EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 387 



citizens. We find that our live stock in Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, or any 

 other state, are the ones upon whom the government is depending today 

 for advice, for counsel, and for the increased production of all the things 

 which we need in an agricultural way; and we find that in our section 

 of the country especially the men who have been successful in cattle have 

 been successful in almost any line of business they have taken up, and 

 hence are considered and generally looked upon as the most enterprising 

 citizens in our state. Whether the live stock industry develops it or 

 whether it takes that type of man to stay in the business I am unable to 

 say, but the two go together. 



At the present prices in our country, it seems that it is up to us to 

 use every bit of information we have, to make every possible effort that 

 we are able to make, to increase the production of beef and other meats 

 to the fullest extent that our lands and our feeds will permit. It is not 

 the time, above all times, for us to look entirely at the profit side of 

 the ledger. It is up to us to produce beef during the next three or four 

 years, or during the duration of this war, whether it is profitable to do 

 so or not; we have that duty thrust upon us We all feel and hope that 

 the price of beef will be adequate to overcome all of the elements that 

 enter into the cost of production; but, regardless of anything else, the 

 most important thing that we have today is to feed our army and to 

 feed those people who are depending upon our army; and it can't be 

 done if any of us become discouraged because of the probable things that 

 may happen in the future. I am telling our Kansas farmers — and the 

 most of them are acting upon this sort of suggestion — that it is the time 

 for us to continue our operations in the handling of cattle just as nearly 

 under normal conditions as we can; to do nothing that we would not 

 do were the conditions different; but for those men who had been in the 

 habit of feeding cattle for years to continue in the same way they have, 

 and to attempt to increase the production of beef more than we have ever 

 increased it before. That is the situation which confronts us; it is the 

 thing which we feel it is necessary for us to do; and I can not help but 

 feel that the same factors which have entered into the increase in the 

 price of beef in recent years will have the same influence, namely, the 

 cost of feed, labor and production. If we study the situation carefully, 

 we find that beef is the only product of the farm that has shown a con- 

 stant and gradual increase in values ever since we have been keeping 

 agricultural statistics in this country. There is not a period of five years 

 in the last fifty years but vv'hat the average price of beef has increased 

 over the average price of beef in the preceding five years. There is not 

 another crop which we produce, of corn or wheat or any other product 

 of the farm, which has that sort of a record, so the only way we can judge 

 the future is by the past. So it seems that with the tremendous increase 

 in the value of everything that has entered into the profitable production 

 of beef at the present time, eventually, if not immediately the price of 

 beef must advance proportionately. 



Now', with these things of course we have other factors over which we 

 have no control. Our farmers seem to feel that the labor situation with 

 them is probably the limiting factor in their production next year. We 



