Evening star., 1924-03-01
letter Marketing Methods Are
Vests Big Need, Says Babson
Least Possible Borrowing Is Also Urged.
Industries Are Gro,Oing-Crops More
DiversifiedEStates Compared.

dustrial plants as yet are confined
to milling and slaughtering indus
| tries directly connected with agricul-
ture. Canning factories are being
erected at a rapid rate. dairies are in
creasing, and the lumber industry
checking up on these non agricultural
interests we find that Minnesota has
| large iron ore mines, and that the
northern section of that state is
destined to become a great steel
| center.
Missouri has lead and zinc inter
| ests, Kansas covers large petroleum
| deposits, Nebraska is commercialtzing
her potash and clay, while gold and
! silver are being mined in South Da-
| kota. North Dakota has vast re-
serves of low-grade bituminous coal
mercially profitable. 1t Is apparent
that these states are gradually be-
coming more self-contained and are
building up a group of little COM
mercial empires.
Present Business Status.
| Turning to the current business
situation I find Iowa and Missouri
leading this group with gain of
| per cent over last year. South Da-
kota follows with a gain Of l per
fcent over business as 1t existed twelve
months ago. Minnesota, on the other
hand. shows a loss of per cent,
North Dakota a loss of per cent,
| kansas loss of 8 per cent and Ne
braska a loss Of 13 per cent. COM
pared with year ago. The diff1c ulty
in North Dakota is in the financial
situation. while Kansas is suffering
| from inactive tendencies in the oil
| fields, refineries, railroad shops and
certain curtailment In building. The
farmers In this section got about as
much for their corn in 1928 as they
did in 1922. The wheat growers got
about 20 per cent less for their crop,
| but the dairy district Jared better
than last year. Bearing in mind that
! general business throughout the
United States, as reflected on the
| Babson chart, today stands at 3 per
cent below normal this west central
section does not show up as being
very far out of line.
Better Marketing Needed.
1t is true.that fundamentally these
than ever before. Their crops are
| more diversified: they are continuing G
| to manufacture a greater variety of
goods, and they are accommodating
more capital; The one weak point
| in the situation, II there is one, lies
in the inability of this section to
market its products on 4 satisfactory
| basis, although this same criticism
| may be applied to several other sec
| tions of the country as well. The
present systems are not operating
| effectively and I thoroughly believe
that the difficulty can be remedied
| by working along the line suggested
| by the four basic principles of mer-
| chandising, which may be outlined
| BRIEFLY as follows:
Doubling Crops Uncertain.
1. An excessive supply of any prod
| uct, either manufactured or agricul-
| tural. tends to lower it's price. Peo-
| pie in this section have figured that
! if 100 acres of land would yield a
| certain income that 200 acres would
| yield twice as much. This may be
| true in Individual instances but when
| every farmer doubles his production
| or when all farmers concentrate on
| a single crop and. therefore. increase
! its production materially, We find that
more has been raised than the mar
ket can easily absorb and the ex-
CONTINUED on Twenty first Page.)