REGION OF DISCONTENT 21 



for their sons and daughters. 35 The case of the man who went through 

 "the worst" in Kansas during the nineteenth century, but had become one 

 of the stockholders and directors in the local bank, owned an automobile, 

 and sent his children to college before the twentieth was far along was 

 only one among many. 



The prosperity of the American farmer during the early years of the 

 twentieth century was due in large part to the high prices he was able to 

 command for the commodities he had to sell. The Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture, in his report for 1910, pointed out that if the year 1899 were regarded 

 as 100, the value of farm products had risen as follows: 1900, 106.4; 1905, 

 133; 1907, 158.7; 1908, 167.3; I00 9> 182.8; and 1910, i89.2. 36 Under these 

 circumstances it seemed reasonable to assume that there was "good money 

 for every man on good land who farms right." After 1910, the steady rise 

 in farm prices was somewhat arrested, but compared to the low quotations 

 of the nineties the farmers' receipts seemed excellent indeed. Wheat in 

 1914 brought around 80 cents a bushel, corn from 60 to 70 cents a bushel, 

 butter from 25 to 30 cents a pound, and other farm prices in proportion. 

 Such prices contrasted markedly with those of the nineties, when wheat 

 sold for from 50 to 60 cents, corn for 25 to 30 cents, and butter from 12 



O"T 



to 20 cents. 



Attempts to explain the prevailing high prices were widely varied. 

 Some, President Taft for example, held that the trouble was merely an 

 increase in consumption without a corresponding increase in production, 

 or as another phrased it, "Population has simply been increasing more 

 rapidly than farm products; too many people in the town too few on the 

 farm." 38 Others noted that any greatly increased production seemed un- 

 likely in the future, since practically the entire public domain had already 

 been absorbed, while lands in the older sections were rapidly losing their 

 fertility. The expansion of the corn belt seemed particularly improbable, 



35. Senate Document 705, 60 Congress, 2 session, p. 20; Wallaces' Farmer, 

 XXXIV (January 8, 1909), p. 40. 



36. U. S. Dept. Agri., Ycarboof^, 1910, p. 10. 



37. Ibid., 1914, pp. 517, 529, 624; Wallaces' Farmer, XXXV (May 6, 1910), p. 

 745; (December 23, 1910), p. 1734. 



38. Myron T. Herrick, Preliminary Report on Land and Agricultural Credit in 

 Europe (62 Congress, 3 session, Senate Document 967, serial 6364, Washington, 

 1912-13), p. 5; Wallaces' Farmer, XXXVI (March 24, 1911), p. 542. 



