Evening star., 1926-06-20
FATAL TO THINK FARM LOSSES
HIT ONLY ONE CLASS, is VIEW
i'm Cities Have Vital Interest i'm Welfare
of Agriculture, Says B. F. Yoakum, Expert
Subject.

coupons will have their investments
endangered if farmers are driven to
bankruptcy. Preferred stock holders
who receive their income from earn
ings of industrial and transportation
enterprises will see the passing of
dividends if agriculture is financially
destroyed. Dividends upon common
stock will cease with agriculture in
the throes of bankruptcy. The safety
deposit vaults where the wealthy store
their securities will feel the strain If
the farmers are permitted to be forced
into further financial embarrassment.
Enormous Farm Debt.
The Department of Agriculture
gives us the alarming estimate of
twelve and one.half billion dollars as
the amount of the farmers indebted
ness. The funded debt of the entire
railroads of the country is less than
twelve billion dollars. Few people
know that the hard-working farmer is
struggling under a greater debt than
the great and powerful railroad sys-
TENS of the Nation. This fabulous
farm Indebtedness is in the form of
mortgages and other evidences of in
debtedness by six million farmers
representing thirty-one millions of our
population.
Agriculture is the supporting
foundation of all our wealth. If the
to become unsafe, then the prosperity
of America becomes unsafe.
The exceptional prosperity of the
Nation is heralded almost daily from
business leaders and from the Cap
itol at Washington. They forget that
this is only 20 per cent true. They
are reckoning with the great pros
perity that is piling up it's wealth in
the interest of industries, of business,
Of manufacturing, commercial enter
prises and organized labor. They are
overlooking the important fact that 80
per cent represented by the farmers of
this country's population is in the
throes of financial distress and verg-
ing upon bankruptcy.
Must Be Profitable.
All must appreciate that to make a.
business of such national importance
attractive to those engaged in 1t the
business must be conducted in a man
ner to make it profitable. All appreci-
ate the fact that profit cannot be
realized from the products of any
business where two-thirds of the ulti-
mate price goes to pay the cost of
distributing and selling, with multi
piled profits and commissions between
the producer and the consumer.
No one can defend a system of
marketing any product that permits
difference between the price the pro-
ducers receive of seven and one-half
billion dollars and for which their
ultimate customers pay twenty-five
and a half billion dollars.
No one can defend but must con-
denim any system of marketing where
nr0Hu0fQ inA
duced by six million farmers and in
which there are three million dealers
selling the products of the industry in
different forms, who must depend for
their living upon their four to seven
profits and commissions between the
farmer and the table.
Middleman Called Issue.
want to go on record as challeng-
ing any statement to the contrary
from any source that there is more
money, more profit, in the farming
business than in any other business
of the Nation-if the products can he
passed direct to the consuming public.
with 10 per cent less cost to the con.
sumner. Remove the uneconomic waste
In excess of a legitimate cost in dis
trlbuting and marketing. after allow
ing a fair and reasonable profit for
marketing, and the farm industry of
the United States will, without doubt :.
prove the country's most profitable
business.
All theories, all Federal legislation
and all devices proposed under un-
sound and uneconomic legislation will
fall short of benef1ting agriculture so
long as the unnecessary, uneconornic
middle waste is permitted to continue.
(Ccpygight. 1926.l