The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-07-11
FARM PRICES

For the past six months there has been a maze of conflicting
opinions as to what allied the farm prosperity of the nation. One
man said one thing, another stated another. Newspapers all
over the country discussed the quotations from every angle and
no two opinions were alike in either the diagnosis or the cure.
The last month or so has seen a little clearing OF the skies and
now the best posted authorities in the country, including the
secretary of agriculture himself, are more or less unanimous in
attributng the present low prices to over production OF: farm
products. ~t:
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace uttered words of wisdom
the other day when he said that over production OF wheat was a
bad thing for the farmers. Over production of anything is a
bad thing for the man who produces it. 1t means cheaper prices.
Our democratic friends have argued that the trouble with
farm prices, particularly wheat was that Europe was in no posi-
ton to take over our surplus, that we should enter the league
of nations and help put Europe on her feet. They claimed that
the surplus wheat which was not exported held down the price
of the entire crop. All of which sounds perfectly logical, except
for the fact that it is fundamentally wrong because exports of
wheat from this country for the past two years have far ex-
ceeded the pre-war exports. Crops have grown larger and larger
and as a result we have a surplus OF 17O,O0O,OO0 bushels to-day
and the new crop coming in. %"
The great industries of the country such as sell lumber, OIL
the packers and others guard against a surplus of their products.
The farmers do not. That to a great extent explains the relative
difference in the profits and prosperity of farming and the in
dustries named. When there is an over production of oil the
owners of the wells shut them up for a time, as witness the
practice in our own Montana oil fields. But the farmer. keeps
right on raising wheat, no matter how glutted the market may be.
Right now the farmers are being organized into a great wheat
marketing association. The statement has been made that If the
progress of this organization continues for the next three years
1T the rate it has been going, the wheat farmers will control the
market at the end of that time. If they do this they will naturally
hold up the price. However, if the price is thus made attractive
additional wheat will be raised, millions OF bushels, thus creating
a surplus that will break the price in spite of anything the
marketing associations may do.
1t begins to look as though the farms associations will have
to go one step further and besides controlling the market methods
educate the farmers to diversity their crops and produce enough
of the great staples like wheat to meet the consumers demands
and no more. In other words the agricultural output will have
to be regulated in the same manner that the output of steel, oil
lumber and packing house products are regulated. !Hh
All this means more or less of a reorganization of the farm
ing industry. 1t means that there are going to be fewer farmers
that only the efficient ones can afford to stay in the industr!
and that eventually rewards for farming will be as great as fo
any other line of endeavOr. 1t is a long road and a rocky one
with few immediate prospects for relief, but it is something tina
might as well be faced.
Here in the Ganatn nature has given us the start in tn
race with the best farming land on earth. We can raise crop
cheaper than they can elsewhere because of our larger averag
yields. We can diversity, we can run profitable side lines, Xix
peas, in fact there are many possibilities and small need flo
pessimism. But two things stand out plainly, the farming of tn
nation must be reorganized and likewise organized. Withou
organization the farmer. in the future will be as helpless as the
have been in the past.