PART VI 



State Food and Dairy Commissioner's Report for Year 



1921 



W. B. Barney, Cominissioner 



From our 1920 report we quote the following as to eco- 

 nomic conditions. 



Economic readjustment has been the chief problem of the past year. 

 Disturbed and abnormal conditions, the heritage of every great war, 

 mean a trying period of reconstruction for every nation involved — a 

 period of economic warfare between conflicting interests during which 

 many suffer and few are benefited. Following every great crisis comes 

 a period of high prices and great business activity during which extrav- 

 agance is the rule of the hour and a false feeling of prosperity, in- 

 duced by the circulation of tremendous amounts of deflated money, 

 gives the wage earner in particular, a feeling of financial security which 

 history does not show to be justified. This in turn is followed by a 

 true period of readjustment, when, because of the inability of the great 

 mass of consumers to pay the prices established by inflation, prices 

 again seek their normal level. 



We are free to admit at this time that we have not passed 

 through this period without serious difficulties and that this is 

 especially true in its application to the farmer. 



It is very well for some of our economists to travel over 

 the country telling our people that the w^orst is over, but times 

 in this and other agricultural districts are not going to be very 

 much better so long as the farmer must accept from 20 to 25 

 cents for oats and from 30 to 35 cents for corn and 2 to 3 cents 

 for green hides, all of which are less than pre-war prices, much 

 less than the cost of production. 



These prices lessen his purchasing power, so that he is no 

 longer able to pay forty to sixty dollars for a suit of clothes and 

 one to one dollar and a half for a neck-tie and eight to twelve 

 dollars for a pair of shoes, with other articles of wearing ap- 

 parel for himself and family in the same proportion. 



Conditions will not be materially improved until the farm- 

 er can get at least somewhere near the cost of production, or a 

 little profit. This he cannot do at this writing. Either his prod- 



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