OCR Text |
Show GUDIEMI OUTLOOK HELD EXAGGERATED General Effect of Drop to Below Dollar a Bushel Not So Bad, Former Sec- : retarr ' Meredith Says DBS MOINES. la, Jul 21 (By A. P.) general effect of th drop In . wheat price to below 41 a bushel ha been exaggerated In th mind of many people, both as regards re-gards Jt effect upon farmers generally gen-erally and upon boslneaa other than farming, declared E. T. Meredith, secretary of agriculture, during President Wilson' administration. In a statement to ths Associated Pre, v, Thoe who grow wheat exclusively, exclu-sively, .or nearly ae, and con-quntly con-quntly ar dependent upon th return re-turn from their wheat crop almost entirely for their Income," ho aald. "have had their Income eut by th recent decline In wheat price, and th seriousness of th situation, situa-tion, so far as they ar concerned, I a mattei of Intereet and Importance Impor-tance to every other Interest of the nation, labor and business being concerned aa well a th farmer. Certainly, steps should Immediately Immediate-ly be taken to prevent uch a alt-uatkm alt-uatkm being again forced upon a group of people who are producing one of our stapl products. 'Ths entire Income American farmers receive from wheat, however, how-ever, represents but 10 per cent of th total Income of th farmer a a group. Then, that commodity, which represents 1 per cent of the total Income, I only 1 per oent lower In price thaq It wa a year age. It appeal, then, that, so far ae the price of wheat alone I concerned, con-cerned, the present price decline affects af-fects th total Income of our farmers farm-ers by only t per cent. "The price of corn I a much higher than th price for that grain a year ago aa wheat I lower, ana. Inasmuch aa there are more than three times as many bushels of corn produced as there ar of wheat, this very Increase In the price of corn . greatly exceeds ths shrinkage In wheat. Whether corn will maintain it high price I do not know, but. if it does, those who are both corn and wheat grower a. who are a large number, are at least in no worse situation than they were a year ago, and many of them ar In a .much .batter situation. situa-tion. "It I Interesting to not that a It per cent drop In wheat (14 per rent a bushel) Is only equal to but 1 per cent of th wealth produced each year by oar dairy cows, and that the American hen produces more new wealth than the total wheat crop alone." |