The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1922-03-16
INSURANCE FoR NATION
STERILIZATION FARM PRICES


OumNNuNs
The agricultural prohlsm today
is deeper than IS indicated BY cur
rent discussions in the press and
elsewhere. which treat it parely as
a present emergency.
In my Judgment. the root Of the
trouble IS IN the fact that Americas
farmers have not received adequate
compensation for their effort. as
compared with the compensation in
other voeati0nS
The accumulated wealth Of our
agricultural classes largely repres-
ents enhanced values rather than
the earnings from their labor or the
profits from their investment. The
farmer should have q fair return
for his services as compared with
the earnings Of any other class,
and if we exclude the item Of enhar-
eed land value he has not received
this return even in better times
Perhaps the most serious aspect
of the agricultural situation IS that
the farmers fixed expenses, which
the manufacturer would call over
head or burden, are not much higher
than they have been before The
single item of farm taxes in many
localities is higher today than the
rental on the same farm would
have been a comparatively short
tome ago.
The only resOurse of the Ameri-
can farmer in the current period Of
distress is one that he and many
others have employed before-that
is, heavy eurtaiIment of buying.
Farmers purchases were far below
normal in 1921, and they remain at
low levels. Meanwhile the prices of
practically everything the farmers
buy have been constantly working
lower until now we find that the
single item of increased cost of
transportation almost, if not wholly,
represents the reduction of the pur-
chasing power of a given unit of
farm produce today, as compared
with the pre-war period This in
creased transportation cost de-
creases the price of what the farm
er has to sell and also increases the
cost of what he must buy.
While the farmer has endeavored
to meet the present situation by
temporarily buying less, he cannot
in that way escape the burden Of
fixed charges, based on enhanced
land values, which must be met re-
CARELESS of the price he obtains for
his products.
One solution of the problem
is a better system for marketing
farm products If foOdstuffs can be
carried over when there is a surplus,
that not only viii stabilize agricul-
ture, but viii provide insurance
against a possible food shortage in
the following year.
Even though crops are now SELL
ing below cost of production, it Is
not visionary to consider the posi-
bility of a food shortage
America has repeatedly been an
importer of wheat in the past. The
indications today are that while the
1921 crop was sold below a fair
price, the surplus going abroad at
less than the cost of production, it
IS possible and even probable that
we shall be importing wheat in 1922
Aside from the question of food
supply, these facts eonstitut
powerful argument for better sys-
TEN of crop marketing.
Under such a system the farmer
could avoid the necessity of selling
under pressure at too low a price,
and the worlds greatest grain
growing nation would be spared the
economic absurdity of importing
wheat to meet its domestic require
metns.
Nations and municipalities pro-
vide sinking funds against future
contingencies. Any wen managed
business builds up reserves in pros
porous times against such a period
of strain as the present Why, then.
should not We make an effort to pro-
vide a reserve as insurance against
shortage Of the essentials Of life,
when such provision would in great
measure stabilize the valse Of the
farmers crop and also wodld pro-
tect the whole people against the
distress that inevitably wonld fol-
low any serious shortage in the