Evening star., 1932-12-31
FARMERS HOPING
FOR PRICE INCREASE
End Year of Drastic DefIation
in Range of Income for
Basic Industry.
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.
Special Dispe ca to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO, December 3l.-Agrlcul-
ture sees 1892 fade into history with a
sigh of relief. hopeful that never again
may 1t experience another such disas
trous year.
Farm commodity markets during the
past IL months have written story OF
industry. Heart breaking prices in the
face OF back breaking debts forced a
large proportion of the farms of the
country to the brink of bankruptcy.
to the future with a measure of cheer
fulness. They count upon three major
developments during the course Of the
next u months to bring them up from
despair. These hoped-for developments
are:
/. International financial co-opera-
tion, designed to stabilize exchanges
and restore markets.
2. Some plan for providing basic
farm crops. with a higher price in the
domestic market through artificial
measures. such as proposed by Presi-
dent-elect Roosevelt.
8 Refnancing OF the $l2,000.00 900
long and short term farm debt on a
the President-elect
The condition of farms today is best
illustrated by the incustry's gross in
come statement. This shows total agri-
cultural earnings for 1882 to have been
s5.24O. 900 900. compared with s1l. 500
900 900 in 1924 year when agricul-
tural earnings were SO far out of line
with industrial earnings that Congress
created the Federal Farm Board and
endowed 1t with s5oO,000,00 to bring
relief to the farmer.
This decline of 55 per cent in gross
income reduced the average farm in
come this year to 1892. Interest and
taxes on the $500 900 mortgaged farms
out Of 100000 operated in the Ma
ton. accounted for an expenditure of
about s4oO from this income, leaving
s432 per farmer for his years expenses
living expenses and production ex-
penses.
Farmers in Revolt.
All farm commodities shared in the
years price debacle Wheat sold at the
lowest level Of all history, so far as
comparison can be made. Corn sold
under any price paid since 1896, and
the same was true of oats. Hogs broke
to the lowest levels since 1873. and
y.
Dairy products established similar rec
ords, although toward the end of the
year both butter and eggs had regained
earlier lost ground and sold higher than
year ago.
Out OF this situation 1t was natural
that there should grow a spirit Of re-
volt So 1882 saw the strange spectacle
of farm strikes in Iowa. Nebraska.
South Dakota and Minnesota. Staid
Iowa farmers, supposed to represent the
backbone OF conservatism In the Ma
ton, Joined in a move to use force in
an effort to bring higher prices fer
produce.
This revolt, which died a natural
death when prices failed to respond,
later expressed itself in the national
election, November 8, when rock-ribbed
Republican territory. with a record of
almost unbroken Republicanism back
over 10 years. went Overwhelmingly
Democratic. The Republican national
ticket failed to carry a State west Of
Pennsylvania, largely due to farmer
disaffection.
Look to New Administration.
Now the agricultural districts of the
Nation look to the new Congress and
the new President to solve their most
pressing difficulties. There is expec-
tation that the proposed new domestic
allotment plan for making the tariff
effective on basic farm crops will be
enacted in time for application to the
1888 grain crops, but there is no assur-
ance that it will be. At any rate, the
professional grain trace is inclined to
scoff at the effectiveness of that pro-
posal and to regard it as another Farm
Board experiment that will be costly
both to the taxpayer and the farmer.
If artificial measures, such as the
allotment plan. are unsuccessful, then
the farm problem probably will revert
to the painful operation of economic
law for solution. That would be ex-
pected to entail wholesale mortgage
foreclosures and a drastic writing down
of debt. with possible accompanying
social disturbance.