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old overcoats aside, rolled up their sleeves, and without aid from their conquerors went valiantly to work rebuilding their lost fortunes.

There is plenty of this same blood in the Southern manhood and womanhood of the present day, and with the proper cooperation of our National Government (which we believe we have) agriculture in the South will one day rise upon a firmer foundation and to hitherto unheard of heights.

There is one great danger, as I see it, in the present agricultural conditions, and it is this: The farmers of this country can not go on much longer producing crops and disposing of same for less than the cost of production.

As to suggested remedies:

First, cheaper and better methods of transportation, which naturally divides itself into three great classes-namely, railway, water, and highways.

At the beginning of the war our Government took the best blood of our country and sent them overseas to fight at a wage of $30 per month. It also took over the railroads of the country and doubled the amount of labor to run them at a wage of from $100 to $300 per month, of which the farmer is still called upon to pay 55 cents.

There must be cheaper freight rates or the farmers' products will rot upon the farms. As an illustration I wanted to buy five cars of hay in Michigan last spring for the farm bureau of my county. The price was $14 f. o. b. cars in Michigan, but the freight rate was $16 per ton; therefore, we did without the hay.

A man in east Tennessee wanted a car of velvet beans from south Georgia. The beans were cheap enough, viz, $12 per ton, but the freight rate was $12, which made no sale.

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence waterway will give the grain farmers a cheaper outlet, and the farm-to-market highways will meet a long felt need in stimulating production.

The next remedy I would suggest would be a system of long-time credits, to enable the producers of live stock as well as cotton and grain to market their products in an orderly manner.

Next, I would inaugurate a reliable system of crop reports for the cotton States, and pay the man at the head of this department an adequate salary, in order that the most efficient man possible could be secured, for it hurts to have the price of the cotton crop reduced $100,000,000 by a report that was misleading.

The Government should without further delay sign the Ford contract for Muscle Shoals, in order that southern agriculture, and I might add, American agriculture, would have within our own borders the source of cheap fertilizers.

As I stood last week on that great dam at Muscle Shoals and saw the hundreds of thousands of tons of water and potential power going to waste, I thought of the thousands of southern homes within a radius of 200 miles of that great plant who were doing without the conveniences of life; who had no running water in their homes; who had no lights but the tallow candle and the kerosene lamp. Í thought what a different country we would have if we could only develop this wonderful power. Nobody in this audience who hasn't been there and seen the possibilities of this wonderful project can comprehend or have the least idea of its potentialities.

I might say right here that it is nothing but fair. This country can not go along much further without the man and the woman on the farm enjoying the same conveniences that the man and the woman in the city enjoy.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, the greatest need in the South is for people to quit talking hard times and go to work, to cease looking to the Government to right all their financial difficulties, and to realize that the remedy lies within each individual farmer-a more general return to the faith and religion of our fathers and mothers and a more general application of the golden rule.

AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN THE CORN BELT.

By A. SYKES, of Iowa.

Speaking for the farmers and cattle feeders of the corn belt, I wish to say that to-day they are in worse condition financially than they have ever been in before. For 40 years I have been connected with farming and I have passed through many panics and depressions, but never have I seen the farmer's purchasing power reduced to its present level. To this conference I can truthfully state that I have never seen such a helpless condition prevailing among such a large percentage of our farmers in the great corn belt as during the past year.

Our present hard condition is not due to any failure to work. Year after year since the war broke out we have produced to the maximum. Our wives, mothers, and daughters have worked in the fields as never before.

When the war came to an end and our sons left the Army and the Navy to again take up farming, thousands of them started out farming for themselves, buying land, live stock, and machinery at the peak prices of 1919 and 1920. Thousands of hard-working tenants whose specialty had been the raising of crops and the feeding of live stock had saved up a few thousand dollars and had come to a time of life when it was customary to make a payment down on a home of their own. These frugal, industrious men, accustomed to neither war nor speculation, had no reason to believe that they were embarking on a peculiarly hazardous enterprise when they bought a farm of their own, with a small payment down. And now, scattered all over the corn belt, are thousands and thousands of these hard-working young farmers who are facing financial ruin. Some are embittered by their unhappy experience.

