California Corn Hurts Mid-West

Hello Folks: If a man offends you, buy each of his children a drum. A Chinese proverb.

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This is the final test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible use to him.

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We have a couple of new creatures at our house. I had never heard of them before. One is a "Skeekmuk". It lives upstairs and as far as we can determine, this skeekmuk is somewhere between the size of a cat and a dog. Whether it has fur, hair or feathers, we don't know. Nobody has seen it but Randy, he sees it quite often, and it is under the bed when he sleeps. It has been around about a month apparently.

The other creature is an "earb". This one also we only know from what Randy tells us. It lives downstairs in the bedroom. When we eat, it slips into the living room for a romp. From all indications, is is about the size of a rat or mouse, as least it can be stepped on. The other day it followed him upstairs. It leaves no tracks, requires no food, and can be seen only by some one with as good an imag[i]nation as Randy (and no one has one that good!)

We get a lot of kick out of these two creatures, plus Randy. All we have to do is mention the "earb" or "skeekmuk", and we are in for another session of stories.

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Speaking of imagination, have you ever gone traveling with your imagination? It is lots of fun. You can sail on oceans, visit tropical isles, swoop down on crowded cities on your imaginary carpet, do a lot of things you always hoped you could do someday. All this, without ever leaving a cozy home — and no travel fatigue at all.

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There is a lot of talk about a "soil - bank" plan. Here is my viewpoint on it for what it is worth to the readers. I think the only real worth of "soil fertility bank" is in connection with acreage controls. If a farmer is at the position where he feels he wants price supports on his crops, then the extra acres should be placed in suspension until they are needed. This should be done by the farmer himself and not at the expense of the taxpayers.

In the past when acreage allotments were in effect on a commodity, the extra acres were just diverted into another crop. Such a condition is not fair to the farmers who wish to take their own chances with the law of supply and demand. Suppose the farmers in Freeborn county rent a lot of land to the Government, and that land put in suspension as it would be under a "soil bank" plan, that would mean less production, which in turn means less industry.

California and other western states have learned that there is money in raising corn and feeding cattle — so while we are crying for high supports and storing our corn in bins, California is doubling her production of corn each year. On top of that she is competing with us for western range cattle to feed out and out-bidding us a lot of the time.

We are actually holding an umbrella over the west all at our own expense.

The fair price for corn has dropped a lot the past few years because we are learning to produce it cheaper. Nobody knows what actual parity is on corn, but it is not over $1.50 — probably closer to $1.25, this due to more efficient production, by the use of better machinery, fertilizer and tillage.

Just as surely as some of us are afraid to get in to the economic area and fight our own battles, there are others who will and they are the ones who win.