Show OL I 1 ait 4 ty 4 F N ot I 1 Z a p t 1 I A Z 0 g W x adios atios be 0 J 14 A J 9 Z ila a the arneri american farm on the junk heap by FRANK 0 LOWDEN UR agriculture 1 la decaying fann facts bankruptcies bankrupt clea 1 la recent y years have I 1 in creased me more a than per cut cent AO carding daig to rein the department ot of ag agriculture cal iture the average farmer could have obtained a larger income alace 1820 1920 if 11 he had hired himself out Us an it a farmhand farmland far in considerable Id erable portions fir of the agricultural area facing cannot be sold bold tor for its value of the improvements alone farm e everywhere h has practically ceased and though the attendance doure in other courses course in OUT our universities and colleges has haa largely increased since the war the number ot of students student in agricultural courses haa ban de decreased red about a third abandoned boned farma farm which in the new england state bontea aielt tielt excited it on eo much a few years ago R are r now new found in conald elble and d increasing number bar to in every state of the union and yet despite these facts which are ach gathered from the records record there has baa been a persistent effort during ell all these ol at forma farm distress dis hiss to minimize the erlo cames of the agricultural situation it m Inte interviews nims from prominent if clam artt cles clea in one going so far I 1 recall its aa to characterize the agricultural depression a myth have appeared with astonishing mile regularity arity during a I 1 this thia tune time denying that there has hag been a serious situation ritu atlon upon the tem farm or announcing confidently that list the fr farmers mra troubles trouble were over and ad that the th future m as mature assured whatever may be the a op hallat 1 in the th cities upon the subject the ablest farm dmn economists isu generally agree ih that at the he farm 11 g dul desperate this they think grows grown out act of the g great t disparity between the prices of the things thing the th former bartner IM liaa to sell if flod and thy the prices of the things 6 has haa to buy th they ey C can m see no an permanent relief n until this thin disparity Is removed they think that it may inny take from fiete fifteen t to t twenty edity years to effect this adjustment it if nothing theng is IB consciously llly done to help the situation they hect poet this to be brought about by the natural increase in an our population and ad by the I 1 running hig da donn of the great farm plant of america at the end and of that time they tell us there will be mother another maladjustment of prices pher but athla till time in tavor favor of the tanner farmer with a great and ad unwholesome ume increase in the cost ot of ili ing to the ao called barta consuming ming classes with its attendant distress A A law few months the ago go the department ol of agriculture in issued bodied its statement or of the alie estimated lalue blue of farm crops crop tor for it atie last year 1 I his was im heralded old as smother another proof that agit culture had come a 1 into 1 0 its ita own on for far it found that the total value of 0 the farm crops tor for the year was wait thre equart era of R M bill billion dollars 1 in excess cocce ot of the hie value a of the crops crop of tho the year a 1 before this of course we was welcome news hu vh 9 the tep report rt however fsr disI disclosed sed some movie very cry perplexing I 1 facts to illustrate the col corn crop was beat about 20 per cent smaller than the crop of it the preceding year tear the total value bmw boheim exceeded that of 1 the prie eding crop by almost and every one knows that the quality of this year years crop we ws fur far below the quality of the preceding crop and yet under R marketing system yet which it la Is cl ahrold Is one me of the most mand noteworthy clity achl a wells menta of this commercial age M it alie file crop of 1 inferior corn was worth more are in the market than the large and superior crop of the rho year before the cause a of till tins ie leaser and it inferior crop na I 1 cold wet summer it w wan a summer mourner it sailous ad far or corn cm but very fin favorable to the goth of gr grasses alses in meadow and mutum was therefore an increate in the pm production deed of all fifik I 1 k with the result that something or ilk like D pounds 0 do more mom of butter was produced in 1924 11 than in the yam before fore thin was but steel about 5 per limit of the total annual production of butter I 1 in the U united tied beates it created a surplus ur plu howe hoier on an account of med increased dm domestic nesti consumption pit of imi finly bout about 50 pounds P do a or 2 per cent aa I 1 aiom pared with the surplus of the year before tan alii relatively mall increase Inc rense do due to the th aino wet riar old and mid cold nights which me BO seriously bored the corn care crop resulted mantled in ID a decrease of the file price if at butter butler from 20 to 25 per der creft cent now new ralph suppose that tho the a corn growers and fellk ilk producers produce ra had been completely organized organ lEd during the these team do you yam bellev believe that title tills depressing nd puzzling I 1 condition mould have mine com about it IV 1 sate of to say su