Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 10, Number 47, DeMotte, Jasper County, 10 October 1940 — Farmers Watch World Affairs, Survey Reveals [ARTICLE]

Farmers Watch World Affairs, Survey Reveals

American farmers today are just as deeply concerned with what’s going on in steel mills and shoe factories and grocery stores, and in the war abroad, as they are in whether they’re going to have good “growing weather” this season. This was discovered by the board of experts who wrestled with the nation’s agricultural problems at Fortune magazine’s seventh “round table,” results of which are reported in that magazine. The discussion brought together dirt farmers and a minority array of industrialists, distributors and labor representatives from many sections of the country. Particular emphasis was laid on the tie-up between renewed farm prosperity on the one hand, and, on the other, industrial recovery, a strengthening of the nation’s export market, and further co-ordination of farm production and marketing. “Farm income today remains lower than in 1929, because the farmer has lost part of his former market on account of the industrial depression and the international situation. The loss of such markets, unaccompanied by a proportionate reduction in output, explains why farm prices remain comparatively low’. Government can administer temporary aid, but the farm population as a whole cannot materially increase its in<come until industry provides a much greater degree of full employment,” it was pointed out. Defining the marketing problem, members noted that “agriculture suffers from a structural defect. Divided up into about 7,000,000 farm units, American farmers have not devised methods of organization enabling them to adjust production and marketing in relation to price as effectively as do industry and organized labor." Foi*um members also pointed out that farm co-operatives working with grower associations and food chains are making progress in reducing i the cost of distribution, an' elemenjt in increasing returns to farmers.