A SQUARE DEAL FOR FARMERS

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1690, 24 November 1925, Page 7

A SQUARE DEAL FOR FARMERS

HELP BY LEGISLATION.. CAN PARLIAMENT SOLVE THE PRODUCERS’ PROBLEMS? In a statement to the press issued recently Edw’ard Nordman, commission of markets, of Wisconsin, takes issue with certain individuals who assert that the farmer cannot be helped by legislation, but who say that improvement can come only as a result of the farmers’ own efforts. While there may appear to be some truth in this assertion it is emphatically not true that farmers as a whole can prosper under present laws and that more fovourable laws are not needed to put the farmers on their feet. Mr. Nordman does not deny that industry and good management are bigfactors in successful farming as in all other occupations and that no one outside agriculture can supply the farmers with these qualities. He is also ready to concede that farmers could get along without more legislation if present law’s were not so strictly detrimental to the farmers’ interests. There are, however, two outstanding ailments that make it impossible for the majority of farmers to prosper and that cannot be cured without remedial legislation. These two major ailments are high overhead head expenses and poor markets. The farmers’ overhead expense, for example, is caused partly by foolish tax laws that force farmers and other producers to carry the main burden of Government while non-producers are permitted to pocket great sums of unearned wealth without contributing their just share to the support of the government and partly by inflated farm values made so by gamblers and speculators who are shielded and protected in their operation by discriminatory laws. At the same time our tariff legislation by hindering trading with foreign countries destroys the market abroad for millions of dollars worth of farm produce. All this kind of legislation creates and fosters privileges that deprive masses of sufficient buying power to keep markets cleaned up and results in overproduction and glutted markets.