that nd the th larger part of the bumper corn crop ol of 1923 was gold bold at a D price ri which d did id not at cover the cost coat of prodoc production t me it U corn conat growers had been org organized and it f found it that the am market ket would not receive their corn at what it cost them to prodica it they would world not b hae it dumped roped the larger part ot of the crop up upon the au market in fit a few brief months montha they would he have sold sparingly they would have at stored d the I remainder ioder oder knot knowing ing full well that US seasons ot at bountiful production a are always baity ollo aed by smas of a low law pro pram and that at no distant day they would re Z ceide e a iva a profitable Draft able price far or their corn carrat As AB it was U only a few of the tem corn farmers farmed were wall able to hold held thel their corn for the higher price which elitch they had rightly anticipated and which were later received of course even it if organized they could not have bits expected to receive US an much per der bushel tor for a bushel crop amp as aa for far a bushel crop th they would doubtless doubt leeB have asked a remember smaller pries price but they certainly would have asked a price end and have received it which would have made the bushel bushela of cor corn worth more to them than the very next year 2 bushels of poor term corn actually brought to in the worker nia rifet in other words word the turn corn farmers if ac organized sit T would cold have adjusted the supply to th tha actual if de S mand and they would cold have rande made this adjustment before the price became demo called in fact the adJust adjustment reent waa mon wide nude later tar but only after the great bulk of the crop had left the farmers hands it cannot to too often be stated that the supply of any commodity which affects the price Is in not the entire stock of at the tha commodity I 1 to exist filst ence abe but only that portion partial of it which 2 la offered for sale all at a given price and BO a it if the dairy farmers had some bome ve way by which they could have taken last year re the incubus of 50 or of at the outside P dounda do of butter better off the tha market it 1 Is donest almost certain la I 1 the opinion plate of epe experts ct that this depression la W the great dairy industry would tot not have occurred it if in other words this added BO or it you please 1 pounds of bu butter t ter had been purchased nt at a cost ay I 1 of aso 50 WO and ad stored by the farmers themselves waiting awaiting a season on of IS less luscious leitne grain grasses the dairy in tanners em of america would have rec received elved a as a return upon their large investment and their labors labom many any million dollar more am than an they actually did receive ald and so 0 I 1 eay by this report himin from the department of agriculture r disc discloses lanten very perplexing facts now I 1 produce both corn and milk upon my farm I 1 feed the larger part of my CI corn in the form of flags to my com I 1 sell it therefore Is the hie form for ot of all rollic it I 1 helehe considerably tem less lee for it than an I 1 did a year ago and so a these them glowing figures of the increased value of the corn colem crop over ever which the financial writers of the groat great metropolitan dahrea gloat do 60 not of comfort con efort UM me much I 1 ma am lo 10 a deed puzzled to know knew what to de da I 1 have been taught that to produce 60 bushels ot of mra corn to the sets acre sofiner la to a finer achievement than to produce 45 1 I like to vice see the milk pull pall brimming full with tweet pure pace milk but th when I 1 sea 45 bushels bushel of corn care worth more than GO 60 bushels of earn corn bud and when I 1 see KM the milk pall but two thirds third full worth in more the than an the brimming poll pall of another war I 1 become became bonfe confused old a and md hardly know what to do last I 1 let summer the cotton it crop P 1 la the tb southwest was buffering seve severely reIr for far ilk I lk of at rain and then one tiny day file heavens opened mid the rains mine descended As a re result reit it the government which before had bad estimated the tha rich crop at be bales increased the estimate to holes balea this we was R an Iner increase eare of lesa hear than 8 5 per met cent to in the yield bud and yet because of this estimated If increase the price declined in the market 21 20 per cont cent this meant t that the total crop of the larger large estimate naff I 1 north crib less 1 in the air market by the than the crop by the tha I 1 lesser er estimate and yet at that very it time the world vurl d needed cotton as it had not net needed it before alnee in I 1 the civil war or and this paradox dorado waa two th the result of ft a timely rain now N there them to Is no a music sweeter far to mv CRT earn care than tha a patter dollar of raindrop upon pon the tha root count breaking a drought in the summer bummer time and ad yet to have I 1 my lie ife I 1 cannot tell whether beff ier that rain la Is a sweet W and ad fragrant blame bearer of a benefit or bankruptcy when was the th hot oil me win windi d search the fields field I 1 do not know knew whether to pray play for mm or to thank the tha almighty tor for the unbroken drought ta hr wrong