Askov American., 1942-03-19
Fact And Opinion
The Farmer.
By E. c.. Stengelsen.

The Farmer.
Somebody told me that farmers,
too, had adopted the eight-hour work
day. did not believe it. But when
/ checked up, found it was true
eight hours before dinner and eight
hours after dinner.
Mr.. Roosevelt proposed that the
governments reserves of wheat, corn,
cotton, etc., be put on the market.
He thought the time propitious. The
farm bloc in Congress opposed him.
They said that these government
held stocks of grain should not be
released until farm prices had reached
parity. Mr.. Roosevelt retorted that
it was necessary that they be put on
the market to halt the steady rise in
food costs.
The bill came up for vote. 1t was
defeated in both houses. Mr.. Roose-
welt was disgruntled. He warned
that it would add a billion dollars
to the nations annual food bill.
To allow farm prices to reach par
ity would give the farmer an addi-
tional income of $250,0O0,000 year.
Yet it would add a whole billion to
the nations food cost.
At first glance, it might seem that
there was something very screwy
about the arithmetic that Mr.. Roose-
welt used. But there wasn't. Mr..
Roosevelt knows his arithmetic.
Here's the way it works:
Take beef cattle, for instance. They
brought about cent pound less
in 1941 than they did in 1940. Yet,
in 1941, the consumer paid 10 cents
more per pound for beef than he did
in 1910.
There are about 60 loaves of bread
in bushel When wheat goes up,
say 20 cents bushel, it should in
crease the cost of loaf of bread about
a third of cent loaf. But it doesn't.
Instead, it goes up 2 or 3 cents a
loaf.
So, when the farmer gets a 20 cent
increase, the millers, professors, bak-
ers and distributors tack on an addi-
tional SIPS to $1.50 per bushel and
divide as profit. And, goodness knows,
that should be fair enough.
The farmer is very hoggish when
he asks for an increase in the price
of the things he sells. He should be
satisfied with the good income he is
now getting.
About 80 per cent of our popula-
ton lives on the farm. 1t gets about
10 per cent of the national income.
And yet the farmer wants higher
prices. He can't be very patriotic.
Take the ship-building companies
with government contracts for in
stance. They make only 200 per cent
or 800 per cent or so. Do you hear
THEM kicking? You do not. They
are patriotic.
And how about organized labor?
If you do not believe labor is patri-
otic, just listen to the speeches by
President Bill Green of the AFL.
All that labor in war industries asks
is measly $1.50 per hour or there
abouts, and time and a half for over
time.
Nor are the thousands of New Deal
appointees in Washington and else
where kicking. They struggle along
uncomplaining on their paltry $4,000
to $4,000 a year.
But the farmer? He wants parity.
He wants little more than 10 per
cent of the national income. He
wants to get enough for the things he
sells to pay for the things he must
buy. He wants income to equal outgo,
with enough leeway between to give
him a half decent living.
The nerve of him! It is as the
columnists and the big-time news
paper guys and the industrialists and
the politicians from the big cities are
claiming: he is pretty selfish.