The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-01-23
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
LAW WASBROKEN AS
PRICES WENT LOWER
Farmers and Growers OF All
Kinds Received Less De-
spite Less Production
U. S. FARMER WILL STICK
Packers, Cotton and Tobacco
Crowers-All Suffered as
Much as Grain Man
U. S. farmer WILL STICK
Nv ERERERIC ]. HASKIN

BY FRERERIC ]. HASKIN
Washington, d. c., Jan. 23.-Amerl-
can farmers are looking forward TO
the coming planting season with a
wary eye and are hoping to avoid the
distress which visited them in the
season of 1880.
Nineteen thirty, from the farm
point of view, the department OF ag-
riculture says. "even among the a
years stands unique"
1t is the law of supply and demand
that when a shortage develops, prices
rise. This law was grossly violated IN
1880 to the special detriment Of the
American farmer. Not all the econ
omists of the bureau of agricultural
economics have been able to explain
this curiosity. 1t is true that the world
has been o~verstocked with goods OF
all sorts, particularly farm products,
for some years, but high tariffs keep
them out Of this market and with a
short crop there was every reason
why prices should have risen.
From the point of view of the be-
lever in the law of supply and de-
mand the actual figures seem impos-
sible of truth. Total crop production,
that is the aggregate Of everything
produced by the earth, declined by
seven per cent. Declines in some crops,
as in corn, were much greater, in
others less, while there were very few
increases. The average, however, was
seven per cent less. 1t was l3 per
o%~k 1~~r <14oyN thu a v,o1oro annual
total crop production Of the last dec
ade. In some countries the loss of
seven per cent would mean famine
and famine prices.
Meat Declined Also
These figures include not only vege-
table growths such as the staple
grains, but meats declined. too. The
total Of federally inspected slaughter
shows a decline of four per cent COM
pared with last year.
Yet the amazing thing to the farm
ers. and certainly to the economists
and to almost anyone governed by
common sense, is that this short crop
was worth % per cent less than the
crop of 1929. The 1880 field crops and
dairy products brought prices which
aggregated S SOFIA, 900 900. a good round
sum. But this must be compared with
the s8.675, 900 900 which was paid for
the crop, Of 1929.
Because Of the short crop there was
less produce of all kinds to sell, but
the decline in volume was only seven
per cent and the decline in price 20
per cent. According to all normal
methods OF. calculation. the decline of
seven per cent should have resulted
in prices sufficiently higher to pro-
duce, instead of the % per cent de-
cline, an increase of anywhere from
even to 10 per cent.
Crops Not Curtailed
Similarly, this year the packers paid
to the growers of livestock a total of
81, 554, 000, 900, compared with $l,783,-
O00, 900 in 1929. Thus, a production of
meat about four per cent smaller than
that of last year brought about eight
per cent less money to the producers.
Wary as the farmer may be con-
corning another year. he has not ma
terially curtailed paintings. Given a
good growing year and no such
drought as that which marked 1880,
there will be, with lesser acreage
planted, a larger production.
Some shifts have been limited at.
Winter wheat paintings are one per
cent less than in 1929 but, on the
other hand, there has been a four
per cent increase in rye. The in
~domitability of the farmer is empha-
sized when it is realized that the
prices being brought by these two
staples are the lowest since 1899.
Indeed, the way in which the farmer
keeps up his paintings year after year
in spite of poorer and poorer returns
is one of the wonders of the world.
The wheat harvest was in last season
before the drought had begun in ear
nest and there were no serious
drought losses. Because Of the very
large paintings there actually was
realized an increase of five and two
tenths per cent In wheat production.
Yet the farmer got for this crop,
larger than that of the preceding year,
80 per cent less money. The federal
farm board has gone to the length
OF sending speakers throughout the
wheat belt to urge the farmers to
curtail their paintings, and yet the
curtailment amounts to only one per
cent.
For years the southern cotton
planter has been urged to curtail his
paintings but never does so. He has
lost even more heavily than the wheat
farmer on the experience of 1880.
There was q decrease in production,
due almost wholly to drought. of only
four per cent, and the price was ex-
pected to rise On the strength of it,
cotton being so sensitive a speculative
commodity. It went down instead, and