PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 129 



above normal. Then on top of our unusual production we brought over 

 from the war great food stocks that had been produced under abnormal 

 conditions and had been purchased under abnormal conditions, and these 

 stocks had to be disposed of. Not only were there the immense supplies the 

 government had, but many stocks private concerns and private individuals 

 had accumulated, and these had to float out upon the market. 



Along with all this, w^e did not have the demand from the other side of 

 the ocean which we should have when conditions over there are as they 

 are now. We have sent a good deal abroad. We have exported more than 

 a good many realize. Some think our exports have fallen off. The average 

 exports of five leading cereals in the period before the war was only about 

 eight and one-half billion pounds a year; whereas in the year ending June 

 30, 1921, it was twenty-eight billion pounds — an increase of 234 per cent 

 in our exports of cereals. In our exports of dairy products we increased 

 over 1,000 per cent. Our exports of meat products not so much, 27 per cent. 

 Our exports have been going out in larger quantity but not enough to take 

 care of the starving millions in Europe. We are told by men who should 

 know that this winter there will be not less than three hundred million 

 people, three times the population of the United States of America on 

 something like thirty per cent of normal rations. What a crime against 

 civilization, what a reflection on the intelligence of man that we should 

 have this abundance and over there they are starving for it! 



These conditions and this excessive production have made unusually 

 low prices on the farm. The farmer's average price last June, as com- 

 pared with before the war, on all farm products, was represented by 106, 

 or it was six per cent more than normal before the war. That was what the 

 farmer was receiving on everything. On some articles he was below and 

 on some articles a little above, but the average was only six per cent. And 

 the average of all wholesale prices on all products including farm products 

 last June was 151 — fifty-one per cent above the normal. It is very inter- 

 esting to see how these wholesale prices have been soaring since the war. 

 Do you know that the highest point in the average of all wholesale prices 

 of all commodities in the United States was reached in' May, 1920, only a 

 little over a year ago, when the average was 276 per cent of the average 

 before the war, 1914. The average reached the top in May last year, and in 

 June last year it was 275 per cent, and it has been slipping down, down, 

 down until last June, as I said, it was 151 per cent. What is the situation 

 of the farmer then? He must go into the market to make his purchases 

 with average prices fifty per cent above normal and he is getting himself 

 an average of only six per cent above normal; and in some districts like 

 the state of Iowa he has been punished far worse than that. 



On top of that the farmer has been paying large costs. It was my privi- 

 lege to serve in President Harding's unemployment congress in Washing- 

 ton a few months ago, and a great many interesting figures were sub- 

 mitted to us. Here are some submitted by the railroads and I give them 

 to you just as they were given to us. Draw your own conclusions. In 

 1916 the railroads of the country were paying a little less than one and 

 a half billions for labor; in 1920 the amount had been raised to the rate 

 of nearly four billion dollars for labor. There had been an increase of 



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