The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1922-01-26
Some Aspects Of the
Farmers Problems
BY BERNARD M. BARUcH
Reprinted from Atlantic Monthly
By BERNARD M. BARUcH

Atlantic MOntniyy
of their inability to meet mortgages or
to pay current bills, and how, seeking
relief from their ills, they are plan
ming to form pools, inaugurate farm
ers' strikes, and demand legislation
abolishing grain exchanges, private
cattle markets, and the like, we ought
not hastily to brand them as economic
heretics and highwaymen, and hurl at
them the charge of being seekers OF
special privilege. Rather, we should
ask if their trouble is not ours, and
see what can be done to improve the
situation. Purely from self-interest.
IL for no higher motive, we should
help them. All of us want to get back
permanently to ''nOrmalcy;;" but 1t
reasonable to hope for that condition
unless our greatest and most basic in
dustry can be put on sound and solid
permanent foundation? The farmers
are not entitled to special privileges;
but are they not right in demanding
that they be placed on an equal foot
ing with the buyers Of their products
and with other industries7
II
Let Us, then, consider some OF the
farmers grievances, and see how far
they are real. In doing so, we should
remember that, while there have been,
and still are, Instances Of purposeful
abuse, the subject should not be APP
preached with any general imputatiOn
to existing distributlve agencies OF de-
liberately Intentional oppression, but
rather with the conception that the
marketing Of farm products has not
been mOdernized.
An ancient evil, and Q persistent
one, Is the undergrading Of farm prod
ucts, with the result that what the
farmers sell as Of one quality 10 re-
sold as of higher. That this sort of
chicanery should persist on any Inn
portant scale In these days Of bust
ness integrity would seem almost In
credible, but there is much evidence
that 1t does so persist. Even as I
write, the newspapers announce the
suspension Of several firms from the
New York Produce Exchange for ex-
porting to Germany as No.. 2 wheat a
whole shipload Of grossly inferior wheat
mixed with oats. chaff and the like.
Another evil is that of inaccurate
weighing of farm products, which, It
is charged, is sometimes matter of
dishonest intention and sometimes Of
protective policy on the part Of the
local buyer, who fears that he may
"weigh out" more than he weighs In"
A greater grievance Is that at pres
ent the field farmer has little or no
control over the time and conditions
of marketing his products. with the
result that he Is often underpaId for
his products and usually overcharged
for marketing service. The differ
ence between what the farmer re-
ceives and what the consumer pays
often exceeds all possibility of justi-
fication. To cite a single illustration.
Last year, according to figures attest,
ed by the railways and the growers,
Georgia Observation-Disclosures received
on the average rs cents for q melon,
the railroads got 1877 cents for carry
ing It to Baltimore and the consumer
paid one dollar, leaving 1913 cents for
the service Of marketing and its risks.
as against 2O.2 cents for growing and
transporting. The hard annals of
farm-life are replete with such COM
mentaries on the crudeness Of pres
ent practices.
Nature prescribes that the farmers
goods" must be finished within two
or three months Of the year, while
financial and storage limitations gen.
orally compel him to sell them at 1.-THE
same time. AS rule, other Industries
are in continuous process Of finish
ing goods for the markets; they dis
tribute as they produce, and they can
curtail production without too great
injury to themselves or the commu-
nifty; but If the farmer restricts his
output, II Is with disastrous cOnse-
quences, both to himself and to the
community.
The average farmer Is busy with
production for the major part. Of the
year, and has nothing to sell. The
bulk Of his output comes on the mar
ket at once. Because Of lack Of stOr-
age facilities and Of financial support.
the farmer cannot carry his goods
through the year and dispose Of them
as they are currently needed. In the
great majority Of cases, farmers have
to entrust stOrage-in warehouses and
elevators-and the financial carrying
Of their products to others.
Farm products are generally mar
keted at a time when there Is q con-
gestion Of both transportation and
finance-when cars and money are
scarce. Thee outcome, In many In
stances, Is that the farmers not only
sell under pressure. and therefore at
q disadvantage, but are compelled to
take further reductions In net returns,