The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-04
FARMERS PURCHASING POWER

The Republican campaign committee and other partisans have tried stren- uously to make political, capital from the recent small advance in the price of wheat. They have urged producers to consider the situation as developing from enunciation of the Republican platform. It is we'll in the connecton to note some calculations by the American Federation of Farm Bureaus as to the effects of the Republican tariff acts of 1921 and 1922 on agriculture.
 According to these comparisons, un- der the Democratic tariff in 1913, it re- quired IF bushels of wheat to purchase blow then costing .$9.50. The same blow now costs $27, and it takes 29.2 bushels of wheat to get it. A double wagon could have been bought in 1913 for the price of about 66 bushels of wheat. It now costs over 143 bushels. In 1913 single harness could be bought for the price of 13.7 bushels of wheat. Today it takes 2S.3 bushels. In 1913 three bushels of wheat would have bought a hundred pounds of barbed wire. Now it takes 5.6 bushels. The difference between the cost of two-bottom blows in 1913 and now is sixty bushels of wheat. In other words, under the Ford ney-McCumber tariff the farmers wheat dollar has depreciated from forty to sixty per cent. The Republicans have sue ceeded to some extent in hoodwinking the farmer. But the facts hardly war rant the evident Republican expectation of increased farm votes in the fall cleo tions. Quite the contrary.
 Glance at the situation in terms of an- other large product of the farm, the hog and it's purchasing power. It takes 3S2 pounds of pork to purchase a walking blow, under the operation of the For-dney- McCumber tariff. The Democratic tariff enabled the farmer to obtain this neces- sary implement for 157 pounds. In 1913 about TIA pounds of pork would have bought fourEeen-inch gang blow. Now 1,549 pounds are required for the ex- change. The difference in the cost of disk harrow in 1918 and now is 422 pounds of pork; between a corn-plahtcr then and now 566 pounds of pork; be- tween a grain drill then and now 1,492 pounds of pork. In terms of pork the farmer is as bad off as in terms of wheat from the standpoint of purchasing power. =.
 These are stubborn facts which polit- ical palaver cannot efface. Nor is the intelligent farmer to be thrown off his guard by such misleading statements as that the Fordney- Cumber tariff left agricultural implements on the free list. Nominally and for talking purposes that is true. In effect it is not significant, because this country is the only one pro- ducing farm implements of an efficiency attractive to the American farmer. Also, the materials from which they are made are highly protected.
 The Republican platform stands upon the Fordney-McCumbe tariff in it's en- tirety. The Republican claims of free agricultural implements" is a delusion and snare. It. is difficult to believe that any considerable percentage of the farmers of this country, who are in- formed of the effects of this special-in- terest system upon their. opportunities and their welfare, will be misled by the spacious pleas and flimsy claims of Re- publican politicians in a presidential campaign. ..... ..