aith in our methods of me marketing when t the lie ague aggregate gate money value iame of a larger large crop of a prime necessity necea alty 1 la smaller mailer than the tell of a mailer it crop there are untold retold it thousands do ot at men am and women and children who need it more am cotton cottell to clothe them than la Is produced 1 ID it die world today to say may therefore that bitter ot of cotton cattle are worth more it than but balea if 1 to cold condemn a system yet of marketing which 0 o jeaa am value our mach agricultural lintel colleges and ad our department of 0 agriculture have have constantly urged larger p production adut if they have hava assumed ad bud and I 1 think that th the mora wheat bud and corn we role raise the fewer hungry mouths there them will be and it that the more cotton catton we produce the fewer people will be obliged to go naked 0 or but half clothed for whatever economists may say bay an to surplus we know that there really has never been too much of food or too much of clothing tor for a ready needy world and of course it follows follow that the larger the production per unit the cheaper will the product be but when 1 large r 9 production 1 la used rod to till drive priam down doas so BO to make targe urge production less Draft profitable able than small production large production will not con times and the world will therefore have to pay more mom for the fielda necessaries le of life this therefore I 1 the consumer conan roer n problem se as well wall US as the producer it ban been shown again get and ad again get that compe whom when it goes to the extent of forcing price below the cost coat of production la in the end I 1 ill as dl disastrous mitt ions to the consumer as to the producer Dro ducer himself i TIM the demoralization of an industry which inevitably evit ably follow 1 in an increased cost coat of production which the conan merB finally must at meet meat Organ organization hattes 1 la a most moat po powerful erfal factor in b ho co man an progress the 9 so BB long ago a aa adam smith found in organization the key bey to industrial growth organization means the difference between the mob and a highly organized progressive ocleta society in the modem world the former fanner alone haa ban been the he last to realize the value mine of organization tor far it ats own bake and therefore it happens that when the farmers in n any community organize for to buy per pose they soon find that there are am other bernel benefits lm derived in addition to the one me that wan vs their special aim A finer community ute c widening or of sympathies with mIth their neighbors mid and amo associates clates a broadening of their outlook upon pa the world a amass new of the dignity and worth of their calling an elevation of the ablest bud and worthiest me among mi g them to places of leadership are am among the nets of farmers organizations organization agriculture be baa emerged from its ita primitive state it must there tors conform to tho prim ties which have been found necessary omary to the success of other great grant hal industries tries 1 la all other fields of commerce unrestricted fee frea and ad up open competition in the marketing of products be has been basis gradually gradual y disappearing agriculture therefore finds find itself with till its millions of members bar freely calope competing among them th setu while bile it Is obliged to sell its 10 products product 1 in a high highly organized organised sed industrial and commercial w world now new it if the in farmers m mr arft to put themselves upon terms tem of with the great industries of the country they too loo must agat organize d it 1 1 net cot deah able Is that they the should miller imitate the great industries adopt the corporate form of organization bud and operate their that formal through corporate management it would our whole social structure if our millions of farmers were to mr surrender ader their individualism adly fit du allare in this way nor 1 la it necea necessary ary while much improved efficiency in production 1 Is till still im possible the farmers be have made and are malting making con an strat slant progress in this thin r respect hect th the problems problem which pro press hardest upon him today era are controlled conce raed wit with the marketing of his products at a pries price which will enable able him to if live and ad to go OR on producing he be must find same come way to resto restore a the proper relationship between the prices he be receives for far his products and the prices he be pay for far other command ties those thal elm ho oppose the tha principle as seem to think thick that in some sort of way the berand cooperative pe rand small item are seeking to avoid fit the operation permit 0 of the law or of supply sad and demand quite the IS if trim thone them who advocate this tem form of marketing market lna are seeking only to create conditions by which that law will operate fully US as between betease be terse the salter and the buyer of far farm product a at present it does dot at farnam Far mcra operative cooperative co re market heit association hoUe however ev are am malting making real progress some hove have failed doubt doubtless less othera other still will fall th tha a mor among |