Evening star., 1933-11-15

With the town and city merchants al
ready feeling slight stimulus TO busi-
ness. it is no wonder that the farmer
is looking forward to this corn payment
and hoping that 1t may be the turn in
the road.
Feels Cheated.
The odd thing about this farm situa-
tion in Iowa Is that some OF the worst OF
its evils spring from the same things for
which the West damns the East. Wall
Street is anathema to the Midwest
farmer, but the man who played the
market was taking no more OF q chance
than the farmer who in the boom times
of 1928 and 1929 sold his farm at top
prices and proceeded to buy more land.
When the bottom fell out from under
his market, he did not see in what hap
pened the result of the collapse Of an
economic balloon; he did not realize
that he had been speculating as much
as the bear on Wall Street, but felt that
he had been cheated by the money
interests and his Government.
The fact that he sold at $500 an acre,
took the cash from the sale and bought
more land. which went to $400, and
then dropped to fraction of that
amount, did not seem to him to be spec
rlation. He was a farmer, feeding So
ciety. However. when he could not pay
taxes on the land and 1t was taken
from him. When the man to whom he
had sold his former farm could not pay
interest on the mortgage, then he began
to ask for Government help.
Wants Taxes Back.
And one of the strong arguments
which these farmers put forward
which though logically indefensible is
socially hard to refute-is that although
the Government collected with strict OBJ
servance the income taxes resulting
from the sale of land, the increase be-
ing calculated from 1913. when the
slump came and land went down to 10
or Is per cent of its former value, there
was no disposition on the part of the
Government to refund money collected
as result of the rise. The farmer re-
members the large amounts he paid in
those income taxes; he is gripped by the
present taxes for expensive schools and
roads, and he is bitter at a system
which permits such things to happen.
1t is also an interesting commentary
on the farmers complaints of dispos-
sessment that some of the worst Offend
ers are the farmer landholders them
selves. Up IN Plymouth County, of
which Lemars is the storm center. the
man who is doing the utmost TO-
straighten out mortgage difficulties,
local real estate man, blames most of
the Shylock tactics on the farmer own
ers, not the insurance companies. As
a matter of fact, although the insurance
companies are the largest landowners in
the State, as group, they hold only
20 per cent of the farms and in recent
months they have done everything pos
sible to keep the farmer on his land and
enable him to live and get on his feet
financially. 1t is to their interest to
do SO.
Willing to Try.
The farmers of Iowa do not hate any,
body, although the radicals cheer at the
mention OF the money barons." Most
Of the farmers just want to be left alone,
as they put it. The cooperative reduc-
ton of crops and live stock does not
appeal to them, although they are will
ing to try it. The loudest holiday men,
Der and the most conservative farmer
agree they should be permitted to grow
what they want to and as much as they
want to. But the followers of Milo Reno