Even middle-aged and old farmers who had accumulated a competence before the war broke out have watched their assets melt away like ice on a summer day. In almost every community one may find stories of such men. They are broken financially and spiritually. They are looking anxiously for renewed hope.

Why is it, they ask, that they now have to pay 400 bushels of corn for a wagon which they used to buy for 150 bushels? Why must they pay 350 bushels of corn for a gang plow which formerly cost 125 bushels? Or 150 bushels for a suit of clothes which formerly cost 50 bushels, or 33 bushels for the shoes that formerly cost 9 bushels?

The rank and file of the corn-belt farmers are fighting against heavy odds. They may have sold their grain and live stock for less than half the cost of production. They may have sold their own labor and the labor of their wives and children at less than 5 cents an hour. But they are still fighting on and they are thinking more seriously than ever before.

Men who are working 10 to 15 hours a day and facing a situation of this sort day after day want results. From a greatly reduced income they are compelled to pay greatly increased prices for supplies and transportation. They become impatient under the necessity of paying railroad rates 50 per cent above prewar rates, coal prices 100 per cent above prewar prices, and other prices 50 to 150 per cent above prewar prices. They read in Government reports that persons engaged in other great industries continue to enjoy abnormally high compensation for their services. They want to know if this is necessary in view of the fact that the cost of food is a chief part of the cost of living, and they do know that food products, as delivered to the markets by the farmers, have fallen in prices to near the prewar level and some important items are far lower.

Farmers in the corn belt want to know why ham is sold at retail throughout the country at about six times the price per pound of live hogs in Chicago when the normal ratio is about 1 to 31. They believe that a reduction of retail prices of ham and some other food products to properly correspond with the reductions of prices received by farmers would do much to stimulate consumption and reduce the surplus stocks and restore normal conditions.

Agriculture is not alone in being depressed. Almost every kind of industry in the corn belt is affected. When farmers can not buy, all others suffer, and this is well illustrated in Iowa at the present time. The feeling of the farmers and many others is shown by their attitude toward counter taxes. In many counties the farmers and others are asking the supervisors to make radical cuts in salaries— to spend less on schools and roads. They say these are fine, but if the people have less money they must cut down expenses.

Steps should be taken immediately to assist farmers who are under obligation to make payments during the next few months. Unless relief is afforded many will be ruined. It should not be possible to take the farms and homes from honest, industrious, thrifty farmers who are practically sure to pay their way out if given a little more time. Nor is this desirable from any point of view. We must find a way to help these men. Some banks are doing all they can. Communities having such banks are to be congratulated, and these banks deserve commendation. Federal funds now are finding their way to the rural districts, but for some reason their benefits are not reaching large numbers who need such help.

We can not study the present situation without realizing the need of farmers for longer-time loans than have prevailed in the past. The farmer's turnover is slow as compared with manufacturing and business, and a financial system adapted to the latter does not fit the farmer's situation. Just now farmers would be benefited by the storage of a large quantity of corn. It should be stored on the farms where most of it will be used. In each of the last two years the corn crop has been about 300,000,000 bushels in excess of normal. Due to the stress of war the corn acreage was

greatly increased. Several millions of acres of corn land should be planted to clover and alfalfa, and this would be done if some of the present corn surplus is stored for use next year. The land needs the leguminous crops, and in the long run will produce more and better food crops if allowed to recuperate in this manner. Thus, in the long run, the public would profit if the farmers could finance reasonable storage operations.

Corn-belt farmers know that agricultural products make a large part of our exports annually, and that, during the past year, food products exported have shown a great increase. Our Secretary of Agriculture wisely has undertaken to get information in the foreign markets that will enable us to hold those markets as far as desirable. Such a study means much for American farmers, and Secretary Wallace should be commended for getting it under way so promptly and he should be given every encouragement by appropriations or otherwise to extend the work as far as he deems necessary. We need to know the requirements of foreign markets and how well these requirements are being met by other exporting countries, and then we need to perfect our processes of growing and manufacturing and marketing so that we may successfully compete in so far as certain products are concerned-those which we have in surplus for export. This is a challenge to our ability, and our country must not fail to meet it.

