Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1922-01-06
TO MEET FARM CRISIS

4 NTfuTli|f IH LHI lE't4 w.
troubles. worries, problems and anN-
f,t.e- ~ the man eho follows the
Nov OF rides the range. II VIII h'Ip
n, drama,.zc them SO the Nation may
see them for wba, they are.
The conference viii be a stop,
Look and Listen sign at the CROSSING
Tho farm caukcriug calamItles VIII
br brought out Of the Nations great
central plain SO the eaIlous ard care
less folk of the big towns and the m
5u.trial ccntcrs may see that all IS
moi, we'll with their meat and mix
and bread.
The National Unemployment Con
ference spot-lighted the voorhees,
worker. The Farm Conference VIII
show. for a brief time anywhere, a
situation that is dangerous and be-
coming more so.
Late in 1919 cyclones, Tomatoes
sandstorms, hot winds and earth
ouakes Of trouble hit the American
farmer. For a little time ne had rld-
den the high-price wave. but 1t snip
ned from under him, leaving MN
stranded high and dry on the beaches
Of calamity. -,
He is still there. Consequently
there have been farm blocs' in Con
press. a wave of rural organizing
mutterings ard rumblingsand what
NO biohbrow likes to call a "new
agrarian revolt" Farm loans troze
solidly, the country stopped buying
mail-ordcr houses got into trouble.
wages of old-time "populism' chased
each other across the farm country as
winds ripple in the wheat OF June
Hurt, angered, desperate, the corr
country and the corn and cotton belts
rose up and brewed war mediocre.
Tho call of the President is not al
idle gesture. There is big trouble or
American farms. There IS something
wrong with agriculture.
W. are passing through the mos'
savage agricultural depression We
have ever known. -.
True, prices have been lowered II
other davs, But today the farmer
IS getting less generally for his crops
than before the great war, and every
thing he pays for, wages, tranhporta
ton, loans and taxes, is sticking a
war levels.
The actual purchasing power o
farm nroducc today is lower than a
any other time in American history
Right now the wages OF the farme
are lower than the wages OF any othe
working group a.;
The great war did not create I'm
condition, but it fastened 1t, In
move from farm to big town IS a
old story. In 1860 about cighty-lou
Americans out Of every hundred i've
an farms. In 1920 sixty OF ever
hundred Of us lived in cities and town
Within sixty years farm popuIa''o
$ droppcd from 81 to 40 per cent.
There are too many factories an
, mills in America for US to keep I
tho old balances. We have come
a place where we must make up o,
g American minds whether we are
o no a lopsided Industrial nation III
England or a symmetrical, baianc,
and rounded country something III
- wc were in 1900, when country al
/. city were more nearly balanced.
o As the President and his SecretaI
g Of Agriculture Henry Wallace see
l. the conference faces two tasks, v.
@ is to relieve what the President cal
k a temporary difficulty, the oth
g is to chart an agricultural policy
L. the future. r.
What does the farmer want! H'
does he diagnose his W troubles :
/ First, he wants a better marKetl
system and a bigger chunk of
10 consumers dollar. To get these
I'd wants much legislation to back
his own cooperative efforts,
sc Then he wants credit that will MI
in his seasonal and business needs,
h. general lcvelir% down of prices
st what he must buy and lowered frela
- rates. He wants to turn fhrml
n into a business instead of a gam!
u More than enything else he wa
H. and nceds-un intelligent, hv'
Nd day-by-day recognition of the Sc
he fact that national welfare depa'
to upon sound agriculture.
as Ii the conference that is to be
Ne somehow bring about recognition
will be an invaluable achievement.