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Show i. T';."; itwffli ijTiji iifcTiiM m VI f THE RICH COUNTY REAPER, RANDOLPH, UTAH Fear of Farm Land Boom Adds to Inflation Worry Official Figures Show Agricultural Unit Values Have Increased 20 to 24 Per Cent in Year. WAVES One Year Old: Need More Women Patriots By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. TEiEFACT WAR RAISES VALUE OF FARM REAL ESTATE (VALUE PER ACRE OOO 191214000 1917 OOOO 1921 OOO, ' 1929 IN U.S.A.) 00000 G 000 Q 1933 1942 Each symbol represents 5 Trust Building Washington, D. C. For many months now, government offices and conference rooms, no matter how they might echo with glowing reports from the home or Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service recently celebrated their first birthday as a drive the battle front, have never been was begun to double their number. Some of their activities are pictured above. Left: Seaman Janet Croot tells quite free from a ghost. It hovers a pilot to land through a radio microphone while Seaman Blanche Deady watches the incoming plane as they in the corner and sends chills down operate a control tower at the giant Floyd Bennett air field naval base in New York. Inset Upper Center: Store- every spine it is the ghost of Old keeper Gwendolyn ONeiH rides to a blimp hangar at Lakehurst, N. J. Bight: Seaman Mardell Feiser checks Man Inflation, trying to come back to the scene of his crimes in the parachutes in the dry locker at the parachute school at Lakehurst. roaring twenties. The Office of War Information has just issued a warning that this specter may appear in his most frightful form if we are not careful. The fat pay envelope is the inflation danger you hear most about. But there is a worse one, namely, a farm land boom. So far, there has been no spectacular rise in farm land prices but a dangerous trend has been discovered in some states and the bureau of agricultural economics is decidedly worried. Here are some figures. WNU Service, Union Hamburgers and the Hula in the South Pacific Up 20 Per Cent As of March 1 of this year, increases in farm land values over those of the previous year were 20 to 24 per cent. In September, 1941, I wrote in these columns: Money to burn! And the burning question is how to stop the conflagration before it starts. The chief danger is another prairie fire of farm land speculation such as started in Iowa in World War I . . . Today, two years after the present war started, farm land prices are up 1 per cent Remember, that was written in September, 1941. Well, steps were taken to prevent speculation then and they met with success. However, as we have seen by comparThe hamburgers famed American food concoction follows our army into the South Sea islands where it is ing figures, land prices in some d hut. Bight: A Maori states have now increased considserved by a native, at left; to Pfc. Thomas Foreman. The restaurant is a maiden cuts up a bit as she rolls her eyes and sticks out her tongue during a native demonstration of jive erably. That is natural for much South Sea style, for the entertainment of United States marines. The Japanese are being harassed at both ends has happened since 1941. In 1942, of this long battlefront of islands. As the Allies struck at the enemy airdrome at Munda, a raid was made on as the Office of War Information the Japs major base at Macassar. Fires from the raid were visible 80 miles away. points out, for the first time in 20 years, the annual average of farm prices reached parity with other prices. Since the outbreak of the war, the average of farm prices has risen more than 90 per cent, and farm income by about 80 per cent while the average prices paid by farmers, including interest and taxes, has increased about 25 per cent. Farm income was around 19 billion dollars in 1941 it will be about 22 billion for 1943. That means, of course, that the farmer has money to spend and it is natural that land values would rise to some degree. As I said, they have gone up as high as 24 per cent in some states and less than 6 per cent in only six states. Those figures, says the bureau of agricultural economics bear watching! It is also reported that bankers in some parts of the Middle West believe that in some cases, the land values have risen beyond their real e earnworth based on the of the land. if That, ing capacity it is true, of course means that right now some farmers are buying land that wont pay for itself. It is reasonable to suppose that they are not members of that unhappy group of 85,000 farm owners The battered helmet this Chinese who met Old Man Inflation before soldier is holding was once worn by and who lost their property under American troops roll a 155 mm. field piece into position to shell the one of the 40,000 Japanese who were foreclosures in the decade that endJapanese-hel- d Munda air field across the channel. Much guerrilla fight- killed or injured when they attempt- ed in 1939. If they are, they deserve to suffer again. But the unfortuing in this area was reported as steadily advancing Allied forces con- ed to wrest Chungking from Chinese nate troops. thing is that when the farmer tinued to close in enemys positions. ... jungle-encircle- Aimed at a Japanese Air Field Victorious Chinese long-tim- hard-fighti- on-th- e ng of 1912-1- 4 value loses, the rest of the country does, too. We have struggled through minor industrial panics, as we used to call them, but when the farm goes, it means that things are in such a way that there is no stopping until everybody touches bottom. Campaign Worked in 41 The article which I wrote in 1941 reported a meeting here in Washington of mortgage bankers, insurance people, farm organization representatives and others who were urged by the Farm Credit administration to make normal appraisals of land. Apparently they did a pretty good job. Meanwhile, an educational campaign was started urging the farmer, instead of rushing out and buying land with the first money he got as income increased, to pay oft his debts. It was gratifying to see the results. In the next year (1942) the net reduction of mortgages was 360 million dollars as against an average of 120 million reduction over the three preceding years. Of course, there is nothing Old Man Inflation hates worse than seeing debts paid up. Another thing which has helped the present situation is the fact that the farmers who are buying land now usually put up a large initial cash payment. In other words, they are avoiding future debts and that is another thing, of course, which is equally unpleasant to Old Man Inflation. There is nothing to stop the farmer from speculating in land if he wants to, buying on a margin the way the gamblers used to- do on the stock exchange. Now such transactions are considerably limited by law but there is no law to keep a farmer from gambling if he doesnt know any better. . 'Psychology for The Fighting Man I have just been reading a little Psychology for the Fighting Man.. It is one of those books published primarily for the soldiers, and every soldier able to read, ought to have it. It has 20 chapters, each written by a psychologist or expert in his line. Any chapter can be read separately and they are all highly interesting. Familiarity with them will make any man a better soldier and a better leader. The chapter on mobs is only one. It tells how and why mobs form, what starts a booklet called well-kno- panic and how to stop one. But here are a few of the other topics I found exceedingly interesting: Psychology and combat Seeing in the dark Color and camouflage Food and sex as military problems Differences among races and peoples and many others. Simply-tol- d psychology. In this war, a man needs all the helps of that kind that he can get for the contrast between army life and civilian life is greater than ever. This book, Psychology for the Fighting Man, is put out by a nonthe Infantry profit corporation Journal, here in Washington. It costs only a quarter. It for the soldier, sailor, private or general, ensign or admiral. And it would be a good idea for a lot of next of kin to read this book, too. It might help them to- understand what the soldier is up against. - v |