It is the duty and the privilege of our Government to investigate the causes of the suffering among the farmers of the corn belt and throughout the whole country, and to take measures which will cut short the suffering as far as possible. The situation is most complex. It emphasizes the importance of more knowledge on the economics of agriculture. It involves abnormal relations between prices of farm products and other prices, the handling of an enormous surplus, the better adjustment of supply and demand, the relation between agricultural and other exports, the development of the most efficient production and marketing methods possible, the care of loans maturing at an early date, provision for longer-term agricultural loans, and above all a better understanding of agriculture, its fundamental character in reference to our national welfare and its emergency needs at this time.

AGRICULTURAL CONDITIONS IN THE SPRING-WHEAT AREA.

By JOHN H. HAGAN, of North Dakota.

This I regard as a great privilege to have the opportunity to give a short talk to this gathering on the subject of agriculture in the wheat regions of the Northwest.

Having been asked to talk on the agricultural situation in the wheat regions, I take it for granted that by the Northwest is meant the spring-wheat area, of which my State, North Dakota, produces much of the high-grade milling varieties.

North Dakota is usually thought of as a wheat State, but it must be remembered that it is also a heavy producer of other grains than wheat, such as rye, oats, barley, and flax. Also of live stock and dairy products. I believe that it would go unchallenged if I were

to say that civilization is facing the most serious problems in history in the so-called adjustment period. It is battling to properly feed, shelter, and clothe the people, even in face of the fact that it is claimed the United States has a surplus. We find farmers facing bankruptcy, with an undercurrent of dissatisfaction and a breaking up their morale, caused largely by their buying power being impaired. On the other hand, we find factories of the Nation closed, or running part time, consequently less labor being employed and the laboring men's purchasing power also impaired. The farms of the Nation employ about 13,000,000 people, of which more than 6,000,000 is additional to himself and family.

The farmer has more money invested in agriculture than all the manufacturing, mining, and railroads when the water is squeezed out of them and is the largest single purchaser on the market and the largest single employer of labor of any single industry. The laboring man and the farmer together, with their dependents, form a very large percentage of all purchasing power, and unless the purchasing power of those two classes is restored the result will reflect on business conditions, and we can not expect business to improve materially until the purchasing power of the farmer is restored.

Primarily, agriculture is the basic industry of the Nation. Therefore, it is well that we, as a Nation, see to it that agriculture's buying power is restored. In my opinion, it can be restored only by the farmer receiving cost of production plus a reasonable profit.

The present system of distribution forms a long chain between producer and consumer; that of necessity must be shortened and cheapened, and it seems as though the Federal Government must, of necessity, reach out its strong arm of protection to save the farmers, and other business industries must either extend credit so that farmers cooperative enterprise may extend near to if not to the consumer. Otherwise the Government must take over the distribution of grain centers, stockyards, transportation, etc., or industry will die of stagnation.

During the war we had a United States Grain Corporation, formed primarily for the purpose of holding down the price of wheat. In the words of Mr. Hoover, "If there had not been a mimimum price placed on wheat of $2.20 for No. 1 Northern or its equivalent, at Chicago, wheat would probably have reached $6 a bushel." Now, if a grain corporation could hold the price of wheat down during the period of the war, which they claimed helped to make it possible to win the war and make the world safe for democracy, it was done at the sacrifice of the wheat market, and it could certainly restore the United States Grain Corporation, place on a minimum price to save the farmer and keep the price so that it will at least meet the cost of production. However, if it is restored, the farmer should have a representative on the board. Labor should also be represented, as labor is a heavy consumer of breadstuffs.

It should at least be restored to the extent that it could handle the surplus wheat used for export, and it would necessitate the Government providing for export of the surplus, by the Government financing selling of surplus in foreign countries.

It may become necessary for Government control of elevators and mills to such a degree that profiteering shall be eliminated. If con

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