Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-01-30

the farmers unwillingness to face fall
ing off of their high-level incomes,
price supports must be maintained.
go. But if the farmer must have his
supports in the face of every one .else's
pinch, let us show him that he cannot
have his cake and eat it too. 5.
With sufficient determination and en-
terprise believe the housewives could
put on campaign to Danish butter
that would make quite dent in the
farmers complacency."
Mrs. Dominic commented:
Think of the happiness this admin
istration could bring to the American
families by bringing down to reason
able levels the price Of milk for chill
dren"
Many housewives can sympathize
with the attitude of these women All
of us can appreciate good butter. milk
and other dairy products. All of us
would like to obtain these products at
lower prices Many of us do not un-
derStand the present program of price
supports on dairy products. At first
glance, butter prices supported by Gov
eminent purchases seem to be con-
tradiction to good common sense. Sure
~ there must be another side to this
question.
1t might seem that happy solution
to the problem would be to do away
with Government price supports. But
this would lead to another dilemma. In
our present situation of war-induced
SURPRISES, an abandonment of price
supports would pull the plug and drain
agriculture of its purchasing power
The effect upon an entire economy
could be disastrous. The cost to the
taxpayer Of today's agricultural sur
pluses is a part of the cost Of World
War II. when agriculture was geared
to its recent record production. In
agriculture, unlike industry, it is not
easy to step down production.
AS for dairy product prices and the
position of the dairy farmer. there are
other points which housewives might
consider:
Even at present prices. dairy prod
ucts are food bargain for the family.
Since 1899 dairy-product prices have
risen only 80 per cent as much as all
food prices. In October 1858. meats.
poultry and fish were 1872 per cent
higher; fruits and vegetables, 1872 per
ucts. HOB per cent higher: dairy prod
ucts. 1919 per cent higher. and all
foods, 1868 per cent higher. Moreover,
since 1899 weekly earnings of all fac
tory workers have increased over 200
per cent. while retail dairy prices in
creased only 122 per cent. Thus an
hours work today will buy much larger
quantities Of dairy products than in
1899.
The dairy farmer is not mulcting the
consumer. His share of the consum-
ers dollar for dairy products dropped
from 523 cents in early 1852 to only
48 cents in 1853. The hourly return
to dairy farm operators and their fami-
lies for labor and management is less
than that of hired farm labor and less
than one-half that of the factory work.
err. The average annual volume of
dairy sales per farm in 1850 was
$2.476.77 for those selling milk; $408.93
for those selling cream.
The cost of dairy price supports,
high as it has been. is small in COM
parison with that of other crop sup
port programs and small in relation
to the value of the products. The
cost of the support program for dairy
products from october II, 1888 through
November 30, 1852, was $1644 million.
This is about one-fourth the cost of
the wheat program, for example. 1t
amounts to an average of less than
SO million year for an industry whose