EDITORIAL 



V5 



.r 



The New War cmd Agriculture 



'F EUROPE is in for another long war, which seems 

 entirely possible, any gains to American agriculture 

 in higher farm prices promise to be more than off- 

 set by resulting maladjustments within this country, and 

 the exhaustion and demoralization of the belligererjt na- 

 tions when it's all over. 



Every student of the last war and the conditions that 

 followed knows that production and prices, both indus- 

 trially and agriculturally were thrown all out of balance. 

 War time industrial profits brought with them shorter 

 hours, higher wage scales, speculation and a general loss of 

 all sense of values. The margin between what the farmer 

 got and the consumer paid was drastically widened. Farm 

 prices skyrocketed, too, but when deflation came in 1920, 

 agriculture found that it had slid farther down the precipice 

 than any other group. 



Organized labor held on to its high wage scales, and 

 in fact, forced them higher. Industrial prices dropped only 

 a fraction of the fall experienced by farm prices. The 

 farmer's pre-war parity and buying power was gone and 

 his lot would have been much worse had America not 

 loaned vast uncollectable sums to war torn Europe part of 

 which came back to purchase American farm products. 

 Germany was a good customer for our pork, lard and 

 cotton before 1914. The war broke her and disrupted the 

 normal course of trade throughout the world. 



America produces far more of agricultural products 

 than it can consume. Purely from the selfish angle we 

 cannot look with any degree of satisfaction on the further 

 impoverishment of old customers for our wheat, hogs, 

 lard, soybeans, beef, and cotton. 



In contrast with the World War, the outlook is bright- 

 ened by the fact that today American agriculture is better 

 organized and much more effectively represented before 

 law-making bodies. If prices are again fixed by govern- 

 ment as they were in some instances during the Wbrld 

 War, farmers will have a powerful voice in seeing that they 

 are fixed with the parity concept in mind. We have the 

 Agricultural Adjustment Act through which we can expand 

 as well as reduce acreage based on an intelligent survey of 

 all possible domestic and foreign markets. 



"I urge American farmers to proceed with their pro- 

 duction plans as if the outbreak in Europe had not oc- 

 curred," commented Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wal- 

 lace on Sept. 1. . ." The very machinery which farmers 

 have used to adjust production to decreased demand in 

 peace-time can be used in wartime to increase production 

 if and when that becomes advisable. 



"Some farmers, remembering high wartime prices, 

 may wish to discontinue cooperation in their farm programs 

 in order to expand the acreage of wheat and other crops. 

 I would remind them that the average prices of wheat, 

 com, hogs and beef were lower after the World War 

 started than they were in 1914. . . There is little likelihood 

 that any substantial increase in production of the major 

 crops will be desirable, certainly not in the immediate 

 future." 



26 



A Challenge to Organized Farmers 



^ 



N ARTICLE in the October Country Home 

 magazine charges that: [ 



"Small-town Tammanies are grafting more 

 money out of rural treasuries today than the 

 original Tammany ever mulcted from New 

 York City in Boss Tweed's palmiest days. 



"For several years, I have been investigat- 

 ing the artivities of rural officeholders," says 

 the author. "I have penetrated deeply into 

 what government experts refer to as 'the 

 dark continent of American politics.' And 

 I have come to agree wholeheartedly with 

 those who say t£it 90 per cent of our 

 counties and other rural distrias are in 

 the hands of 'courthouse gangs' who are 

 in politics for the money they make out of it. 



"I have found, and other investigators 

 have found, that political bossism is so much 

 worse and so much more common in the 

 rural areas than in the cities that it's hard 

 to make rural citizens believe the facts that 

 stand revealed as accurate. 



. . . "The most underlying reasons for 

 rural corruption, I find, are, first that the 

 counties have no directing head like the 

 cities, state and nation; second, most rural 

 officials are paid by fee, a vicious system 

 which undermines the morale of many honest 

 men; and third, that the tax-colleaing, book- 

 keeping and accounting methods employed 

 in rural areas are antiquated, involved, and 

 inaccurate." 



This sweeping indictment of rural government is un- 

 doubtedly exaggerated. The Record believes there is a 

 much higher standard of honesty and responsibility in 

 spending taxpayers money among rural boards of super- 

 visors, county commissioners, township and county officers 

 than is true in the larger cities. Yet there have been 

 instances of waste if not deliberate graft and embezzlement 

 of public funds uncovered in enough rural communities as 

 to justify a more alert interest by county and township 

 Farm Bureau organizations, first, in choosing honest and 

 competent public officials, and then in supporting those for 

 office who have proved their ability and honesty. 



The Farm Bureau can do little if anything directly 

 about graft in the towns and cities. But through effective 

 organization farmers can help defeat professional pol- 

 iticians running for county and township office who are 

 more interested in emptying the treasury than in serving 

 the taxpayers. Experience has proved conclusively that 

 indifference by the rank and file of voters is the biggest 

 single obstacle to good government. If you are not satis- 

 fied with the kind of public officials you have in township 

 and county, be willing to get out and work for better ones. 

 And remember that the fellow who passes out free cigars, 

 pleasant smiles and warm handshakes, and who belongs to 

 your own party is not always the best man for the job. 



I. A. A. RECORD 



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