Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-02-04
MR.. HASkIN TELLS OF
POLITICS AND FARMERS
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-Why is
! it that farming, the greatest business
/ in he United States and the most
important one in the world. does not
pay in this country and is never
stable?
That is the question which is the
| oretical,y before the national farm
| conference, but there is no evidence
whatever that the conference will
shed any more light on the sub
ject than the unemployment confer
| ence did on the fundamental causes
of unemployment or than the dis
armament conference did on the
4 probiem OF world peace. or than n
other political conference ever sheds
on anything.
1t is an illuminating experience to
read tne political pronouncements
on the subject of the farmer and
! farming, n then study the views
of ANY competent student of the ag-
rarian problem and compare hem
1t gives Tie, innocent and unpreJu-
diced investigator the impression
tina. politics is largely the art or
lodging the facts.
1t is true that there are more po-
litical and legislative remedies be-
| lore lle pubflC IOE SOiNili6 lhS oAN
problems than there are patent me-
dicines for curing corns. The poll
| tic.ans propose a tariff on farm pro-
ducts, they propose to encourage
cooperative marketing, n they
have q dozen other projects for amel-
\ iorating the farmers lot. Most OF
them have been tried before and
none of them has made, any large or
permanent difference. Congress has
been turning out large quantities or
legislation fer farmers at every ses-
sion for generations and yet the
condition of the farmer has go'
steadily worse ever since about 1890.
It is not meant TO imply that none
of the legislation passed and pro
posed is OF any value, but simply to
poinl ct the obvious fact that none
of it has worked any permanent
change in the general condition OF
the farmer. The only thing which
can be sale is that ever since the
body of free public land in the Unit
ed States was exhausted. which hap
pened about or soon after 1890
| farulin, has been falling into a more
and more ~precarious condition.
The Price Of Land
1t 10 no. unreasonable then tc
assume some connection between the
disappearance of free land and the
4 present unstable and Improbable
condition Of farming as a business,
Ev ~ since the free land was exhaust
ed, the price of lane has risen stead
lily. an this country and to astonish-
ing heights. This high price of land,
we are assured By all students oil
the problem, is the fundamental
reason farming does not pay. ano
they assure us that it cannot pay
until those land values are somehow
brought dowr and stabilized. 1t must
be maGe possible for the man who
wants 10 farm to invest his money
in land and make a good return or
the investment. And it must b'
made mofe profitable for the mar
who own- land to stay on it and farm
it than to sell it and go to the city
and invest money Id something else
These simple facts are always ant
completely overlooked by congress.
and by the politicians generally. II
would be a safe Der that there viii
be no discussion OF this phase of the
matter at the conference.
Ever competent man in the De
partment of Agri culture knows thai
inflated and ever-rising land values
are the whole trouble with farming
and holt a dozen OF them have ex'
planned the matter to the writer Of
this article,
"But don't quote me-" they always
end up. Their Jobs are politica
jobs.
The opinion that something mus
be Gone about lani values is by M
means confined to so-called radicals
Colleges and banks are not radica
Institutions. Yet the gist of tn
whole matter is contained in som'
figures compiled By the Iowa Stat'
College of Agriculture and published
in one of It's market letters by tn
National City Bank of New YORK
"A Typical Case
This study comprised, anon
other things, an investigation of ~
farms devoted to the raising of oats
The average value CT the land was
found 20 be $3.50 per acre. The larg'
est item in the cost of production
of cats on this land vas the interes
on The money invested in the lane
at 5h per cent. This production
cos. came 10 1883 per acre. Al
other production costs came to Sl5.
90 G acre. Thus over half the cos
of production was interest on the in
vestlnent in land. The study show
ed that OF. only two farms out Q