The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-01-28
FARMER DOOMED
THROUGH WASTE
! BY INDUSTRIES
Herbert Hoover Tells Engineers
Industry Must be Re-organ-s
lied to Save Agriculture :
Unless waste in production, trans

Unless waste in production, trans
portation and distribution are elm
mated, the American farmer is
doomed to be reduced to the status
of a European peasant" Secretary
of Commerce Herbert Hoover
warned the members of the Ameri-
can Engineering Council, in conven-
ton at Washington. =,
The present excessive level of con-
sumers' prices, as compared with
production costs. Mr.. Hoover said,
Is not due to swollen profits, but
to the existence Of avoidable waste.
Economists of manufacture, trans
portation and distribution must be
sought as the remedy, he declared
and the way to a solution lay in
the conclusions reached in the coun-
ellis recent investigation of waste
in industry.
Reductions Of freight rates, the
secretary said, will be OF little bene-
fit to the farmer, for the cause of
his distress lies much deeper. In
dustry must be completely reorgan-
lied, he argued, if American agricul-
ture is to be rescued from destruc-
ton. -:
Nation Lacks Sympathy.
Herbert Quick. an authoritative
writer. on economics and recently
member Of the Federal Farm Loan
Bureau, says that it is no exag-
geration. to say that in Iowa thou
sands Of farmers have been turned
off their farms into the roads," If,
he added, the same conditions that
exist in, the Middle West existed in
Ireland; 'tallt our sympathy would go
out to the: poor Irish people, =" -
Farmers all through the great
corn states are burning corn for
fuel Mr.. Quick says, and it Isl be-
ing burned not only on the farms,
but in the electric light and. other
power plants. . II the farmer takes
!, his corn to town" and sells it, Mr..
Quick continued, the money he gets
will not buy coal or any other fuel
that will give as much heat or power
as the corn he has sold. Burning
food, therefore, becomes the simple
economic proposition, said the econ
+ omist.
1.-THE freight rates have. a great
deal to do with The situation" de-
clared Mr.. Quick. 1.-THE freight is
so high that the farmer cannot ship
his corn to market. It is the. same
way with wheat and all other farm
products"
Does Not Reach Farmer.
The work that Is being done by
the War Finance Corporation, says
Mr.. Quick, doesn't reach directly to
the farmer. except in the case OF
some Of the Southern co-operatives,
| where cotton planters have joined
together. 1.-THE: big bulk Of the
work Of the War Finance Corpora
tion," he adds. has been in sup
porting the banks that have loaned
money to the farmers and keep
| ing the banks from going to the
wall. It has undoubtedly saved
many bank failures. But the farm
| ers have. not been able to get the
! new capital they need =
| The situation makes it impera-
| tive that agricultural representa-
tives in congress stand together for
| the protection Of the interests they
| represent, the economist declares.
| People are tired of hearing about
the troubles of our farmers" he
says, land they look with great pre-
judice on the agricultural bloc in
congress. They forget about the
high tariff bloc and the manufac-
turers' bloc and the bankers bloc
and the many other. blocs we have
always had with us and say that
the agricultural bloc is something
new in our political history and q
great menace to- the country.
II don't see, though, how, the rep
resentatives and senators can help
forming a bloc and trying to ia
som hing. for their 0nstitalants