568 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



I beleve this association should condemn this practice on the part of 

 the Illinois Central Railroad and should take immediate steps, if pos- 

 sible, to see that it is stopped. 



Let us now turn our attention to things more of a domestic and 

 economic nature which strike at the very heart and soul of American 

 agriculture and animal husbandry. These industries have been passing 

 thru the most crucial periods almost ever since the beginning of war 

 hostilities and especially is this true for the past seven months, during 

 which period the price of hogs, which is our greatest money-producing 

 crop, has decreased in price at times from eight to eleven dollars per 

 hundredweight under what they were at the high point and the Iowa 

 farmers have marketed a large per cent of their hog crop at from four 

 to five dollars per hundredweight less than the actual cost of produc- 

 tion. This in the aggregate means a total loss to Iowa farmers for the 

 year of from eighty to one hundred million dollars. A heavy loss was 

 also sustained by the rapid decline in the corn market during the fall, 

 to say nothing of the staggering losses sustained on cattle and sheep. 



Iowa is essentially an agricultural state; all other industries sink 

 into insignificance when compared with the vastness of her agriculture 

 and live stock and when two hundred million is clipped from the yearly 

 income of the Iowa farmers by deliberate raids upon the prices of farm 

 products and live stock, under the guise of reducing the high cost of 

 living, it is high time for the farmers and producers to speak out and let 

 labor organizations and the consuming public know that they do not 

 longer propose to be made the goat in this matter and to serve notice on 

 all concerned that if it is their policy to demand shorter hours and 

 higher pay, thus greatly increasing the cost of what they produce which 

 the farmer must buy, that the farmers and stockmen will insist and de- 

 mand that their time and wage be figured on the same basis and that 

 the price of the food products which they produce shall be based on 

 the cost of production plus a reasonable profit. , 



Much as I hesitate to advocate or even suggest a restriction in 

 farm production it is the only course that I can now see open to the 

 farmers to bring the price of their products up to a point that means 

 a living wage to the producers. I consider it exceedingly unfortunate that 

 the city dweller and the mass of the consuming public seem to have no 

 conception whatever of what it costs to produce beef, pork, mutton, corn, 

 wheat and all other food products on this high-priced land under exist- 

 ing conditions and that they should feel that the farmers are the arch- 

 criminals in profiteering and that they fail to understand that the farm- 

 ers have nothing to say in fixing the price on their products. The facts 

 are that every economist knows that when compared with the actual cost 

 of production, that farm products and especially meat animals, have been 

 by far the cheapest articles bought and sold in the market for months 

 past. 



The farmers are not complaining so much because the things they 

 produce have been forced down in price but are rather complaining 

 against the unfairness and inequality of a system and policies that force 

 the price of his wares below the cost of production and permits all manu- 



