Why is it Bad to Leave Farm?

By EDWIN B. PETERSEN

HELLO FOLKS!  With politics in full swing the politicians of every color, class and company are at it trying to convince the voters that they are the one for the job.

Along with the oratory is a lot of demagoguery designed to confuse and bewilder the voters and win for the candidate his desires.

Farm politics are in for their share of the ‘mud’ with one side slinging most of it and the other side failing to give satisfactory rebuttal to enlighten the public as to the real facts.  So the voters go their way not knowing what is the real crux of the problem.

The Democrats say that so and so many farmers are leaving the farm each year under the Republican regime.  The Republicans say on the other hand that more farmers left the farm under the Democratic rule.

The inference is given on both sides that there is something wrong with farmers taking city jobs; but this has actually been going on for a hundred years and there is no sign of it slowing up.

The fact is that farm productivity is going up at the rage of six percent per year and that is faster than industry in general by half:  and it is faster than our ability to consume the extra production ourselves.

The only hope of maintaining that rate of production and consuming it is to sell it abroad.  In that respect we are trying out best.  We have Public Law 480 which is doing a tremendous job of selling and even giving away, but if we ship more across than we now do we will incur the wrath of foreign governments because they feel that we are upsetting their economy by too much giving away, which is true.

We can only sell or otherwise dispose of food as fast as their economy grows or that we can induce to buy through food fairs and such.

Therefore the only answer for the less efficient farmer or the farmer who feels that he can make a better living up town (of which many are out best farmers) is for him to quite farming and become a consumer of farm products instead of a producer.  That, therefore balances our supply and demand rule, and the farmer freed from producing food, can be put to work producing the consumer goods which our standard of living demands.

The whole thing is a process of greater efficiency which means cheaper food.  With cheaper food more money is left for purchasing the other things we demand.  Would even the politician who does so much hollering want it any different?  Not by a long shot.  He just wants to be heard and isn’t particular what he is saying.

The facts are that the less farmers it takes feed a given number of people and the less the costs, the higher is the standard of living of that people.

Take any country and the standard of living can be judged pretty will by the efficiency of ti’s farmers, and with all other conditions being equal the fewer the farm-…

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