Evening star., 1933-07-13
HOG PRICES TRAIL
OTHER FARM GAINS
Processing Tax of 1925 to
$3.50 Would Be Necessary
to Reach Parity.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special DlSpatch TO Inc Star.
DES MONIES, Iowa July 13 (N.A.
N.AD.-The upward trend of Iowa farm
prices toward the parity sought under
the farm act is along irregular lines.
Advancing wheat and oats markets
have brought smiles to the faces of
grain farmers. At the same time. live
stock farmers have found little over
which to eXult in recent weeks.
A processing tax CT probably S3.25 to
$50 a hundredNG;ght would be necss-
sary to bring the price Of hogs up to
parity. 1t is doubtful. Of course,
whether such a heavy processing tax
would receive serious consideration at
present, but this figure represents the
disparity between present prizes and the
goal Of the Farm Adjustment Admins
tration.
Even if the average pre-war price
level is reached, the objective of the
farm act will not have attained. how
ever. for parity means a price that will
give farm products the same purchas-
ing power they had in the pre-War
period.
Prices Are Now Higher.
Parity takes into consideration prices
farmers have to pay. Hogs averaged
S724 a hundred during the 1909 to
1914 period. The Iowa farmer was get
ting an average Of 81 a hundred when
the official Government price report
was compiled June IS, 1888, and the
price has not changed materially since
If farmers had to pay the same prices
they cid before the war for the products
they buy. $724 would equal the parity
price The Government report for the
United States as a whole stated, how
1,&H Co. -i,,rr
103 per cert of pre-War prices. so that
hogs would have to bring more than
the pre-war average to equal parity.
Further advances in what the farmer
buys would mean further upward re-
vision in the parity objective.
The levy of a processing tax Of 80
cents bushe, on wheat was based on
the fact that the average price farmers
of the United States received for wheat
when the last official price report was
compiled June IS lacked 80 cents Of
equaling the pre-war average, Secretary
of Agriculture Wallace said when he
was here recently.
The law provides for revising this
figure as occasion warrants and for
carrying over from one year to another
funds collected from the processing tax
If all of the sum collected in any one
year IS not required to pay farmers the
difference between current market price
and the parity Of fair exchange value
price
Nature Helped Materially.
Administrators Of the fam act have
made it plain they do not feel eXpan-
sion Of wheat acreage next season is
warranted although no one denies that
nature has dealt effectively with the
surplus problem for the current year.
The problem is one Of maintaining
present levels 1ather than boosting
prices much farther right now, because
expansion. or even q bumper crop on
1888 acreage might mean increased pro-
duction that would flatten prices again.
The fact that the United States had
q Carryoyer Of last years grain of 350,-
100000 bushels with surplus in the
rest Of the world is cited to show that
more wheat might mean fewer dollars.
What attitude Iowa farmers will take
toward the Governments proposal to
make the rev deal effective on farm
prices and its attempt to hold grain
prices on a higher level will be re-
vealed in the next few weeks when
farmers have an opportunity to contract
wheat acreage under the allotment plan
Reduced acreage for 1884 crops will be
q requirement
The puzzling problem of how to get