Show economic highlights that affert afat the h pitr pat 1 dividend cake nud ml tox tin hills of livery individual N I 1 a if onal al mid id international luct lems from local welfare it Is almost axiomatic that the farmer falner presents pre the toughest problems any administration has to tackle jacklo even in ili good times the farm problem lins has been uppermost in bad times it gets infinitely infinitely worse present efforts to help the farmer depend mainly on oil price fix ing ruid and production allotting for farni farm products on oil a tremendous scale all of it Is designed to put pat money willoney in the farmers pocket now department ot of agriculture brows are furrowed because the opposite has occurred between july 16 15 and august 15 there was a sharp decline in farm purchasing power where on oil the former date tile the index of farmer ability to buy stood at 71 per cent of the average from 1908 1008 to 1014 it stood at 64 per cent on the latter date data the decline was caused by two factors during the month the average farm price declined from 76 to 72 while the cost of the things lie ho buys yose rose front from to according to government and other experts this a 0 problem for tile tha farmer alone to consider it la Is their thesis that the decline in ili the purchasing power of farm dwellers Is directly re for factory unemployment in urban arena areas to the extent of it has hag long been a debated question whether falling farm income caused a decline in city income or whether the decline in ill city earnings caused the fall in farm receipts secretary wallace firmly believes that the first Is tho the case according to him ruinous agricultural prices plunged tile C country into depression four years agog ago on that basis there can bo be no recovery until farm income rises and the farm dwell era again provide a normal market for factory products how flow to do it Is tile the question broader and even more unorthodox experiments in price fixing may be offered at the moment business Is in III a more or less quiescent state its neither up nor down and la Is maintaining ta itself fairly close to the level reached about six weeks ago the best sign aahl Is the resistance real stanco to seasonal trends precisely aa early in ili the summer contra sea bonal expansion encouraged all observers during a recent week the following were highlights electric power and car loadings favorable by comparison with previous periods domestic business volume little changed save tor for slackening in some heavy industries lumber Pro production luction steady decline in ili near future anticipated wheat and cotton receipts up tip in ili both cases basea automobiles production suffered a slight decrease as was waa expected insolvencies par fewer than last year dond and stock Alark markets ets bonds lull hill stocks istocka generally erratic talk of inflation caused a rise which was followed by a a decline dec llna speculators aro are cautious cautions A report emanating from tho the harvard school ot of business points out something that la Is generally unknown during depression consumption or of goods by tile the ultimate consumer remained at a very high level use of 0 meat butter clothey clothes tobacco toba cco etc fell ell very little the great decline was solely in producers goods steel lumber and similar products which are not bought by the individual consumer the way out of the depression tie therefore la Is to work to increase producer and not consumer consumption according to this survoy survey this Is in somewhat striking disagreement with the principles of ro recovery covery shown in the emergency logi legislation station |