The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-07-13

garded as one of the big men" Of the
nation while farmers throughout the
United States look to him as a leader
in the attacks on the serious problems
that confront them. In the following
Story he sheds a light on the "agricul-
tural bloc" that may give you a new
understanding of it's aims. The SEN
ator from Kansas knows his subject
and has the courage Of his convic-
tions.
For many years the United States
government has been content to let
agriculture take care of itself. There
has been no national policy Of a con-
structive nature. Farmers have gone
on producing under many handicaps
that might easily have been removed.
The result has been disaster that III
the last two years has overtaken the
farmers, caused billions of dollars in
losses by shrinkage in the value Of
farm products, and has been seriously
detrimental to business throughout
the land. Agriculture has been brought
to a point where its future is in peril,
where it is bound to go backward un.
less real relief is forthcoming.
The need of a constructive national
program looking to the rehabilitation
of agriculture is regarded by the farm
bloc as imperative. / think that fact
is appreciated by business men as
we'll as by farmers. 1t is generally
accepted that prosperity must come
first to the farms before it can pre-
vail in the city.
Farming Is the only business left
that buys at retail and sells at whole
sale, that pays what is asked when
it buys and accepts what is offered
when it sells. The farmer remains
merely a producer of the n~ecessaries
Of human life. After he has produced
them other organizations take them
over at their own price for distribu-
ton. This is true of no other impor-
tant industry. The producer gets but
one-third of every dollar paid by the
for the products Of the farm.
Our expensive and Anticipated market
ing system takes the other t~wo-thirds.
The ~unfavorable conditions under
which agriculture has been struggling
have wrought serious changes in it.
The hazards OF the business have
driven out owners and brought in
tenants. Tenancy is increasing every
year, and this is a menace to the ma
ton, because it means, in the final
analysis, that soil rapidly is being de-
pleted, and little is being done on
many acres to build up fertility. The
average enter is not a soil imprOver.
Farms are growing larger because
land is steadily passing into the hands
of capitalists and investors. The num-
Der of renters has not increased so
far as the number of acres they lease.
While the proportion of rented farms
increased three per cent between 1910
and 1920, the increase in acres rented
during the same period has been 20
per cent. This nation needs more
small farms titled by the owners of
the land.
American agriculture has become
the football of the market manipula-
tor and the market gambler, the legiti-
mate good thing Of the organized
buyer and the organized seller, until
at last it is breaking under the strain.
Both producer and consumer are suf-
lering from a marketing and dis
tributing system SO years behind the
times, the only difference being that
the producer on the farm is suffering
from it a little more at the present
time than usual because we are in the
throes of a readjustment. He parts
with his products long before the con-
sumner sees them or needs them. A
host of toll and profit takers mean
while busy themselves with these
products, transferring them from hand
to hand and absorbing as much profit
as they, with their skill at that sort of
thing are able to extract from the
marketing business.
We have just recently learned that
for the first time in history we have
more people working in factories than
on our farms, although our population
is increasing at the rate of n million
a year. A study Of the censu re-
turns shows that agriculture has been
the only interest to decline. In the
last decade employment in manufac-
turing increased 20 per cent. The
professions all show a healthy growth.
But we are not keeping the boys and
girls on the farm and we are not going
to until the conditions Of the agricul.