The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-09-16
The Farmers Strike
M. E. Tracy in New York World
Telegraml

NNA' L. LAZY AL NeW 4OIk WOTlQ-
telegram
If hogs bring one cent pound on
the hoof, while hams cost sixteen
cents a pound at the meat market,
what should farmers do? Strike, J
say some, land starve city people into
paying better prices" That sounds
all right, until you recollect that the
city people buy hams, not hogs on
the hoof. It's the spread that causes
the trouble, and the spread can't be
cured by dumping cream in the gut
ter or throwing vegetables over the
fence.
City people have been hit as hard
as farmers by this depression. Many
OF them have been going without
things to eat about as long as they
can stand it. They don't need any
farmers strike to remind them that
retail prices are higher than they can
pay.
! The farmer can raise hogs and cure
his own hams, but city people can't
No matter what the price of hams is,
city people must pay it or go without
Putting aside all questions of char
ity, there is something wrong with a
system which involves such an enor-
nous and unnecessary difference be-
tween what the farmer gets and what
city people must pay.
You can take the set-up as is and
prove that brokers, packers. jobbers
and retailers are not making too
much. but what about the set-up as
is? Why have we permitted our
selves to become the victims of such
a set-up? Why are one-cent hogs
sold within ten miles of a given town
only to be peddled through it's mar
kets in the form of sixteen-cent pork
a few days later? Why are we haul
ing live meat across the country only
to haul it back in refrigerator cars?
What has caused the packing and
slaughter house business to be con-
centrated in few places?
Nothing in the world but craze TO-;
mergers and consultations. Nothing
but blind faith in the idea that eff
cheney goes with size.
This depression owes lot to that
idea.
Because of our great cities, the dis
lance between farm and table has
increased for many of us, but that
does not tell half the story.
Why should Long Island and Con-
necticut be growing up to weeds and
scrub while New York buys milk
green corn and poultry from the Mid
die West? Why should the land
around Boston be growing up to a
Jungle, while Quincy Market looks to
Indiana for chickens or Texas for
turkeys?
The time has come for city plan
ming to include nearby agricultural
development, for business and indus
trial leaders to study the problem Of
self suStenance.
Farm relief, if it is to mean. any
thing worth while or permanent, must
include not only revision of the dis
tributing system, but relocation ano
realignment of many farmers.
Too many of our farmers have gone
! oPCCAdlloI, AlOt OAlly VAIL lC6dAO "
what they raise, but with regard tt
where they live. There has been just
as much unintelligent herding in tn,
J country as in the city.
You find one great section giver
over to this crop and another giver
over to that. You find that the prox.
unity or availability of markets cut.
; little figure. You find wheat grow
ers using condensed milk and cattl,
growers shipping in string beans TO
their tables.
You see loaded trains and truck
moving across the lanscape with fresl
vegetables that ought to be raiset
within few miles of the market TO
which they are destined.
. Our system Of food supply and dis
! tribution is just hash of absurd no
, tons and impulses. That, more thai
Anything else, explains why farmer
get 50 little and city people pay s
much