at a sum that Ger
many could meet without flooding the
rest of the world with the products
of sweated labor, but Mr.. Harding re-
fuses to appoint an American member
of the Reparation Commission or to
employ the strength and influence of
the United States in any way to stabi-
lize Europe. An Economic Confer
ence is to meet in Genoa in which all
the principal nations will participate.
but the invitation to the United States |
has not been accepted and nobody
can discover whether it ever will be
accepted.
The Harding Administration is will
in to cooperate about Asiatic affairs
which do not affect the prosperity
of American agriculture except remote
ly; but it is unwilling to cooperate
about European affairs which touch
the daily life of American trade, f.
nance, industry and agriculture. The
explanation of this unwillingness is to
be found in the record made by the
Republican majority of the Senate in
respect to the Treaty of Versailles
and the necessity that Mr.. Harding
feels of preserving that record at any
cost.
The President yesterday was ready
to discuss everything in relation to
American agriculture except the actual
causes of its disastrous decline. If he
had discussed that question frankly
he would have been obliged to say that
the Senate had made ghastly mud
die of everything and that partisan
politics was levying tax on the Amer
ican people second only to that levied
by war.-World
ElnRlnA rAN-C