Evening star., 1942-09-12
Denies Thut Formers
Cause InfIution
Writer Gives Impressions
Of Aerorion ToiIers Affected
BY Presidents 'Fireside Chut'

To the Editor OF The Star:
May report on some of the things the
folks in the country are saying about
| the Presidents inf1ationary fireside chat?
Up in Hunterdon County N. j., where
| I have lived On a farm some 20-odd
| years there are $500 small farmers who
/ sell their eggs chickens, ducks, rabbits,
| Pennington, N. J.. where there is one of
! the best-managed cooperative auctions
! in the East
| These farmers, their wives and chill
! dren come to market once week, many
/ in converted passenger cars, family in
| the front seat, eggs and chicken crates
| stacked in the back where the seats have
| been removed and upholstery worn down.
| There also is sufficient scattering of
modern trucks to encourage these small
| producers to keep on working seven days
week, plus saving, to hope that some
day they, too, may own trucks.
The women and girls who unload the
egg and chicken crates are dressed in
| early 1930-mail- styled clothes but
! they are strong and healthy and not
| photogenic, so they do not have to primp
| Tor the photographers like the defense
working females do on the patriotic
front | doubt whether they have time
to think about how the defense working
girl would be able to go to work in the
| morning without eggs or milk from the
| farm
Well, the fireside chat interested those
women folks and their men because they
think We should win this war and they
are already working seven days a week
with no double pay on the seventh day.
They listen to the radio and learn how
they are to blame for imitation, because
the city folks think that all hens lay the
same size eggs every day, all clean and
packed in cardboard cartons ready for
the grocer
Well, If some of these city economists
had to clean a chicken house before the
red mites made a blitz attack around a
chickens ears, they would advocate a
ceiling price of dollar a dozen for the
pee-Wees and five dozen for the extra
size whites, because red mites not only
can play havoc with egg production but
the new ceiling prices for eggs would
hardly pay for shampoo or permanent
to get rid of the mites, il farm women
were in the habit of such luxuries and
had the gas to go to town, or the time.
Egg crates which used to cost nickel
each at the grocer's, plus the cost of
filters and fats from the mail order
house. which was normal, now cost the
small farmer three for a dollar because
the price of labor has inflated egg crates.
Eight-foot feeders, also made in a
factory, which used to cost around 81 80
now are priced at $500, and a farmer
must be on the priority list of local
hardware man before he can obtain one
Water pans for chickenhouses are nc
longer available and the hardware man
is recommending water pals which used
to cost 19c at the chain store but which
now cost SOC because they are manu-
factured, and also are available only il
some hardware dealer considers the Gus
toner entitled to priority over some of
his old and perhaps more generous
spending city customers.
Yes, the 3,000-odd members of the
Pennington Cooperative Market AS
sociation certainly know something
about imitation, but until they listened
to the radio they were not aware that
the cause of imitation was back home
right on their own farms
Then, there is neighbor who has a
dairy farm the one whose house has
not been painted for 20 years, but he
has a good herd, a radio, and linoleum
on his living-room floor. Well he lost
his first alfalfa crop because of the rains,
and also because there are no more Gov
ernment weather reports, and his second
crop of alfalfa was wet and burned
before he could get it in the barn.
Moreover, while he was making hay
his cows broke through the old barbed-
wire fence and ate some of his neighbors
corn right out of the field. And when
he went to fix the fence he had no
barbed wire and neither did his mail
order house nor the local hardware
dealer, SO he had to take half a day off
| to drive around from village to village
| looking for barbed wire and he found
| one roll which cost him "a 80 because it
was made In factory where workers
| get increased wages, time and a half,
double time and an eight-hour day.
| This farmer listened to the fireside
| chat beside his kitchen stove, with his
wife, and learned that he was causing
| imitation because his cows broke the old
| fence, because he paid s490 instead of
| 81 for new barbed wire and because
| he did not harvest sufficient hay to feed
his cows all winter.
Well, it Is illuminating to know these
fellows who are responsible for imitation
because they don't have any propaganda
| bureau or publicity agent, so they lust
have to talk TO each other when thev
| come to market and then 60 back home
and feed and water the stock and the
! chickens, and do the other chores. and
then listen to the radio again to hear
about how they are making imitation
right there in their own barns, sheds
and fields. CARL w. ACKERMAN.
Lambertville, N. j.
! COmDlainS AhOut Cnlunnp;St