CHAPTER XX 



As an illustration of the futility of attempting to 

 reach reliable or accurate facts from estimates made 

 by the Department of Agriculture, or any one else, I 

 would say that in the June number of The Farmers' 

 Open Forum, Mr. George Creel, Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on Public Information, has an article in which 

 he attempts to prove that under the government fixed 

 prices, wheat has advanced at a greater ratio than corn. 



In reaching this conclusion he says, " The figures 

 collected by the Department of Agriculture show that 

 the average prices received by the farmer during the 

 three years previous to the War were, roughly, 86.9 

 cents a bushel for wheat and 66.5 cents for corn." 

 With these figures as a basis, he proceeds to show that 

 " the increase over the pre-war prices has been 131 

 per cent, in the case of wheat and only 109 per cent, 

 in the case of corn." 



The figures in Table No. 9 are taken from the De- 

 cember, 1917, number of "Our Red Book" Sta- 

 tistical Information by Howard, Bartels & Co., 

 Chicago. This publication is, I think, considered reli- 

 able and taken as standard on statistics of crop yields, 

 prices, exports, etc. 



We are not just sure whether Mr. Creel means the 

 three years prior to our entrance into war, or the 

 three years prior to the original declaration of war 



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