Evening star., 1922-01-23


cultural industry. / believe that ad-
vancement in farm organization, If not
a preliminary to, at least must go hahd
in hand with. improvement in the dis
tributive machinery of the country.
i"rhe farmer must delegate the power
of selling his crop and OF putting 1t IN
shape for market and Of performing an
of the services necessary to its delivery
in quality, quantity. time and place 10
some organization which he controls.
Government Must Help.
1.-The government must remove the
obstacles which retard, if they do not
prevent, combinations of farmers for
the purposes of sorting, grading. pack
ing or processing their products. The
states must give legal status to organl-
cations of this kind which will establish
definitely their legal powers and obli-
cations as well as the legal powers and
Liabilities of their members.
REIMBURSEMENT, either Of prices Oh
of freight rates, does not readily lend
itself 20 legislative ucJior," Mr.. An
derSon said. The first must be
brought about by economic measures:
the second, by such administrative ac
ton on the part of the public author
tiles controlling transportation and
the mana agement of the railroads as
cluded in transportation rates into
proper relation with commodity
prices" he intimated.
AN examination Of the course Of
commodity prices during the recent
crisis shows that prices declined least
and declined least rapidly in the COM
modities controlled by highly organ
lied industries" the speaker said
There is IA good illustration of this
ability to resist pr,ce decline by or
ganization and control of output in
the dairy industry. Because this in
dustry was probably better organized
than any other agricultural industry
it was able in some degree to control
production and to snterpoSe greater
resistance to the decline Of prices of
it's products than any other part of
agriculture. and its products. there
fore, declined less in price.
Prices Of agricultural products
have at no time in the last. twenty
years returned the farmer profit
upon investment p:uS reward for
labor, risk and management equal to
the average wagssc received by the
persons employed in other industries.
Mr.. Anderson declared
Twenty-Six Woman Delegates.
Five days have been allotted to the
conference which is to consider the
emergency facing the country's pro-
ducers. and then take up The matter
of permanent agricultural policy.
More than half of the personnel of
the conference is composed Of dirt
farmers" another third of repreSen-
tativeS of state agricultural officials.
agricultural colleges and editors OF
agricultural papers, and the re-
mainder-f industries dependent on
agriculture. Twenty-siN women, sew
eral of whom own and operate their
own farms, are included in the list of
delegates.
The present agricultural situation
and suggested remedies are being
placed before the conference at the
afternoon session today through re-
ports by representatives from the
leading farm regions of the United
States. E. b. Cornwall of Middlebury.
Vt, will lead speakers for the north
eastern states, and. in turn. will fol-
low James w. Morton of Athens. Ga.
for the cotton belt: John II. Hagan of
Deering. n. D.. the wheat regions; A
Sykes of Ida Grove. Iowa, the corn
belt. and Fred Bixby of Long Beach,
Calf the range country.
Ten-minute discussions of the effect
of the agricultural depression on
other industries will follow from Will
liam Black of Louisville, KY. repre-
senting the implement industry;
James F. Bell of Minneapolis. Mimi,
the milling industry: Thomas Wilson
of Chicago. the packing Industry, and
c. A. Mcdowell of Chicago. the fer
tilizer industry. The matter will then
be thrown open for discussions from
the floor.
The conference is expected to pro-
vide for the threshing out of the vari-
Gus problems through committees.
probably named on the broad lines of
productions, financing. transportation
an! marketing. These, in turn. prob
ably will provide for the appointment
of subcommittee on various agricul-
tural commodities. Beginning tomor-
row, the mornings will be devoted to
general meetings of the conference
and the afternoons given over to COM
mittee work.