128 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 



ing it is most important. It is the development of measures which will 

 give more hope and more confidence to the great farming classes of our 

 country. When the farmers of this country are again offered something 

 definite, worth while and profitable to do, so they may continue operations 

 and not continue to run further in debt, then the farmers in this country 

 will become more active, will begin to buy, and then factories will open, 

 the little towns will show new life, the big cities will hum with activity 

 and prosperity will have returned. 



What is the reason for the distress? There is one word of course that 

 comes into our minds and explains it all. It is war. That is the explana- 

 tion for the trouble, and let's see a little more definitely if we can how that 

 applies to the present situation. I might mention three things which 

 are of the utmost importance from the farmer's standpoint, suggesting, if 

 I may, remedies which it seems have got to be worked out in some way or 

 other before we get out of the darkness that surrounds us. 



In the first place we have at the present time in this country an excess 

 of production of agricultural products — especially corn. Now that is a 

 much more serious matter than the excess of production of most other 

 kinds of products. If suddenly there should appear in the state of Iowa 

 ten per cent more shoes than are needed it would not cause any very great 

 distress. You and I have got a lot of old shoes, wearing them a little bit 

 longer than we like to wear them because we don't think we are ready 

 to buy a new pair of shoes. But if ten per cent more shoes came tomorrow, 

 what would happen? Dealers in shoes would reduce the price a little and 

 induce this man here and that man over there to buy and several of us 

 would get a new pair of shoes. In a little while the ten per cent of shoes 

 would be absorbed. What happens when we have a ten per cent increase of 

 the corn crop or food crop? We can absorb a little additional but we can't 

 absorb very much. When we go to the hotel and pay a dollar for a good 

 dinner we can't absorb another one, we wouldn't do it even if we could 

 get it for five cents, we don't want it. Food is different from other kinds 

 of supplies. This country has an excess of food supplies — we have 

 an over-production. Do you realize that this nation in its tremendous 

 war efforts, for which praise could not be given in too strong terms, 

 this nation increased its acreage of cereal crops since the period before 

 the war and up to the present time by about twenty-two million acres. 

 Think of it! The corn crop of 1921 was increased nearly three million 

 acres in the United States, and the result has been that instead of 

 producing a little less than five billion bushels of cereals, which was 

 the average before the war, last year, 1920, we produced more than six 

 billion bushels of cereals. And this year we will produce close to five and 

 a half billion bushels of cereals. No one to blame. We were going to win 

 the war — we did win it, and we speeded up our production, and we have 

 kept up the speed. 



Along with renewed efforts came unusually good climatic conditions. In 

 certain parts of the country they had large production of food products, 

 where normally the production is small. So we have excess production. 

 The one thing that stands out strongest is the excess in production of corn, 

 an average of about three hundred million bushels this year and last year 



