Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1917 — THE FARMERS AND FOOD CONTROL [ARTICLE]

THE FARMERS AND FOOD CONTROL

An illuminaing side light on the Hood situation is contained in some' ’expressions inserted in the congressional record recently by Seua-iw-r Sosith of Michigan. These were from farmers' organizations and individual farmers, and they without exception endorsed the food control measures before congress. These expressions give ns a pretty clear idea as to whence come the present panic prices. We are “told with -great unction that this ?. the first time in our history that the farmer has received for his r ■reducts what they are really .. worth. ■ | But let us see. What is the objeet of food control? Whence comes the insistent demand?* Plainly, the : demand i the direct result of food prices that are out of all proportion to wages and to prices,in every other line. Is it reasonable to -believe that F the farmers were

receiving anytlrng like the present retail prices-—minus, of course, a reasonable■ per cent of middlemen s pro St—thatt —that they would be not only willing but anxious to kill the goose that lavs the golden egg? The piain truth is, the farmer is not benefited by the present high prices of food in any degree to tecon>pense him for what be is ’ jjsred.- by extravagant prices in other lines. He is paying vastly more for every purchase he makes, from, a plow point to a tractor engine. What he gains from his small-' profits on his sales of foodstuffs is practically offset by the enormous increase in the • cost of everything that he must, buy to operate his farm. This the farmers know, and this is why they are, almost without exception, heartily iu favor of government food control—a control which will establish a minimum as well as a maximum price. " The speculating food pirates will have to hunt some other scapegoat for their sins instead of the farmer and his “interests.”