Milford chronicle., 1956-03-02
PROGRFSSIVE ATTITTIDE


sponsible for that. One is that the decline
il tSraS farm income was not so severe as
many people believe, while this income is
being shared by fewer farmers-improved
machines are constantly increasing each
farmers productivity. Another is that the
farmer, like the producer Of anything else,
seeks ways to produce a more desirable pro-
duct at lower cost, and this demands the
employment of machines of improved de-
sign and greater work capacity. And third
has to do with a much-misunderstood mat
ter-the cost of modern farm equipment.
It has been said that this cost is out of
line and excessive. But Department of Ag-
riculture figures tell different story. Us
ing 1858 average prices as a base, the
Department compared them with prices in
the summer of 1855. The biggest increase in
prices paid by farmers was for hired labor
"a tremendous 400 per cent. Building ma
terials, livestock, motor vehicles and seed
followed in order. All Of these had gone up
more than farm machinery. And this does
not take into account the higher perform
ance and quality of present-day machinery
which IN itself is an indirect form of price
reduction
What of the future? A short time ago
the head Of a leading equipment company
addressed a group of dealers, and what he
said is applicable to the industry as a whole:
I'VE have the best machines we have ever
had. We have customer who can afford to
buy. We have a customer who needs to re-
duce his own costs of production. Our equip
ment can help him do that-and we can
prove it.. This is the progressive attitude
that is becoming typical Of the American
agricultural scene.
WHEN A VIRTUE BECOMES "A VICE
Frugality is a virtue that becomes a vice
when it reaches the point of striving to get
something for little or nothing. It can be a
vice that helps to undermine the financial
strength of government itself. For even es-
tablished government services are sometimes
distorted and expanded into costly carica-
lures of their original functions when too
much is demanded of them
One good Illustration is the postal service,
ccnstitutiOnally-auth function of the
federal government. In 1912 it added rural
package delivery to its services parcel post
Parcel post was supposed to be self-sustain-
ing. 1t never has been. According to an ar
ticle by Paul L. Uoirot In The Freeman
The Post Office Departments reported def
cit on fOurth-class mail, which consists pri-
marily Of parcel post, averaged S134 million
a year from 1949 through 1853 The reve-
nue. collected from users of parcel post serv-
ice covered roughly three-fOurths of the costs
charged against the service. Taxpayers made
up the balance, the subsidy averaging about
13 cents on parcel.
"Under such conditions Of subsidized
parcel post and closely regulated competition,
it was not surprising that the parcel post tail
began to wag the rest of the postal system
In 1851, about 81 per cent of the weight
and about 20 per cent of the cubic volume of
all mail consisted of parcel post"
In addition, this particular tax-subsidized
commercial service has imposed an impos-
sible competitive handicap on heavily taxed,
privately operated package carriers.
1t is little wonder that the Hoover Com
mission, in its report on Business Enter
prises," recommended .'that the Postmaster
General shall, if the current rates do not
cover all the costs Of the parcel post services
(including indirect cost seek a further in
crease Of rates."
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