Editorial 



SEVEN LEAGUE BOOTS! 



What A Challenge 



EVERY time the farmer turns around to buy he is met 

 by fixed prices for goods and services. 

 This is the seat of his difficulties; the reason for his 

 many efforts by co-operative marketing and crop control 

 to influence the prices of farm products. 



"The Union demands a 40-hour week in place of 48 hours, 

 a closed shop, and a 40 per cent increase in wages for its 

 members," reads a press dispatch from New York reporting 

 the elevator operator's strike. ^ 



"Squidge is the head of a corporation. He manufactures 

 a patented article," writes Howard Vincent O'Brien in vhe 

 Chicago News, describing an acquaintance. 



"He has only a few competitors in his field. They are 

 formed into an 'association.' Every few months they meet, 

 and, over the lunch table, agree on a price for their product. 

 This is probably illegal, but they do it just the same." 



It isn't any secret that business in America, through the 

 corporation and the trade association is highly organized. 

 Patent laws, the protective tariff, the ability of competitive 

 manufacturers, often few in number, to get together, all 

 support control of supply and prices. 



You may say that people don't have to buy if the price 

 isn't right. True enough. And there was a good deal of 

 getting along without three years ago when corn and wheat 

 had dropped 60 to 70 per cent in price while automobiles. 



farm machinery, wire fence, etc. had fallen only 15 to 20 

 per cent from the 1929 level. 



But some things we must have. More things we would 

 like to have. When the fence finally rusts through, the 

 roof goes to pieces, and the wagon or truck wears out, a 

 head-on collision with fixed prices is unavoidable. 



The farm problem will not be solved until the farmer 

 exercises as much influence and is as effective in fixing 

 prices on his products as are the folks he buys from. 



The AAA, organized agriculture's most ambitious and 

 successful effort thus far to influence prices, is gone. Soil 

 conservation, another approach at preventing the accumula- 

 tion of price-depressing crop surpluses, is here. How effec- 

 tive the new program will be is still a question. Farmers 

 will write the answer. 



The present generation probably has made only a start 

 toward achieving equality in this all -important business 

 of farm prices. Nothing should be of greater concern not 

 only to farmers but to every person or group interested in 

 reducing unemployment, stimulating business, and restoring 

 general prosperity. The farmer marketing a good crop at 

 profitable prices, labor fuUy employed at good wages, and 

 capital bringing a reasonable return is the condition every- 

 one wants to see. 



Our ability as farmers to secure and maintain agricultural 

 prices in substantial parity with non-agricultural prices 

 will have a great deal to do with restoring and maintaining 

 national prosperity within the next few years. 



What a challenge to organization! .''.'■■■■ 



34 



T. A. A. RECORD 



