Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 55, Number 275, Decatur, Adams County, 21 November 1957 — Page 14

PAGE SIX

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Y 0 DDCATUR DAILY DKMOCHAT, DECATUR, CTTOIAMA

Series Os Articles On Need Os Price Increase

(This is the sixth in, a series ot articles on a recent farm program development meeting held by the Indiana Farmers Union at Purdue University. The meeting pointed up the need for a raise in prices to farmers it the economy of Indiana is to continue at a high level. The importance of this to •the small businessman, worker, and average citizen, as well as the farmer, is also explained. Following the evening banquet, Fred Heinkel, a Missouri farmer, president of the Missouri Farmers association, and a member of the board of trustees of the University of Missouri, spoke. •‘Farmers get more free advice than any other group, and most of it isn’t worth a damn," Heinkel started. The dynamic speaker praised Jim Patton, national president of the Farmers Union, as a. true leader of American farmers. He then entered into his topic, “Why I don’t want to go back to the 1920-30’s.” Some people, he said, think the farm problem is very simple, and only freeing farmers from controls, like In the "good old days.” Heinkel "shuddered to think of the 1920’s when the only money expended for agriculture was a small research grant and some money for the extension system. There were no price supports, ■ loans, storage, REA or other pro- ] grams.* There was scarce credit, high rates, erosin, surplus, collapse, and forcelcsure, he continued. — "There are too many indicationewe're on the road back.” he added, “to the days when pork sold for 2% cents a poupd,” and he recalled the time when he shipped a carload of hogs to St. Louis, only to receive a freight bill — the hogs hadn’t, even paid that! Using the 1909-14 years as a base, farmers are now being underpaid $64 billion a year; based on the 1947-49 period, they are under paid $94 billion. All the competition between farmers is lost as long as Industry is paying a total amount to farmers which is too low, he emphasized. This competition just bankrupts other good farmers. “Flat world economics” was the name he gave to economists who say better methods will give farmmmoremoney. He r compared these economics to the learned mtn of the 15th century who declared and believed that die world was flat. “A lot of the economists are as far back in the past as that,” he continued. It is the big farmer who gets in trouble the deepest, borrows money, and expands, and then gets left holding the bag when the market falls, while the "Snuffy Smith" farmers still live on red beans and smoked ham. he said. Then Heinkel* told the story of the cowboy who escorted the efficiency expert to the ranch. "It was a bitter cold, stormy day in January, and the two men huddled together on the front of the old buckboard wagon under a Buffalso hide. Suddenly the efficiency expert, who hadn’t said a word, turned the Buffalo robe over, with the fur side down. “Ten percent warmer,’ he announced. As they continued of their way, the efficiency expert noticed a big smile spread over the face of the old cowboy. He became aggravated as he could not figure out its meaning. Finally he asked the cowboy why he was smiling. The old man answered, ‘Why that old Buffalo lived on these plains to twenty years, and never knew he had his skin on inside-out!’ ’’ As prices go down, production increases, as farmers try harder and harder to make ends meet, he continued. The farmer gets right where the chicken gets the axe — in the neck, he exclaimed. Heinkel then said that if farmers got SI an hour for the 22 billion man-hour they worked on their own farms, and a measley 6 percent return on their huge investment, they would get $7% billion more than they now receive. Why should farmers sell in a free market, he asked? Are freight rates figured on a free market basis? Certainly not — while farm prices have slumped in post- war years, the railroads, for example have asked for and received 18 separate rate raises from the interestate commerce commission, which controls their rates. Telephone companies, gas and utility companies, electric companies, are all regulated as to their prices, based upon a fair return to the investors. Why shouldn’t the farmers, who produce the food for the nation, be entitled to the same fair return for their investment and labor. Why, he continued, should the farmer gamble with his profits, never knowing how much he will get for a bushel of wheat of a pound of beef or pork. Some farm “experts” want a return of “free markets" or pure gambling for farm prices, but, Heinkel stressed, more of the gambling should be taken out of farming. The present farm policy, he continued, is like that of the old medicine men who believed in bleeding the patient, until he gets well or dies. During Washington’s last illness with pneumonia three

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1957

specialists were called in, and each, in his turn, bled him. Finally, the poor old man could take it no longer, and died, of "pneumonia." What the farm program needs is a transfusion of high "prices, not * more bloodletting, he pointed out. "Did you ever see a machinery dealer, who has too much on hand, auction off tractors at supply and demand prices?" he asked. “What is good for them is good for us," he asserted. "A production payment plan for the family farmer is what is needed," he said "Marketing quotas, with price at 100% parity, and laws making it illegal to buy at less than parity, are needed,” he concludedThe aggressive, «dynamic man was long applauded by the 500 farmers who crowded the ballroom for the dinner. Financial Picture On Farm Unchanged Financial Prospect By Ag Department WASHINGTON (UP) - The Agriculture Department said today the prospective financial situation of farmers in 1958 likely will be much the same as in 1957. The department’s publication “The 1958 Agricultural Finance Outlook" said this is how the farm finance ‘situation will shape up next year: A further rise in debt but at a slower rate than in recent years; A relatively low number of delinquent mortgage accounts, and an even fewer number of foreclosures; Little increase if any in the amount of financial savings; Generally strong net worth positions for many, mainly because of the higher values of land and other capital investments. Economists estimated owners’ equities in agriculture Jan. 1 will total $168,400,000,000, almost 7 per cent above a year earlier. These predictions apply to the big, well-established, heavy landowning farmers. Tue financial position of many small lessefficient farmers, according to the department,W asfected. “These (small) farmers will continue to have difficulty in making a satisfactory living, to say nothing of financial progress, from farming," the department said- “ More of them will quit farming for industry in 1958. Many other small farmers will seek supple mental part — time income from non-farm sources.” The farm pocketbook will continue to be plagued by the high price of items farmers buy for both production and living, the department said- Prices of land and farm machinery are expected to increase further next year. Property taxes will keep on their upward trend. Interest rates will remain high and may inch up more in 1958. Because of the cost-price squeeze many farmers will continue to feel the need of enlarging their farms and increasing the efficiency of their operations, the department said. Such expansion, however, may be tempered by a cautious attitude toward spending and debt. This would represent a slowdown of the high rate of expansion of recent years. The department said this caution plus, the expectation that farm transfers will continue at the low 1957 rate will tend to weaken the demand for long-term credit \ 9 * 'J DIFFERENT STORIES — James T. Neilsen, an alias-using employe e ot Nathan Shefferman's Chicago labor relations firm, tells the Senate labor rackets bearing in Washington that he did r not know be was violating the Taft-Hartley law while working to break a union drive at Sears-Roebuck in Boston in 1953, and that be did not arrange tor two pro-union employes to be beaten up. How- • ever, another witness, Angelo Glmmasi, a Neilsen helper at the time, testified that Neilsen told him what was being done "was. against the Taft-Hartley law and would have to be kept secret." (International)