The Farmer.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18927, 16 February 1927, Page 8

The Farmer.

We have something to say in another article about the dumping duty on wheat, and the Government's reason for cutting it in halves. This afternoon, also, representatives of various bodies concerned with' the question will discuss wheat-growing as a national industry. But the time has come to discuss farming in all its branches as a national industry, and it will be a pity if the discussion proves too narrow. For the farmer all over the world to-day is getting very much the worst of the bargains he may or may not have asked for from other industries, and very little assistance from Governments. Bis case is indeed so desperate in most countries, some of them, like the United States, enjoying the most dazzling general prosperity, that he often does not know what he wants or how to begin fighting for it New Zealand is neither dazzlingly prosperous nor hopelessly depressed; it can, and with wisdom and restraint soon will, recover its general prosperity, but wisdom implies a far more helpful attitude to the problem of the farmer, and especially, as Mr Machin says on our Commercial Page, giving him as much importance in the country as the manufacturer of boots and clothes. And we do not, in saying this, forget what the farmer must do for himself. Though it is not true, a3 his enemies say, that his methods of production are those used by industry at the dawn of the factory system, it is true to a considerable extent that he i 3 not as up-to-date as he might be, and not therefore meeting competition with increased efficiency. But the outstanding fact about him in New Zealand and America and most protected countries is that his is the only industry which the tariff does not protect In

: the United States,, for ?xamp'e--K , e •luote from the .Vew York Titnei—" the ;" manufacturing industry has been j " nourished and protected from infancy "to lusty maturity; railroads and "other great public utility concerns "are guaranteed by law high enough " rates to give thorn a fair return; the " lav.-s give power to the Federal Re- " serve Board to influence the price of "credit by arbitrarily setting the rediscount r:!tc." 13'.:: th'j farmer, there ns here—but n>>t .luiie so unfairly as j here, since he fan -<•!! half his produce lat leu<t at limine —:i\\\-'. <io the I'cst he eat: for hiii'.-elf rr.::iii.'t the comtie'.ition of the ivholo -.».---vl-i. But there at Irst the farmer !k:- revolted. The McXary-Haugcn Biil. vhir-h ha; often ; been meiitinwd in tin- news from i Washington—and ih-s.idi .-Mne farmer* j think it too drastic, far more think it too niihl—a.-!:-; for ill" -nine pn-tcetion preci.sely ns the tariff already give 3 the mnntifneturcr. It indeed does a little more than this: i: asks the Government to take the entire surplus of "any leading crop" out of the American market altogttlu-r, mid to hold it or otherwise dispose -f it so as to " aspire the American fanner the price •• he would have received if no surplus '•'had been produced." The financial arrangements proposed in the Bill are too elaborate and technical to be easily summarised, but the interesting point is that the Bill is the tardy reaction of the farmer to the protection given to commerce and industry. We have already suggested to the farmers of New Zealand that they should agitate for an export bounty on primary produce, to which they have a thoroughly sound claim, and that they should bestir themselves in other ways to compel the Government to treat them as generously as it does our manufacturers. This it can do only by giving them the same protection as the manufacturers, or by giving both none; and it -would he a useful preliminary to a more sustained agitation of this kind if to-day's conference would express a firm" opinion along such lines.