Evening star., 1954-10-17
Conditions Dissotisfy Farmers,
But There's No Revolution


little while back on one Of these
self supposed troubles = perhaps
the chief one. The newspaper
suggested editorially that per-
haps there are too many farm
erS.
That opinion Is seconded in
many quarters. with the added
prediction that there are going
to- be fewer farmers. The eco
nomics Of the industry are
forcing and will force the in
efficient fringe" operators to
the wall.
All of which, of course, is not
to say that all is sweetness and
light between the farmer and
the administration. The farmer
has plenty of complaints. A look
at some principal ones serves to
give fair picture of what he
is up against. It also helps show
what the Government Is up
against in trying to cope with
this problem.
The point most often raised
against the administration is
that the farmers are being put
through the wringer in advance
Of the other segments of the
economy. The "why pick on us?"
theme recurs constantly.
Drop in Income.
Since 1861. farm income ma
tionally has dropped 20 per cent,
with 13 per cent of the drop
coming since the Republicans
took over. At the same time,
machinery. feed, labor and taxes
have been heading in the OPP
posite direction.
The administration, farmers
will tell you. has not paid suff1-
cient attention to this growing
disparity.
Farmers scoffed at the idea
that low prices on the farm mean
low prices at the dinner table
This proposition ignores the part
that the middleman plays in the
living-costs structure. they say.
The situation of a housewife
in Western New York illustrates
the point: Her husband operates
a farm-machinery sales agency
which he says is going to lose
$4,000 this year, because business
is "lousy."
Milk Rich Country.
They live in a milk-rich coun-
try. but the farmers are getting
only S or 6 cents a quart for
milk while she pays. the local
dairy % cents.
AS for butter:
"The Government is wonder
ing what to do with these stocks
it has on hand" she says. well,
they could give it to us. I'd sure
love to be able to afford butter
instead of oleo to put on the
children's popcorn.
These dislocations appear in
other ways, too.
For example: North Iowa has
been blessed with rain and the
corn is good. In early October,
the open market price was $1.5O
a bushel as compared with the
support price of $1.56. One big
operator. with plenty of storage
space and sound finances, was
sealing" his corn at the support
figure, because he could afford
to hold on, and buying corn for
feed in the open market.
Drought Cut Crop.
A hundred miles to the south,
in Clarke County, where the
drought cut the corn crop about
in half. the market price for
corn was $1.72.
This kind of thing is hard to
blame on the Eisenhower admin
istration. One Clarke County
milk producer who was quitting
the business. said he didn't be-
lieve the Government was getting
the blame for conditions.
Interestingly, while this man
was calling it a day, somebody
else optimistically was taking
over his place. It's that kind of
thing which has made the over
production of milk the Nation S
No. l farm headache.
The administration moved in
on that one several months ago
when Secretary Benson cut down
support prices on such items as
cheese and butter from 80 to
IS per cent of parity-fluid milk
is not supported. While this
obviously has rubbed many farm
ers the wrong way, it hasn' I
solved the production problem
An awful lot of people, notably
war veterans, have gone into
milk in a big way in recent years
with the inevitable result.
Major Operations.
Running milk to a photo
finish for the top place in the
troublesome-issue derby are
poultry and eggs. Once these
were looked on as the pin-money
sources for the farm wife. To-
day they are major operations.
AS the farmers tell it, better
breeding and improved feeding
have put the chickens in a spot
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