EDITORIAL 



Good Advice From An Industrial Leader 



Q^WEN D. YOUNG, head of the General Electric 

 l"'^ I Company is one of America's leading industrialists. 

 \^^ He was appointed by the President of the United 

 States in the '20s as head of the European Reparations 

 G)mmission to solve debt problems growing out of the 

 World War. He is also a dairy farm owner and operator. 

 At a recent milk meeting in his home community at Van 

 Hornesville, New York, Mr. Young came unannounced, 

 asked the privilege of the floor, and proceeded to express 

 his pent-up feelings about the low price of milk, con- 

 sumers and farm unity much to the delight of his farmer 

 neighbors. He said:* 



"The consumers don't believe for a moment that 

 the farmer is getting too much for his product. 

 They know the farmer gets too little. They don't 

 want the farmer to get less, but MORE. 

 "If they complain that milk costs them too much, 

 it is not because they bear you afly grudge; it's 

 because they feel there's too great a spread between 

 the price you get and the price they pay. 

 "I don't know the answer! 



"I don't know how the high cost of distribution is 

 to be cut down — and it's not only in the milk 

 business that we face the problem. I DO know 

 that somehow, some way, THAT PROBLEM HAS 

 GOT TO BE MET. I do know that in your efforts 

 to meet it the consumers are WITH YOU, and 

 not against you. In other words, it's the dealers 

 and not the farmers who will have to answer any 

 complaints from consumers, and don't let anyone 

 fool you into thinking otherwise!" 

 Owen D. Young believes, as he said, in the freedom 

 of thought and the freedom of speech — 



"but we must be careful to use these rights to our 

 advantage, and not to our hurt," he continued. 

 "We must not let them be used to perpetuate divi- 

 sions or family quarrels. You know how costly 

 these quarrels and divisions have been to farmers. 

 You know that milk producers have never been 

 united, and you know the results. Freedom of 

 thought and speech does not compel you to keep 

 alive the petty feuds and childish prejudices that 

 have divided farmers all these years. How long 

 will it be before you wipe them out and really 



unite on a program.' 



"Now, what has all this got to do with the milk 

 business.' Just this. Durmg all these trying years 

 dealers have said that they would pay so much for 

 milk. The producers have debated and protested 

 but their protests went unheeded because they 

 could not agree on a program. And so your milk 

 has been sold on terms laid down by the buyer. 

 "One day the farmers of this milkshed are going to 

 unite voluntarily and say that this dictation has got 

 to stop. And it will stop. One day you are going 

 to say with one voice: 'This is the price at which 

 you can buy our milk.' And that will be the price 



of milk 



"It all comes down to this. Keep these divisions 

 alive and others will inevitably diaate the terms on 



which you will operate. PRESENT A UNITED 

 FRONT, AND YOU WILL BE THE MASTERS 

 OF YOUR PROBLEM. THERE IS NO OTHER 

 WAY." 



Soybean Vs. Hog 



M RECENT study of the competitive position of 



jl soybean oil by L. H. Simerl of the University 



^ ^ ^ I of Illinois agricultural economics staff, shows 

 how the soybean competes for the consumer's dollar with 

 the hog, the dairy cow, cottonseed, and other farm crops. 

 This should interest Illinois farmers because the state 

 leads in soybean production, is second in hogs and among 

 the top seven states in dairying. The average annual pro- 

 duction of soybean oil in the U. S., Simerl points out, has 

 been 203 million pounds or approximately two per cent of 

 the total for all fats and oils during the past four years. 

 The interesting thing is that 50 per cent of soybean oil 

 goes into lard substitutes, 10 per cent into oleomargarine, 

 and eight per cent into salad and cooking oils — a total 

 of 68 per cent for food. Only 10 per cent is used in paints, 

 eight per cent in soap, two per cent miscellaneous, and 1 2 

 per cent is unaccounted for. 



A bushel of yellow soybeans yields 12 pounds of raw 

 soybean oil, 95 per cent useable. An acre of soybeans 

 producing 25 bu. would yield approximately 300 pounds 

 of oil. 



On the other hand, an acre of com converted into 

 pork yields only about 94 pounds of lard. (Aa*acre of 

 70 bushels of com will produce approximately three 230 

 pound hogs, 13.6 per cent of which by live weight on the 

 average represents lard.) 



Housewives have turned in large numbers to the use 

 of vegetable fat compounds for cooking, to the detriment 

 of lard sales. Soybean oilmeal has cut into the market for 

 tankage as a hog feed concentrate, according to the packers. 

 These are some of the things that ail the price of hogs along 

 with the loss of Germany as a buyer of pork products. 



Such trends and shifts in demand for farm products 

 are constantly at work. They point to the need for constant 

 alertness to facts by which farmers may intelligently adjust 

 their acreage and crops to market outlets. 



* As reported by Dairymen' s League in Pennsylvania Farm Bureau 

 COOP REVIEW. 



On Crop Limitation 



yX .AYOR LaGuardia of New York City is quoted 

 ^_^-\y» m a recent public statement as condemning 

 C^Jl crop acreage limitation. In a published letter 

 to the New York Times, Guy Trail, New Haven, Missouri 

 farmer neatly takes the Mayor to task and presents a clear, 

 vigorous defense of the farmers' position in support of the 

 AAA program. 



"Dire necessity forced and will continue to force 

 the farmer to limit his output; he lives and buys 

 his needs of manufacturers who have for years ar- 

 tificially limited produaion as a device to stimulate 



price," writes Mr. Trail in part 



"In dcsperauon farmers have turned to crop limiu- 

 tion as the only logical aid in an economy wherein 

 scarcity has been a going principle for years. They 

 reason that if others can play that game, why can't 

 they?" 



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L A. A. RECORD 



