Arizona republican., 1922-06-21
The Volume of Farm Products

The Volume of Farm Products
In the midst of an eloquent address in behalf
of the Smith -NcNary bill Senator Ashurst was in
terrupted by Lenroot who inquired 81 should
like to ask the senator whether the country needs
increased production of agricultural products
today?"
Though the argument of the senator for Arizona
had been directed chiefly the benefit that would
to ex-service from the operation of such
a law the Smith-McNary bill proposes he had
pictured the additions which would be made to the
cultivated by the further reclamation arid
west, the drainage of the swamp lands of the south
and the "cut-over' lands of the northwest.
We are not that the implication in Senator
Lenroots inquiry, that agricultural production
was already too great serious. Neither we sus-
pect was Senator Ashurst that the Wisconsin
senator was not joking but if he had regarded him
seriously he would perhaps have branched into
another line of argument answering directly that
there was not too great volume of agricultural
products.
Whether not raise at times too much corn,
wheat, cotton, hay livestock apt to deter
mine it by the state of the markets which is not a
reliable barometer. It would be if we perfect
distributing and marketing system; if the system
were regulated by the law of supply and demand.
AS it is though the market indicates neither
plenitude paucity. The producer is apt to be-
agricultural products is too great while the
is convinced by prices he has to pay that
there ought to be greater agricultural production
Last winter when the farmers of Nebraska and
Kansas were burning corn because they could not
afford to haul it to shipping points they were no
doubt sure that there too much and wheat.
But the people in the towns and cities who
complaining of the high prices of meats and other
food stuffs knew that not enough was being raised.
dark. Only the middlemen knew the real relation
between production and consumption.
As a general proposition it may be stated that
there is production of food stuffs.
An exception may be noted in the of some
crop to which farmers may turn in consequence of
high prices more previous seasons, and flood
a limited market. But these cases are compare
lively rare.
In the early days of the settlement of this coun-
try when the ratio of the rural to the urban popu-
lation was greater than it is now, when a larger
ratio was engaged in raising food stuffs there
not too much being raised. And all the time the
cultivated area being extended beyond the Ale
ghenies into the territory of Ohio. In the set
Elements there only local markets. and fire.
quently markets at ALL but the people had plenty
to eat and were content There automo
biles monographs and few of what
then considered as luxuries but neither there
any breadlines and no cry raised for food.
Nobody was very rich and nobody needed to be very
poor
And all the time the area of cultivated land
being extended by adventurous settlers pushing
little farther into the wilderness, the plains of
Indiana the prairies of Illinois. and the middle of the
last century moving in great caravans desert
and mountain to the new lands of Oregon.
Still there is the cry for homes and farms. 1t
has been redoubed by the demands of the thousands
of ex-service men, There not be too many farm
homes this country. too many citizens attached to
the soil, for Mr.. Ashurst stated in his speech
The moment a citizen becomes a land owner he
becomes stock holder in the republic, and no gov
ernment with safety ignore the question of af-
fordng industrious persons opportunity to acquire
home"
We would not need to worry about over pro-
duetion if every of America susceptible
of cultivation were reclaimed and put to use.
a reform has been well begun of a marketing
system for agricultural products assuring to grow
ere greater share of the profits from their abors
and to consumers lower prices in consequence of
reduced cost of distribution which now constitutes
so large part of the consumers price
We have, of course, much farther to go in this
direction but have made start are advancing
and we will attain toward perfected system.