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Show The Cause of our Depression There are some people in the United States who do not, even now, understand that the fundamental mistake in the economic affairs of this country was the failure of statesmen and business leaders U realize what was happening to agriculture agri-culture in the decade prior to 19X3. Not until the buying power of farmers collapsed and they reached reach-ed the stage where, after raising crops, the returns were insufficient to meet expenses, plus taxes and interest, did the so-called leaders decide that something must be done. By that time, however, the virtual bankruptcy of 53,000,000 people had affected every line of business and a panic was inevitable. Basically, American prosperity depends de-pends upon farmers' buying power. Little of farm income remains on the farm. Almost all of it, being newly created, circulates as the farmer and his family purchase what they need. Hence the money that farmers receive for their products pro-ducts is almcst sure purchasing power. po-wer. To understand the farmer's plight let us remember that in 1929 the gro-s farm income was 11.9 billion dollars. In 1932 it was about five billions. This affected 44 per cent of our population, including those who live on the farms, together with the population of small towns and villages directly dependent upon up-on farmers for their trade. Naturally, Natural-ly, the ill fortune of 44 per cent had a harmful effect on the remaining re-maining 56 per cent of the people of the nation. To any person cognizant of the steady decline of agricultural profits pro-fits during recent years the national na-tional debacle was not surprising The amazing factor is that artificial artifi-cial stimulation should have sustained sus-tained unbridled speculation as long as it did. Really astounding was the failure of business and financial fi-nancial leaders to understand what was in process throughout America. |