The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1925-09-17


! Unless the state of Washington is
to stagnate or take back track, all
our resources must be developed, all
of the land suitable for cultivation
reduced to cultivation and to produc-
ton. Our commercial and industrial
growth is proceeding far faster than
our farming development and the
local market for our domestic pro-
ducts is expanding rapidly day by
.day. In time the bulk of our ordi-
mary farm products will be consumed
at home, leaving but a few of the
great staple crops for which 1t Will
be necessary to find markets else
where. Certainly no encouragement
should be lent by anyone in this state
toward any movement to prevent OF
delay the development of more farm
lands of high quality and great pro-
ductive possibilities. All they can
produce will be needed in the United
States with the greater part being
consumed in the state of Washing
ton.
Yet from every side we are reading
advanced by purported
friends of the farmer, urging re-
.duction in the amount which they
produce and thus a limitation Of pro-
duction to the needs of the American
market. The argument is that so long
as we produce any surplus for ex-
port, the price of the American pro-
duct is fixed by the world price.
Therefore, if production were limited
to the needs of the American market,
the farmer would get the world price,
plus the duty. Therefore, likewise,
no more land should be put under
cultivation.
The whole argument is based upon
the unfounded assumption that the
American farmers today produce all
of the agricultural products needed
for domestic consumption and in adj
dition large surplus for export. Few,
indeed ever look over the figures of
foreign commerce. If they did SO they
would find that the United States i'm
sorts in value fully as large an
amount of food as it exports and
this without counting the products
of the tropics. If they also are count
ed, the importation OF food stuffs is
out of all proportion greater than the
While figures are difficult to
remember it is important that we
make study of few to best under
stand the situation.
The figures for the fiscal year
which closed June 80 last, have not.
as yet been published. The latest
figures available are those published
by the department of commerce, Civ
ing the records of our imports and
export trade for the year ending
with June /, 1924. Here are some
facts found in that statistical publica-
ton: During that fiscal year, the
United States imported from other
countries nearly one billion dollars
worth of farm products, every par
ticle of which could have been pro-
duced on American farms. If that
commodity had been produced on
American farms, the farm capacity
of the United States would necessar-
lily have been much larger than it
was in fact.
For example, we imported $780,
255, 341.O0 in value of animal pro-
ducts, including over $4,000, 100000
worth of butter and over S2O,000,000
worth of grain. Yet, our wheat ex-
ports are given as one reason for
low prices, the price of wheat being
fixed by the foreign market. As a
matter of fact, the fiscal year in
which we are now entering will see
an enormous increase in the amount
of our grain imports. The wheat
raised east of the Rocky mountains
this year will not begin to supply