REPORT OF IOWA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION 413 



I want to remind you that there are two kinds of taxes which we are 

 all paying — there is the voluntary tax which we levy upon ourselves 

 through our chosen representatives, and there is the involuntary tax 

 which is levied upon us by powers beyond our control. Not very many 

 years ago the farmers encountered that proposition in a most practical 

 way. They said, "Shall we continue to be taxed millions of dollars by 

 the potato bug and wheat rust and the army worm and the codling moth, 

 and so on, or shall we increase our voluntary taxes just a little and 

 develop a corps of entomologists who will save those enormous losses?" 

 And of course they did the latter. So we must keep in mind that there 

 are two kinds of taxes, and sometimes we can save enormously on one 

 side by adding slightly on the other side. I would not have that done, 

 however, unless the benefit is very clearly evident. 



Now a few words as to the different reasons why the prices of farm 

 products are so low. Of course, every one knows it is because we have 

 such a large supply on hand. Yes. The law of supply and demand is 

 operating. The law was not passed by a legislature or by a congress, 

 but by a higher power than either, and it is inexorable. We have a 

 larger quantity, especially of some products, than we need. Why? For 

 the simple reason that we have planted more acres than we needed to 

 plant; and, again, for the simple reason that during these past two or 

 three years we have been favored by remarkably good growing weather; 

 and, again, we have this surplus because we have been flooding the market 

 with some large accumulated stocks of food supplies that had been held 

 by the government during the war period, and perhaps still larger sup- 

 plies that were secretly concealed by individuals and organizations in 

 many places. I saw something of that going on during the war, and I 

 was reminded of how the squirrels as winter comes on perceive that they 

 must lay up their food supply, and so they find the nuts and hide them 

 away; and that is exactly what was done by more people in the United 

 States than we like to admit, and those hoarded supplies have been com- 

 ing out on the market. 



The normal number of acres planted to the four or five or six leading 

 cereals in the United States before the war was 211 million. During the 

 war we run it up and up and up until it got to 240 million, nearly. It 

 has been coming down gi^adually, but in the year 1921 the farmers of this 

 nation planted 230 million acres in these cereals, an increase of 19 million 

 over the normal number of acres. They planted three and one-half mil- 

 lion acres more than normal in corn. Why? I suppose partly to make 

 up for the cotton they were reducing so steadfastly in the south, and 

 perhaps, also, to take the place of clover which had been killed out by 

 hard winter or by drouth; but more probably, I think, that larger acreage 

 was planted by force of habit. I want to say this, I believe that the farm 

 land of our nation is being strained— it is a good term— it is being strained 

 beyond reason by that kind of planting, and the thing we need most just 

 now is to get clover and alfalfa and other leguminous crops upon the land 

 that has been strained so hard. Our corn crop last year was about 300 

 million bushels more than normal— about 10 per cent— and the year before 

 that another 300 million bushel surplus; and to illustrate the effect of the 

 weather, let me remind you that in 1920, although we planted four million 



