Factory Payrolls 



(Continued from page 10) 



This is also true of agriculture. The 

 industrial worker cannot be expected to 

 pay in the cost of his food, interest on 

 inflated farm land values or, for that 

 matter, for the cost of inefficient or 

 wasteful farming. He should and must 

 pay a price consistent with a fair return 

 on the capital and labor on the average 

 farm. It is better for the farmer, as 

 well as the manufacturer and the 

 merchant, to get larger volume with 

 moderate prices, rather than low volume 

 with high prices. In other words, ag^ri- 

 culture as well as industry, cannot 

 permanently aim for an economy of 

 scarcity. But agriculture, like industry, 

 should protect itself from the ruinously 

 low prices caused by an overwhelming 

 surplus. If a manufacturer has a big in- 

 ventory and no orders, he shuts down his 

 plant and stops producing. I .see no crime 

 in the farmer doing the same thing. 

 Every factory has production control 

 gfeared to its orders, every merchant has 

 inventory control geared to his sales; 

 so I cannot see that the American farm- 

 er should be blamed for desiring some 

 measure of production and inventory 

 control. But the ideal for the farmer, as 

 well as for the manufacturer and 

 merchant, is to run his plant to full ca- 

 pacity at moderate prices, provided he 

 can earn a living by so doing. I do not 

 believe in the theory of overproduction. 

 I believe that in the future we will solve 

 the problem of underconsumption, and 

 that farm, factory and mine will all run 

 to capacity. 



For the past twenty-five years the 

 number of farms in this country and the 

 total farm population have remained al- 

 most constant in number so that the 

 proportion of farm to total population 

 has steadily decreased from 35% in 1910 

 to 25% in 1935. Each farmer has, there- 

 fore, become individually more efficient, 

 his improvement in productive ability 

 mnning parallel to the technological ad- 

 vance in industry. 



Some think that when overproduction 

 has occurred in farm products or when 

 there is capacity to produce an amount 

 P'eater than can be currently consumed, 

 the natural process of elimination of 

 marginal producers should take place and 

 enough farms should go out of produc- 

 tion to restore the balance. When ap- 

 plied to our total number of farms the 

 process is unsound from the viewpoint 

 of the stability of our economic struc- 

 ture. 



To correct long-term changes over a 

 period of years it may be necessary to 

 reduce or increase the farm acreage in 

 production, or certain sections which 

 have been devoted to raising a particular 

 crop may have to diversify their crops 

 and introduce new ones. But to attempt 



Robert Lemans of Greene County and h!s 

 grand champion 4-H club Hampshire barrow, 

 Silver King, at the 1935 International. 



to control short-term variations in con- 

 sumption by taking farms out of produc- 

 tion in times of low consumption and 

 starting them up again when consump- 

 tion improves would entail a capital loss 

 and disturbance of our farm population 

 which we cannot accept. Continuity of 

 ownership and production is vital to their 

 well-being and equally important to those 

 who do business with them. 



I have referred to the social side of 

 the farm problem, and in many ways it 

 is the most important side of the prob- 

 lem. If I read my history rightly, no 

 urban civilization has perpetuated itself. 

 There pre many reasons for this — time 

 forbids my going iino them. A body of 

 independent freeholders living on th6 land, 

 has been in all times and at all places 

 the strength of a state. If our American 

 state is to endure, we need the stability, 

 sound thinking and patriotism of the 

 6,000,000 American farmers. If they 

 become impoverished, if we have a body 

 of poor farm tenants renting from large 

 land holders, our social order will indeed 

 be threatened. As I see it, it is the pa- 

 triotic duty and the very deep interest 

 of every American industrialist, to do 

 everything in his power to promote the 

 stability and the prosperity of the Amer- 

 ican farmer. It is equally the duty of 

 labor, for, in the last analysis, the jobs 



and wages of labor depend on the flow 

 of new primary wealth from the farm. 



I believe we are emerging from this 

 depression — the worst in our economic 

 history. I believe our course is upward, 

 and will continue upward for some time. 

 But we cannot build on a firm founda- 

 tion, unless we keep this country in bal- 

 ance. 



I have always liked the definition of 

 a liberal as a practical idealist. Let us 

 try to have our ideals, let us be receptive 

 to new ideas, let us put the best of our 

 new ideas into practice, but in the ap- 

 plication of these, let us be practical, 

 hard-headed and not too hasty in execu- 

 tion. Reform is an evolution and cannot 

 be accomplished overnight, and imprac- 

 tical idealists often do more harm than 

 reactionaries or crooks. 



r^J^yi- 



Krcritrd of. 



Utah Alfalfa Seed 



Suitable for 



linois 



A seed company at Peoria, 111., which 

 does not deal in Utah alfalfa seed, but 

 which evidently fears there may be a 

 demand for it, has issued an untrue and 

 misleading circular with regard to seed 

 from that western state, says the Farm- 

 ers National Grain Corporation. 



The circular says that most of the 

 seed coming from that state is grown in 

 the Mytcn or the Unitah basins, in south- 

 ern Utah, and is not at all adapted to 

 conditions in central or northern Illi- 

 nois. 



The truth is, says the Seed and Bean 

 Division of Farmers National, that most 

 of the Utah seed is not raised in the 

 Myton or Unitah basins. Neither is the 

 Unitah basin in southern Utah. It is 

 close to the northeast corner of the state 

 bordering Colorado and is situated di- 

 rectly in the mountains. Neither is the 

 seed produced in well-protected valleys. 

 On the contrary, it is grown at an eleva- 

 tion of 5,000 feet or more. Alfalfa from 

 Utah seed has been and is being pro- 

 duced successfully in Illinois. 







COLLti TOR, MOKi.A.N 



PROPERTY TAXES THEN AND NOW 

 Harold Joy of Morgan county has the original tax receipt above issued in payment of $4.18 

 tales on 80 acres of good land and personal property of J. F. Pratt, in the year 1847. In- 

 cidentally the year 1847 was a good time to buy land. Note that the assessed valuation on 

 40 acres was $200. 



It 



I. A. A. RECORD 



