Evening star., 1924-03-23
By GOULD LINCOLN.

vY HAT do the farmers of
! ANJ America want out of the
! " coming national elections?
| What do the farmers in
tend to do to get what they, want?
! In reply to the first of these uues-
tlons, Gray Silver, representative in
washington of the American Farm
bureau Federation, said, in substance:
The American farmer wants his
dollar-the dollar represented in terms
or his produce-eQual in value to the
| doilar OF the manufacturer, the in
| dustrial worker and others In this
country. He does not see why the
| hog dollar should be worth only AZ
! cents as compared for example. to
! the steel dollar which is worth 100
cents, nor why the cattle dollar
should be worth SO cents as compared
! to the shoe dollar"
! To the second question Mr.. Silver
i replied significantly:
THE political harness is hanging
loosely on the farmer today-more
loosely than ever before The farmer
is not inclined today to vote blindIy
either the republican or the demo-
cratic ticket because he has voted
the one or the other In the past. He
IS interested more today in policies
and what they mean to him than he
Is in individuals, no matter what
, party stamp they bear"
''The great food staples do not sell
on parity with the products Of in
dustry," President Coolidge said sue
: s.niy IT, l.,
tional Republican Club in New York
last month. A suit of clothes which
cost the farmer in North Dakota
y bushels OF, wheat in July, 1913, cost
him 81 bushels in 1928, and a wagon
which cost him 1o3 bushels in 1913
would now cost him I66
Situation Has Been Bad.
Since 1920 the situation Of the
American farmer has been bad-and
in many cases it has grown worse.
This situation, il was declared at
first, was local and temporary, in
duced by the conditions arising after
the war. Such cures as reduction of
acreage, extension of credit and di-
versification of crops were proposed.
But the trouble apparently is more
deeply rooted. During the year 1922
100000 farmers moved to the cities
each month. Many farms are being
abandoned and many farmers are re-
manning on their farms only through
! the leniency of their creditors, as
Senator McNary of Oregon has point
ed out in his report to the Senate on
the so-called McNary- -Haugen bill, de-
signed to equaliZe the value of agri-
, cultural products with that of other
commodities.
The farmers, according to Mr.. Sill
yer, believe that the present condi-
tions from which they suffer are due
to the fact that manufacturers and
industrialists are SO protected by the
tariff and by their methods of busi-
ness that the returns on their invest
ments and their labor are out of all
reason when compared to the returns
to the farmer on the great basic in
dustry of producing the food needed
to keep life in the people of the coun-
try. The farmers, in other words, are
not given their share of prosperity,
and they intend to get it if they can.
European Market Lost.
One reason why the farmers are
having a more difficult time than they
| otherwise would be having is that to
considerable extent the market for
| their Surplus products in European
nations has been wiped out since the
war. Mr.. Silver attributes this to the
! fact that the industrialists in this
country have been strong enough to
close the door against foreign manu-
factured goods-through the tariff
thus taking from the Europeans the
| opportunity to pay for the raw mate
rails they need, and in turn forcing
the European mill and factory worker
| into the field to compete with the
: American farmer. And by driving the
European worker into the fields the
! American industrialist has added to
! the market for his products abroad.
! By the way, these big industrial in
! terests in America are the real "iso-
| lationists," in the opinion of Mr.. Sill
yer. The farmer, on the other hand,
is generally speaking an "interna-
tionalist," believing that this country
must have intimate relations with
foreign countries if the American
I farmer is to find a market for his
surplus crops.
| Among the measures mentioned by
| Mr.. Silver desired by the farmer to
i bring about the desired fundamental
| change in his condition, SO that his