EDITORIAL 



The Open Season 

 C"^ i ITH an election just around the corner, this is 

 V^Y\7 the open season for politics. And it will be 

 ff y strange indeed if the farm program is not caught 

 in the political cross fire. 



So take with a grain of salt the arguments shot back 

 and forth in attempts to make political hay. The fact is 

 that the present farm program is the result of a non- 

 partisan effort launched 1 5 years ago by organized farmers. 

 The Triple A Act of today was placed on the statutes by 

 the votes of congressmen and senators in both major parties 

 who realize that the welfare of the nation should be given 

 .precedence over political consideration. 



How Much For Com? 



' /^OW much do you want for the 1938 crop of 

 <C»^# /-T corn? Are you willing to take 30 cents a bushel 

 _ I i for all you can raise or would you rather plant 

 a somewhat smaller acreage and get 70 cents or more? 



These are some of the questions every corn-belt farm- 

 er should ponder before taking seriously the advice of 

 those opposed to the new crop adjustment program. 



The opposition points to the opportunity for increas- 

 ing production outside the commercial corn area. But it 

 fails to point out the obstacles and checks to increased corn 

 acreage in these sections. Remember that the non-com- 

 mercial corn area is not well adapted to growing corn, that 

 it must stay within soil depleting bases to benefit from the 

 program, tfiat it cannot secure corn loans, nor share in the 

 benefits of the cotton, wheat and tobacco programs if corn 

 acreage is expanded. 



The RECORD doubts that there will be many farmers 

 so foolish as to turn down this opportunity to stabilize corn 

 prices, and thereby take much of the risk out of cattle and 

 hog feeding. We know that no thinking farmers will be 

 misled by the name-callers who take up the metropolitan 

 press cry of "dictatorship" and "Regimentation." These 

 names are used by persons who run out of valid objections 

 to an effective farm program. 



The AAA of 1938 is not a scarcity program. It pro- 

 vides for an abundance of basic farm crops, plenty to take 

 care of all normal needs and leave a substantial surplus. 

 But it does hold to the doctrine that farmers should control 

 ■the surplus and maintain fair prices, that soil fertility is 

 too valuable a natural resource to be mined at will. It 

 insists that basic farm crops should not be piled up in utter 

 disregard of domestic and foreign demand at fair prices. 



No More Argentine Com 

 r"X i HERE are the loud speakers who a few months 

 v^y 17 ago viewed with alarm the few boatloads of 

 g y Argentine corn coming to our shores? 



What has become of the argument that the soil con- 

 servation and domestic allotment program "sold out the 

 United States farmer in favor of the foreign farmer?" 



Like all untruthful propaganda, this has fallen to 

 earth for want of factual support. 



Quantities of Argentine corn, it is true, found a mar- 

 ket here when the price was $1 and more following the 



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1936 drouth. But with corn cribs in this country bulging 

 and the current farm price less than half that of last year, 

 the Argentine trickle has dried up. Now Argentine has a 

 drouth of its own to reckon with, a crop prospect of less 

 than 50 per cent of the '37 yield. The chances are that 

 part of the market which the Southern hemisphere usually 

 supplies, will be buying our com within the next year. 



Similarly, America's 18 million bale cotton crop has 

 hushed up the critics of cotton acreage adjustment. Cot- 

 ton is cheap and plentiful but the cotton farmer this year 

 is anything but prosperous. 



Thinking farmers are not concerned about Argentine 

 corn imports when the price is $1 or more a bu. But they 

 are concerned, and rightly so, about getting present farm 

 prices up to a fair exchange level. Such measures as have 

 been taken, are directed at stabilizing prices at parity levels 

 and of course protecting our prices against imports to the 

 point necessary to maintain parity. 



A Good BiU 

 ^"^^ HE recent enactment of the Wheeler-Lea bill to 

 ^^— ^ penalize false advertising of food, drugs, devices 

 ^^ or cosmetics is a step in the right direction and 

 one which farmers generally will applaud. Aimed prima- 

 rily at the heavy traffic in prepared foods and patent medi- 

 cines, the bill authorizes the Federal Trade Commission 

 to administer the act and sets up heavy penalties ($5,000) 

 for violations which result in injuries to health "or if such 

 violation is with intent to defraud and mislead." 



The public has been imposed upon too long by spur- 

 ious claims of healing and health-giving powers for all 

 kinds of bottled and packaged goods. Clean, moderate 

 living and right thinking, most physicians know from ex- 

 perience, will do more for health than all the so-called 

 remedies combined. 



Who Gets the Spread? ^. 



^"^^ HE producer got 6.9c of the 18c paid by the con- 

 ^*— ^ sumer for beef according to an analysis reported 

 yj by Dr. Norton, University of Illinois agricul- 

 tural economist. 



The spread was divided as follows : retail 6.4c, whole- 

 sale 1.1c, processor 2.8c, marketing expense .8c, total 

 spread 11.1c. 



The problem is how to reduce the spread or cost of 

 getting the product from the farm onto the consumer's 

 table. Dr. Norton lists four ways to do it as follows: 



1. Eliminate service. [ 



2. Concentrate volume. | . 



3. Improve business management. | 



4. Standardize the product. 



The consumer is chiefly responsible for the increased 

 cost of distribution. More and more service, greater con- 

 venience and ease of getting the food to the table have 

 been demanded piling up one cost after another. Taxes 

 and transportation are higher, of course, but labor is 

 the big item that has widened the disparity and reduced 

 the percentage of the consumers' dollar received by the 

 producer. , , 



L A. A. RECORD 



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