Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-11-20
COOLIDGE WARNS.
OF FOOD SHORTAGE
Says Fortunes of All of Us
VIII Go Up or Down
With Farmers.

Washington. - Maintenance OF the
American superior level of human
comfort and well-being will require
that our agriculture be made and kept
the most efficient in the world"
President Coolidge said in an address
before meeting of the Association OF
Land Grant Colleges.
The President emphasized the point
that "the fortunes of all of us will
In the end go up or down" with the
farmers. and warned against permit
ting "our farming population to fall
to the level of mere agricultural
peasantry.''
s'The real problem of our long flu
ture,' MIR. Coolidge said, is "the prob
lem of maintaining a prosperous self
reliant, confident agriculture in a
country preponderantly commercial
and industrial"
In this connection the President
continued:
1T has been attested by all expert
ence that agriculture tends to discour-
agement and decadenee wherever the
predominant interests of country
turn to manufacture and trade. We
must prevent that in America.
'It is true there are some countries
in which the balance of these elements
has been so well maintained that az
riculture has continued to flourish
alongside prosperous industries and
successful commerce. But these are
found where the population is approx
imately static and the community
comparatively self-contained.
1T is not our destiny to be COM
munity of that kind. We must look
forward to a long-continued increase
Of population. =
The President pointed out that the
| present-day farmer is not only a pro-
Queer, he is likewise merchant" and
then added:
1T does him no good to get guam
tity productions; in fact, it may do him
harm. unless he can likewise have a
scientific marketing. | feel that too
/ little thought has been given to this
most important phase Of agriculture.
81 want to see courses in co-opera-
tive marketing and farm economics
alongside of soil chemistry and animal
husbandry. The agricultural problem
of today is not on the side of produc-
ton, but on the side of distribution.
/ want to see good farmer on good
farm raise a good crop and secure a
good price"
Mr. Coolidge laid emphasis on the
assertion that "we are not nearly a
generation ahead of the time when our
country will witness reversal in it's
relation to world agriculture" With
In "a very few years. he said. the
United States will be ''among the ma
lions producing deficit rather than
surplus of agriculture staples" The
| artificial stimulation of the World war,
| he asserted, came when the country
was fairly on the verge of that con-
dition.""
The President continued:
! Even today, If in making up our
balance sheet we include our require
ments Of coffee, tea, sugar and wool,
we already have a considerable agri-
cultural deficit. 1t may not be general
ly known, but even now we consume
more calories Of food than we produce.
The main reason is that we do not
raise near enough sugar.
"Our only agricultural exports OF
con equence are cotton, meat products
and wheat; and as to the two latter it
must be plain that the scales will
shortly turn against u.s. We shall be
rot only an agricultural importing ma
ton, but in the lives of many who are
now among us we are likely to be one
of the greatest of agricultural buying
nations"