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Show IPS' iKeleused by Western Newspaper Union.) PAY FARMER FOR RAISING THINGS WE NOW IMPORT THE EFFORT to solve the American Ameri-can farm problem cost the United Spates $1,567,000,000 last year. That was seven times the cost for 1933. For 1940 the total amounted to an average of $261 per farm, but the , farmers did not get all of that County administration costs amounted amount-ed to $104,020,000, an average of just about $4,000 per county. That county coun-ty administration cost represented 8 per cent of the total government ap- , propriation, an Increase from 2Vi per cent in 1935. These county administration ad-ministration costs do not cover the salaries of county agents. And still the farm problem is not solved. We have on hand today more than one full year's average crop of cotton cot-ton and practically one year's crop of wheat with the surplus in all products growing each year, our world markets decreasing, and agricultural ag-ricultural Imports from other countries coun-tries continuing, and In some lines increasing. Each year we are importing agricultural ag-ricultural products which we can, and to some extent do, raise In .his country to the extent of Vi billion dollars. If the American farmer was encouraged to raise the products prod-ucts we are now importing, if he were paid a small price for raising them, and then given a protected market in which to sell them, we might find a solution to the American Ameri-can farm problem. The farmer is not seeking government govern-ment charity. He is asking only fair play. Manufacturers were given giv-en protected markets to offset the wage scaleu in this country as com pared with ether nations. The American Amer-ican farmer wants the same kind of consideration and should he get it would be better off financially than he is now, even though the government govern-ment is paying him for limiting production pro-duction an amount that far exceeds the entire cost of government 25 years ago. The American farmer would prefer pre-fer to be paid for what he does, rather rath-er than for what he does not do. He likes to stand on his own feet when that is at all possible. Some day both major political parties may make that discovery. U. S. WILL BE ONLY CREDITOR NATION LATE IN OCTOBER of 1918, Andre An-dre Tardieu, then a member of the French cabinet, said to me in Paris: "France cannot again be the customer cus-tomer of America that she has been in the past Our lack of resources will force us to produce our own foods and our own raw materials. We must grow our cotton In the Niger valley of Africa and in Indo China. More Intensive cultivation of French, or French colonial farms must produce our foods, unless America is willing to finance us." That is- Just what happened to the foreign market of American farm products, not only in France, but in other European nations. When the present war Is over, there will be nothing left in Europe with which to buy. The United States will be the one big creditor nation of the world. We must learn the methods of a creditor nation. We must buy if we would sell, and we must not make the American farmer carry all the load. Today we buy farm products from foreign countries that we may sell those countries manufactured products. That is not fair to the American farmer. He Is entitled to his home market A GREAT MAN IN COUNTRY JOURNALISM AS I PASSED through Oregon City, Ore., recently, I recalled one of the outstanding men of country Journalism who died about a year ago. Edward E. Brodie and his Oregon City Enquirer aided materially materi-ally in making Oregon City the thriving little city it is. Edward Brodie and his newspaper led the way, and people of the community followed that lead. I knew Edward Brodie in many places throughout the nation and the world. President Harding sent him to Siam as American minister. Later he was transferred to Finland and was a favorite with the Finnish people. He served the National Editorial Edi-torial association as its president and did much for the advancement of country Journalism. Hie knew the value of rural America to the nation, and the value of the newspaper to the rural community. He was one of the great men of country Journalism. Journal-ism. NON-PAYING BRIDGE JUSTUS CRAEMER, railroad commissioner of California, proposes pro-poses as a defense measure that the Golden Gate bridge be turned over to the federal government subject sub-ject to the debt it carries. The government gov-ernment permitted the building of the bridge on condition that no tolls be charged to federal employees, Including In-cluding officers and men of the army, navy, marine corps and other government services. Because of that condition, more than one-third of those using the bridge do not pay. 1 |
