696 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. 



BEAD BEFORE POWESHIEK COUNTY FARMERS' INSTITUTE BY A. P. HUGHES, 

 DEEP RIVER, IOWA. 



For some time past space writers have been busy recounting the story 

 of the high cost of living, and many and varied have been the theories 

 advanced to account for the condition we have faced for the past year 

 or more. It is a large problem and has engaged the attention of thought- 

 ful men, all arriving at different solutions but none solving the problem 

 to the satisfaction, at least, of the men who are compelled to bear the 

 heavy burden imposed by the excessive prices charged for products which 

 p,re produced right here under our very nose in profuse abundance. A 

 "get together" movement on the part of the farmers would solve the prob- 

 lem to a large extent. Iowa produces hogs, cattle, sheep, dairy products, 

 fruit, vegetables — in fact almost everything that enters into this prob- 

 lem. Why should the Iowa farmer produce pork and sell it in Chicago 

 for from seven to nine dollars, (which I believe has been the range 

 for the past year) per hundred, and then buy it back from the Chicago 

 packer at from eighteen to twenty-eight dollars per hundred? Answer 

 this question, and you will have taken a long step in solving the problem. 

 What is true of hogs is true of other meat products. The cold storage 

 barons are responsible for the high price we have been forced to pay for 

 eggs during the past year or so, but I quite readily know that I will be 

 stepping on the farmer's toes if I say that eggs have been out of all pro- 

 portion and far above a normal price and much in excess of what the 

 farmer would esteem a fair price. But the cold storage baron has been 

 getting an expensive lesson lately, and we who like eggs, but have no 

 biddies of our own, have been privileged lately to eat them minus the 

 money taste. The meat problem could he solved by a combination among 

 the farmers for the purpose of slaughtering the animals themselves. A 

 number of slaughter houses scattered over Iowa would do much to put 

 the state in the forward rank of progressive commonwealths. Canning 

 factories could be maintained all over the state with the same beneficial 

 result, and until the people of this great agricultural state learn to 

 cure meat and can vegetables they will be easy marks for fattening our 

 more progressive and far-seeing brethren of the trusts and combines. 



Another reason is found in the fact that there are a billion acres of 

 land in this country on which there is a constant loss by erosion, im- 

 proper tillage, floods, storms and poor drainage — think of it, almost a 

 billion acres in a manner non-productive. .Placing the loss at $1 per acre 

 (a very conservative estimate) a billion dollars is lost each year that 

 could be saved if proper methods were employed, and this billion dollars 

 must be made up from the productive acres, and of course must be added 

 to the sum total of the product, which increases the cost when it reaches 

 the consumer. 



Again, folks are slaves to fashion, not only in clothes but in food. 

 We are not fed according to the philosophy of what will produce the 

 best results, hut according to the dictates of appetite. We are not clothed 



