Evening star., 1923-07-27
EY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

CHICAGO, July 26.-In the weet
that witnessed Magnus Johnsons ar
rival in the hall of fame and Senator
Brookhart's return from Europe
''Ding," Iowa's nationally celebrated
cartoonist, drew classic. 1t depicted
Uncle Sam taking an irascible citi-
zen. labeled American Discomfort,
by the scruff of the neck and ejacu-
lating:
Say! You've got more food, more
wages, more work, more opportunities,
more luXuries than anybody in the
world. What's eatin' you?"
The cartoon loses none of its
pointed timeliness from the fact that
the calamity howler portrayed: who
with everything" bears an unmis-
taxable resemblance to the new sena-
tor from Minnesota. Incidentally.
American Discontent's" attention Is
drawn to The Rest of the World,
which Ding" pictures as hopeless
morass of want. poverty. starvation
wages, Indebtedness, unemployment,
munger and chaos.
Reaction in Chicago.
Coming out of the sullen and dis
consolate west into the metropolis
of optimism, which is ChiCago-the
Chicago which seems to grow more
beautiful and more opulent from week
TO week-one is bound 10 ask ones
sell if "Ding's" reasoning isn't right.
isn't the mid-weSt'S Crouch" a little
overdrawn. if not fundamentally un-
justified? Aren't things in the farm
regions intrinsically sound, and
aren't they going to work out nor
mallv. if gradually. and without
heroic treatment at the hands of DR..
Congress!
Strong opinions, affirmatively an
sWering those questions, are ex-
pressed to this writer by one of the
foremost economic authorities in the
west-Arthur Reynolds, president of
the gigantic Continental and CONNER
cial National Bank of Chicago. With
00.000,000 of deposits. $4,000 or
10000 individual accounts. 5000 to
5000 country bank depositors, and
$4,000 savings accounts, the Cont
nentalCommercial group Is probably
in closer and more direct contact with
midwest conditions than any other
institution in the country. There can
be no reaction anywhere, for it op-
crates in every state of the union.
that does not reflect itself instantly
in the activities of the bank over
which Mr.. Reynolds presdes.
Farm Country Sound.
Brookhart, Johnson, La Toilette &
Co. to the contrary Notwithstanding,
this Chicago super-banker holds that
the position of the agricultural west
IS lnNinClply SOunu. II is not as
isfactory from the farmers stand
point it ought to be, Mr.. Reynolds
says, but it is miles removed from
hopelessness or even real discourage
ment.
II could reel off for you a long
chapter of facts and figures" Rey
nolds explained, ITO prove my con-
tention that it's all right with the
west I'll just mention one situation.
Not so long ago the Continental-Com-
mercial was carrying an abnormal
total of S75,000.000 or sS0,000.000 of
country bank loans. Within the past
few months. covering the period of
the greatest depression among the
farmers, we have scaled down that
sum by tens of millions, until the
aggregate Is now where it was under
ordinary western conditions
The country banks have Cancelled
these obligations without effort. The
significant thing is that in the over
whelming number of cases they have
been using farmers money with
which to do it. 1t means that the
grain growers and cattle raisers of
the west cannot be as impoverished
as the Brookharts represent them to
be, to say nothing of the bank
ruptcy' into which political agitatorS
have plunged them
business Conditions.
What the apostles of woe stu
diously refrain from explaining to the
farmer is that he is a business man
and is undergoing only the trials and
tribulations that other business men
have weathered and still. are expe-
riencing. Have the farmers, for ex-
ample, Jared any worse than the re-
viled meat packers? Have any of
Senator Brookhart's or Senator John
sons constituents in the grass roots
had any more devastating troubles
than Armour & Co.? Does any cam
paign speflbinder, or other dissent
nator of discomfort remind the farm
er that almost every business and
business man in the United States has
passed through postwar crisis and
that thousands of them are not out
of the woods yet? Armours are a
case in point. There is a concern
with $500.000.000 of assets. $4,000 en-
ployes, a worldwide business. with
branches in every civilized corner of
the globe. dealing in one of the
prime necessities of human life. Yet
conditions have imposed upon that
concern revolutionary financial re-
adjustment that. as everybody
knows, more than once was accom-
panied by possibilities of the most
menacing kind.
American businessman who has his
troubles. There are others-their
name is legion. They are working
out of their troubles: So will the
farmer. REIMBURSEMENT is coming to
him last-perhaps more tardily than
1t ought to. But he is no exception
to the rule. That's the think for him
to remember. He is down, but he is
not out. He cannot be put out unless
he loses his head or is led astray by
false prophets. That Is a far greater
peril to the farmer at present than
anything inherent in the business
situation. / am convinced we are
going to enjoy a continuance of good
times throughout 1923 and well into
1924, and there is no sign now that
they will not last beyond that time
Prices are bound to recede. though
not rapidly. and relief for the farmer
In that direction will be correspond
ingly gradual
International Market.
Another level-headed authority on
western conditions is Henry A. wal
lace, son of the Secretary-pf AgricuI
ture and, during his fathers official
service at Washington, the conductor
of Wallace'S Farmer at Des Moines
Mr.. Wallace asserts that the western
farmer will experience no real sal
walton until he is off the interna-
tional market" This is how he
argues:
The one reason why farm product
prices average only 80 to 40 per cent
above pre-war. whereas wages are
twice the pre-war, is that there Is a
surplus Of farm products to be sold
on the European market. whereas
labor, because of immigration re-
strictions and tariffs, is sheltered
from Europe The farmer is on the
international market, while labor is
off the international market.
rs labor willing to see the farmer
advance the price of his products to
the same level as wages, even though
it involves taking himself off the
European market by reducing his
production of wheat, corn and pork?
Many of the men who have been
In, 70