The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1928-05-25
FARMERS TO ROT, THEN CITY
LABOR

By LELAND OLDS Federated Press
How far does the United States wish to go upon the
path of national dependence imports of agricultural
products? This is the fundamental question facing
the country in the matter of farm relief according to
E. NJ Miller statstician of the great National Bank of
Commerce of New York Miller holds that the agri-
cultural problem must be faced the basis of purely
economic considerations and that the extent that the
future of farming in the United States is dependent
public policy with regard to taxation, transportation,
cooperative marketing, land, tariffs and immigration,
the events is beyond the control of the indus
try itself.
ut is obvious he says, "that situation whereby
large sections of the industrial and commercial
munity reap advantage from the fact that farm pro-
Scts sold at Improbable levels could continue
without eventually resulting in drastic curailment of
agricultural output Already in terms of value the
United States is net importer of farm commodities as
whole. The issues involved grave that the de-
veopment of intelligent public opinion on them is
imperative in the interests of national welfare"
Miller calls attention to the way in which the tariff
and immigration policies of the government and the
rapid development of automatic machinery have opera
ed to undermine the comparative position that agr-
culture formerly held in the economic organization of
the United States. He says
Our high tariff designed to protect our manufacture
ing industries has operated to shut European manufac
turers out of markets of the United States and has
therefore served to maintain the internal price level
Tor such goods above the world market The unfavor-
able relation between the prices at which staple farm
products sell and the prices which farmers must nav
Tor what they buy unquesonably is due in considerable
measure to this result for since this country is an
porter OF cotton grain and pork products the prices of
these commodities governed in the last ANALYSIS bv
international prices
Inc tariff furthermore, by reducing our takngs of
European goods below what they would otherwise have
oeen has thereby reduced European purchasing power
Tor foodstuffs without commensuratey increasing the
domestic demand for them For industrial expansion
oehnd those tariff walls has been accomplished NOT nv
means of masses of immigrant labor consumers of
1ood products as it to large extent Immediately
PRIOR to the world war, but by machinery
miller also points out that United States restrictions
on immigration are proving of considerable Importance
In the developments of rival agricultural countries will
ing TO receive the European emigrants the United
state rejects Further that these restrictions have aid
ed the comeback of peasant agriculture in Eurone
uculariy in Germany and Italy
There is little that is in this ANALYSIS of +be 70
suits that have come from national polcv diractod
oy the counrys industrial overlords to serve their
interests The important feature is that it comes not
from the farm bloc but from one of the major insti
tuuons OF the money trust The increasing Investment
OF American capital overseas is working CHANGE in
The viewpoint of the bankers In the end thew uviy
probably lose interest in protection for anv nroduo
whether OF factory field who can not produce more
cheaply than their foreign competitors