Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 523 



cheaper that the price of meats will be materially lowered to the 

 consumer; on the contrary, reckoning the enhanced cost of the 

 animal, increased land values, and larger public service charges, it 

 seems reasonable that the present level of prices ought to be main- 

 tained if the producer is to receive fair compensation for his serv- 

 ices. But uncertain industrial conditions may blight all our 

 hopes. The buying power of the consumer may be curtailed and 

 soon the effects of a retrograde market will fall heavily upon the 

 man who has taken a long chance to supply a juicy steak for the 

 American breakfast. The fear of a beef famine seems to possess 

 the entire country and the live stock press. The live stock markets, 

 and incidentally a few commission men interested in more com- 

 missions, seem burdened with anxiety lest we all retire from busi- 

 ness and force the family to get up to a steakless breakfast and sit 

 down to a soupless dinner. But my observation is that the average 

 feeder is not a "quitter" — he never retires until he reaches the age 

 limit or the banker refuses him credit. 



Doubtless there is cause for alarm, but the cattle feeder is no 

 magician or wonder-worker. If the consuming public demands 

 cheaper living, then it must contribute something towards cheaper 

 production. It is a safe guess that cheap meat is a thing of the 

 past ; corn at forty cents is no higher relatively than it was twenty 

 years ago at twenty cents; land values have more than doubled; 

 implements and work stock, labor and fixed charges have kept pace ; 

 so why should we be expected to sell beef at four cents which costs 

 eight cents to produce? As yet I have failed to find a reasonable 

 solution of the problem of the high cost of living, neither have I 

 found a rational excuse for it, so it is not within our province to 

 fix the blame, nor cure the evil; rather we will stay by the steer, 

 take the lean years with the fat and beat the game when we can. 



It has been truthfully said that the malady of our age is waste- 

 fulness. Endowed with boundless natural resources we have dis- 

 sipated them as no other nation has done, deceiving ourselves in 

 the belief that our storehouses were inexhaustible. The situation 

 presents a rude awakening. With relentless energy we have robbed 

 the soil because it was the simple and easy way to quick returns, 

 we have denuded the forest because the spirit of destruction de- 

 manded, yet other virgin fields to satisfy the appetite or increasing 

 population, and thus the conquest has gone on until depleted acres 

 refuse to give up their accustomed toll. Stimulated by hope and 

 dominated by fear, it would seem that this year ought to mark the 



