Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-02
By DANIEL ROCKFORD.

~ EPS looking toward the forma-
ton of national agricultural adj
viSory council to reorganiZe Amer
~ lean agriculture and develop the
market for American manufac-
tured goods represented In the uneX-
plored purchasing power Of the Nations
35.000,000 farm population have been
taken by group of Northwestern pub
fishers, bankers, railroad and industrial
leaders.
Citing the accomplishments under
the so-called Minnesota plan Of 1921
1881, which raised farm income $685.
600, 600 every year from 1921 to 1929 in
the four States of Minnesota, North and
South Dakota and Montana, or an in
crease of $1,679 to the individual
farmer In 1929 as against his 1921
income, a publicizing of that plan is
being undertaken to call the attention
Of business leaders In all sections of the
country to it and to its possible adapta-
ton to local conditions. Notifications
Of the plan have already been incor-
n1ittee Of One Hundred for the State Of
Georgia and In the State Of Maryland's
''Five-Year Plan for Agriculture
In 1921 the Northwest was wheat
poor. War imitation of farm land prices,
coupled with disastrous overproduction
of wheat, swept the Northwest with
farm failures which threatened the
whole economic structure of the terri
tory. Small banks which had sprung
up during the war boom could not
weather the times and every second
bank was wiped out.
In 1921 large-scale movement to
revolutionize agriculture was launched
from the Twin Cities and spread through
the Northwest. Each year it gained and
was extended. Its results in the greater
crisis Of 1881, with wheat at the lowest
price in modern trading history, show
the extent of the transition as between
today and 10 years ago. Despite the
acute drop in farm product prices in
1880, the Northwestern farm income
was still "a per cent above 1921. IN
employment is less than in many sec
tons OF the country. Bank deposits
are higher than in years. The per-
centage Of business failures is less than
in any Of the great industrial areas.
Out Of 185,476 farmers in Minnesota,
only 165 failed last year, and most of
those had financial problems still
dating back to wartime land price in
flation.
Annual Gamble Eliminated.
While the American cash wheat
farmer faces an inevitable loss of more
than S500,000 900 this year, and vast
sections Of the middle Mississippi wheat
belt are reported as so discouraged that
the farmers aren't even blowing the
stubble lands to prepare for the 1882
planting, the Northwestern farmer is
relatively independent Of the wheat
price: Even In Minnesota, still known
as the bread basket of America"
wheat has dropped until its annual
Uo1IYo fc harf fNs1r&t, he Ia. - h.
chicken crop. A new index of pros
perity has been developed in the North
west since 1921. The great annual
gamble, which so many old-style CASH
crop farmers still live by, has been
practically eliminated in the Northwest
And stabilized farm income has brought
| a sounder economic life, higher living
standards and has multiplied the mar
ketS for manufactured goods by two
and three hundred per cent.
Within recent days President Hoover,
Chairman Stone Of the Farm Board
Secretary Hyde of the Department OF
New York and Eastern banks, inSur-
ance companies, railroads and indus
trial organizations have heard how the
Minnesota plan came into being and
was developed, and what its results
have been in the stress Of 1901. The
spokesman for the business leaders who
seek the sterilization of American eco
nomic wellbeing by a reformation of
farm practice is himself a practical
farmer-Frederick E. Murphy direc-
tor of the Associated Press and the
publisher of the Minneapolis Tribune.
I'm the past 10 years" he told the
President, I'VE have shifted over from
dependence on cash crops to profitable
business-like development of dairying,
live stock and scientific farming in the
Northwest.
Starting with q 10-year plan in
1921. the farmers of the four States
of Minnesota, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Montana have increased
their income in eight years to II per
cent over the 1921 totals, an increase
Of $1,679 for every farm and total
increase for the territory of 1851 ,166,
| 600 or sos 100000 a year. With this
cumulative prosperity the disastrous
| farm product prices of 1881 did not
overwhelm the Northwest, as did the
slump of 1921. The Northwestern far
mers received "a per cent more money
| last year than in 1921. Whereas New
York last year had $40 per cent fail
ures in her plants worth SIS 900 or more
and Illinois had 2.24 per cent failures
Minnesota had but OBS per cent; South
Dakota, 0.39 per cent; North Dakota
0.49 per cent.
Wheat, as the index of prosperity
| in the Northwest, has been replaced by
| the four legged gold mines, the dairy
cows. Cows, sheep, pigs and chicken;
have increased the farm income 81
per cent. The 1929 income from this
prosperity quartet totaled more than
| four times all the wheat crops Of the
| four States, and more than the COM
bined total of all the field crops of the
J Northwest. Why, the poultry industry
in Minnesota, known as the bread
basket of America and the greatest
-four milling State in the Union, is