408 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



We are blessed today with a secretary of agriculture who realizes and 

 sets out in his first report to the president of the United States the real 

 condition of our farming population. From page twelve of his annual 

 report I quote as follows: 



"The drop in prices for crops in 1920 caused many renters to lose not 

 only their labor for that year, but their savings as well. But for the 

 leniency of their landlords, thousands upon thousands of other renters 

 would have lost everything they had." 



The secretary sets out clearly the attitude of other interests toward 

 the farmer in the following statement: "The cynical or thoughtless man 

 is disposed to say 'What have I to do with all this? Those unfortunate 

 purchasers and renters exercised bad business judgment. They took 

 their chance and lost. They are simply victims of business misfortune, 

 and it is no affair of mine.' " 



The solution of the present depressed condition on the farm will be 

 found only when the price level of farm products are boosted up on a 

 level with the price of organized labor, freight rates, interest rates, and 

 other necessary commodities. 



More than half of the farmers of Iowa are discouraged and disheart- 

 ened today, and the world cannot prosper while full of hopeless, helpless 

 farmers. The farmer knows that past debts, neither government nor 

 private, can be paid with the present deflated dollar. Until the way is 

 made brighter and hope and confidence is restored to the farming pro- 

 fession, we are simply going from bad to worse with present high interest 

 rates, high taxes, high labor wages, and low price level for farm prod- 

 ucts. The farm indebtedness is simply being pyramided. Unless relief 

 comes soon in the way of increased price level, the pyramid will fall of 

 its own weight. 



To gain a higher price level the farmer through his organization must 

 develop a marketing system of his own. He has become wonderfully 

 efficient as a producer, but the problem of marketing his products has 

 been left entirely in the hands of the speculator and gambler with the 

 result that marketing machinery has been built up to fill the pockets of 

 the speculator, the commission merchant, and the money changer, leaving 

 the farmer with a scant living and nothing in his pockets but holes. 



If the farmer is to have a marketing system under his control, he must 

 first get a system of finance adapted to his needs and under his control. 

 You say that is dangerous? Let me ask, do not the packers control banks 

 that answer their beck and call? Does not the Standard Oil Company 

 control their own finances? The steel trust, etc. Then, pray, why not 

 the farmer who produces billions of wealth every year, only to see it 

 swallowed up by the grasping control of the money kings of our country? 

 Paste this in your hat, or in your bonnet, where you will constantly be 

 reminded that all of our marketing plans will fail utterly unless supported 

 by an adequate finance. The grain marketing plan, live stock, or dairy 

 marketing now under way will fail unless backed by sufficient finances 

 under control of the farmers. 



The grain dealers proclaim to the world that the present system of 

 marketing is most efficient and practical. It certainly is a wonderful 

 system that makes it possible to sell millions of bushels of grain in one 



