PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 131 



value of his land. Sometimes that is a good sum. I belive there is a 

 great opportunity in the state fairs and county fairs to do something in 

 this emergency along the educational line. I think if they did not do any 

 more than just put up one chart on the outside wall of some building 

 and show a few of these facts that they would help start somebody think- 

 ing in the right direction. Any one could suggest some interesting sub- 

 jects for such exhibits. That is one thought I wanted to bring to you. 

 We want light on this problem, we want an understanding of the facts, and 

 you can depend on the American people to work out a solution of the 

 problem when they understand the facts. When they don't understand the 

 facts they are just like anybody else, they are likely to rush to a con- 

 clusion and do the wrong thing. 



We want to stimulate exports. The government deserves a lot of 

 credit and Secretary Wallace deserves a lot of credit. He has some of 

 the best experts he can find in Europe at this time, doing all they can to 

 hold onto these markets, and even to supply them in larger quantities. We 

 want to stimulate meat consumption at home. As industry picks up and 

 wages are paid to a larger number of employes, as the four million people 

 get jobs there is going to be increased consumption. Every time you in- 

 crease the consumption of meat one pound you take away twelve pounds 

 of corn. That is the best way to dispose of the surplus corn crop. I think 

 sooner or later we have got to work out a system of storage for surplus 

 crops. There should be facilities to take care of the surplus that comes 

 in occasional years. Put it in warehouses and put it under a lock so that 

 the world will know that it is taken off of the market because it was not 

 needed and is to be carried over to the next year. That is a way part of 

 the increased corn crop can be taken care of. I don't want this argument 

 to be misunderstood. I am not advocating a corner on the market or 

 anything of that kind. The soil of this country has been called upon to 

 furnish too much of its fertility in this strenuous period of the war. The 

 great argument for the decrease of the corn crop is that the soil needs 

 rest and needs clover and alfalfa and sweet clover. If we could put two 

 hundred million bushels of corn into storage, and we could do it if we 

 had the organization — it would not be anything for us to do a little job 

 like that — what would it mean? It would mean then we would have a 

 normal supply of corn on the market, there would be a normal price for 

 corn and the farmers would at once take hope and begin to buy machinery 

 and begin to buy materials to build, and supplies, and start the industrial 

 machinery again all over the United States; and that two hundred million 

 bushels of corn in storage would stand there like a great electric sign, 

 "Thou must not overplant another year and thus get yourselves into 

 further trouble." And they would not overplant. I think that is one 

 remedy which we have to develop. We are told we ought to raise prices. 

 I would like to have somebody tell us how to raise prices. Prices are 

 governed according to the law of supply and demand. We cannot raise 

 prices unless we make the supply better related to the demand. At the 

 present moment we have this excessive crop of corn. 



Again I want to say that we should educate the public in reference to 

 the pay the farmer receives in relation to the pay received in other in- 



