CHAPTER IV 

 THE AFTER-WAR DEPRESSION 



During the period of high prices in 1919, when 

 corn was worth one dollar and a half a bushel, 

 a farmer could get five gallons of gasoline for a 

 single bushel. A year later at the farm price 

 that bushel of com would buy only one gallon 

 of gasoline ; and two years later the same bushel 

 of corn would buy about half a gallon of gaso- 

 line. 



In 1919 it took only six bushels of corn to 

 buy a ton of coal; while a year later it cost 40 

 bushels of corn and two years later, 60 bushels 

 of corn. 



Likewise in the period of high prices, 40 

 bushels of corn, or the product of a fair acre, 

 would buy a $60 suit of clothes. A year later 

 it took 200 bushels of corn to buy the same suit, 

 and two years later 300 bushels. 



Such comparisons as these show how real was 

 the depression in the purchasing power of the 

 American farmer during the period following 

 the era of high prices. Considering the price 



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