Milford chronicle., 1951-06-22
THE FARMER HAS HIS PROBLEMS

people Culuk IIlaL IS LLG case, ana IL Is u
theory which has been effectively argued by
distinguished economists and others. But
there is another side to the coin, and it is
well presented by Herschel d. NeWsom, Mas
ter of the National Grange.
He says frankly, cain of us who live by
agriculture must face the brutal fact that if
a popularity poll were taken throughout the
nation today, the farmer perhaps would get
the lowest rating in history. More than that,
he would be accused by many town and city
families as a GOvernment-SuppOrted gOuger
who has caused the cost of living to spiral" )"
He admits that some farm prices are out of
line and that there are flaws in the govern
ment's farm program Then he says, 81 want
to say that the farmer and his programs are
NOT to blame for the high cost of living
which worries all Of us There is no
villain except imitation"
Agriculture, Mr.. NeWsOm feels, has been
made scapegOat for sins of omission and
commission over which it has little or no
control. 1t is true that there has been
very fast rise in the prices of many farm
products since the Korean war began. But
he observes, ''In the two years before June
1850, the average of farm prices declined
"26 per cent-and this decline, which led al
most to the verge of another farm-fed de-
preston, went virtually unnOticed in the city
press. Most farm prices have not yet caught
up with either wages or prices of indus
trial goods"
Mr.. NeWsOm implements this statement
with some impressive statistics. The average
OF farm prices still is almost Is per cent be-
low 1947-by contrast, both corporate profits
and hourly wages of factory workers are 18
per cent above that level In 1947, he says,
net farm income was $4,000, 100000. In
1949 it was $4,000, 100000, and in 1850 it
was down still more to $4,000, 100000. He
writes, Last year the 20 per cent of the
y. S. population that lives on the farms re-
celved only IL per cent of the national in
come"
Mr.. NeWsOm is the first to admit that
seeriOus mistakes have been made in the
pTlce-suppOrt prOgram-such as the potato
support tlascO which stirred up so much bit
ter criticism some time ago. But, as a gen
eral rule, he writes, "thOse supports have
helped to hold food prices down." Here his
reasoning runs like this: government DUR
chases have taken surplus products from the
market at times of unreasOnably low prices,
These surpluses have been held in reserve.
and have been fed back into the market when
prices threatened to go unreasonably high.
AS a consequence, he says, Consumers have
benefited as much or more than farmers
from most of these programs"
Finally, Mr.. NeWsOm feels that initiation
must be fought hard on all fronts. He advo-
Gates financing rearTnament on pay-as-We
go basis, strictly limiting all government
functions which do not directly further the
defense effort, and sharply restricting credit
Tor luxuries and nOn-essential purposes. If
these measures fail to do the Job, he contin-
ues, price, wage and rationing controls must
be applied equally to the whole economy. In
advocating this program, Mr.. NeWsom is
largely in agreement with our leading econo-
mists.,
G1OGS&
DRUG HABIT COMES EASY