372 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the goods absolutely on time. The farmer is on the job and he is par- 

 ticular and as Judge Munn has said, he is ready to make any reasonable 

 sacrifice or reasonable demand and is meeting these demands under ex- 

 treme difficulties. How great they may be in the years to come, no one 

 knows but those demands are increasing. We need this industry to back 

 our boys over there — the army needs no man over there now who is 

 unable of doing the business when he gets there. 



In Washington recently the Committee on Public Information made the 

 statement that the efficiency of the labor in our munition factories had 

 decreased forty per cent since the beginning of the war. In a statement 

 not long ago, Lloyd George said that in all of England there is not a 

 single piece of machinery in operation now that there was when the 

 war broke out. It has all been replaced by something larger and more 

 efficient. This labor efficiency should be the same on the farm and the 

 man who is not keeping up with this progress is not doing his duty. We 

 need to adopt the same methods and means to increase this production 

 and this movement that is now under consideration is of great benefit 

 along that line. We have even witnessed such things as this — that in a 

 few instances that land not properly handled and efficiently managed and 

 so operated has been taken out of the hands of that man and put into 

 the hands of a more efficient man both in our own country and in foreign 

 countries and I am not sure that the time will come in times of peace 

 where a man will not be permitted to operate a farm or productive piece 

 of property unless he is able to do it with a fair degree of efficiency. It 

 is interesting and strange in a way that it has taken a great world wide 

 war to firmly establish some of these things. 



We are coming to know that it is impossible to maintain human life, to 

 attain the highest welfare, or highest efficiency without a liberal supply 

 of dairy products. This fact is going to be established and impressed 

 upon the minds of the people in this country to a greater degree than 

 ever before through the lessons of this world war. It will rebound to the 

 benefit of our great industry and benefit this industry in which we are all 

 interested. 



The last speaker discussed fully the things we need to consider very 

 carefully, and I firmly believe that the Government should lend its efforts 

 to encourage and establish these industries. One of the first things sought 

 into when this country became involved in war were various prices of 

 food. Some mistakes have been made but we must not lose sight of this, 

 that no great industry can stand depressing prices. That was in the 

 minds of a number of people in the outset. Some of the people com- 

 plained about the cost of food prices and said that the output should be 

 increased and prices maintained on a low level. This is absolute fallacy, 

 no greater fallacy has ever been promulgated, and therefore, the food 

 administration and dairy councils should fix a price that will help operate 

 the output to the best interests of the dairy industry and fix a minimum 

 price, not a maximum price so that those interested in this great industry 

 may operae at a fair price — cost plus a fair profit. If a maximum price as 

 well as a minimum were to be established it would have a depressing 

 effect. 



