The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1930-01-16
Letters from the People

Il 4
. +<+++++++ = =
Down on the Farm, IT 80
Dear Ralph:
Been thinking of sending you a
few pointed paragraphs for several
weeks and had it about ready to
submit. However, / happened
across the enclosed item in the
Grange News" this week and it
is so GOOD that / Immediately
relegated nv article to the waste
basket and commend this one to
your earnest consideration.
You will at once observe that
this article is a reprint from the
minneapolis Tribune" I wish to
emphasize this for l appreciate
that we are all prone to consider
ideas colored as our own thought
rather than those which might
emenate from opposing sources.
Read what your contemporary
has to say, Ralph, and spread the
doctrine abroad hammer it horne
read it at the Commercial Club
luncheon. l wish with ali my
heart that it might become your
creed Immediately. It reiterates
what ! told you some months ago
when / took you for a little stroll
into "The Land of Make Believe"
on t'other side Of the obscure "Riv-
err of Reality" Circle around your
council fires and rehash this thire
-dipest it and above all-be1ieve
me. IT'S TRUE! It's application
will aid your campaign against
oleomargarine. For, believe me,
the farmers with a reasonable in
come don't buy oleo!! They do buu
new cars, new homes, new machin-
cry, new clothes, theatre tickets
and, what else have you?
I would like to see "Parity for
Agriculture means billions for in
dustry" burned into the conscious
ness of every business man in this
America.
GEO. E. SELLICK.
The Tribune says:
American industry is crying that
it must have new outlets abroad.
Has it ever occurred to industry
that the greatest and richest poten-
tial market in the world lies in the
interior of a country called the
United States and along a valley
called the Mississippi?
Has it ever occurred to industry
that doubling of the buying pow
erof this region would do more to
assure industry's continued expan-
sion and prosperity than almost
anything else the human mind can
conceive?
And has it further ever occurred
to industry that the direct, imme-
date and logical way to increase
the buying power of this region is
to put its shoulder behind the
movement to hold the republican
party to its pledges to agriculture
A literal fulfillment OF the re-
publican party's pledges would
mean substantial increase in the
buying power of the agricultural
area of the United States.
The present income enjoyed by
agricultural America is $l2,0O0,-
100000.
Were agriculture enjoying the
same proportionate income that
the rest of the United States is en-
joying that income would be $751;
600, 000, 900.
Parity" for agriculture means
just that: an added annual income
Of roughly $4,000, 100000.
Were this ideal realized, who
would get the additional $4,000, 600
OO0-agriculture or industry?
Obviously, both.
Agriculture would promptly turn
over the bulk of this sum to in
dustry, in exchange for the pro-
ducts which industry has to sell.
Industry would profit by the in
creased buying power of American
agriculture just as it has already
profited by the increased buying
power of American labor.
Parity" for agriculture means
nothing more and nothing less than
enormously increased sales for in
dustry.
Why, then, shouldn't industry
exert all the vast influence it has
at its command to hold the tariff
revision to the purposes outlined
by President Hoover?
Widen the spread between agri-
cultures costs and prices by ST.
600 per individual farmer per year
and you place at industry's dis
posal the colossal added buying
power of $1,000, 000, 900 per year.
Where else in the world has in
dustry the target Of $1,000, O00.-
600 market to shoot at?
Why should industry worry it.
self about foreign markets when
the worlds greatest market lies
right at its door?
Iowa is a better market than
India; Kansas is better than Kam-