50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



steel. Now that consumption is out-running pro- 

 duction it may be hoped that the land and its own- 

 ers will come into their own again when people 

 have a waiting appetite the men who hold the loaf 

 are masters of the situation. 



We have not yet realized how profoundly food 

 supply and demand have affected our national life 

 nor how it is destined to affect us in the future. 

 The central thought in those long years at Cor- 

 nell University and the faith which held me true 

 to my work, was that food is the first requirement 

 of life. Some morning these United States will 

 wake up with a sharp appetite for breakfast and 

 then the farmer may have something to say as to 

 the price that shall be given for his products 

 if he can partially eliminate the middleman. I 

 have long expected that the era of high-priced 

 foods would come upon us, and now that it is here 

 I rejoice over it. For when a product is sold in 

 the market for less than a fair profit over the cost 

 of production, both producer and consumer suffer. 



It was only about fifteen years ago that a farmer 

 brought a wagon-box full of potatoes to Ithaca 

 which he could neither sell nor trade for groceries. 

 Disgusted beyond measure, he slipped out the end- 

 board of the wagon, cracked his whip and drove 



