Controls Not The Answer

HELLO FOLKS! — The mink in the closet is sometimes responsible for the wolf at the door.
"Elmer, Do you love me?"... "I'll say"... "Do you think I'm beautiful?"... "You bet"... "Are my eyes the loveliest you have gazed into?"... "Shucks, yes"... "Is my mouthlike a rosebud?"... "Sure it is"... "Is my figure divine?"... "Uh-huh"... "Oh, Elmer, you say the loveliest things! Tell me some more!"

—o—

HOG PRICES are in a depression right now for the first time in four years. Should they and cattle prices remain that way for long the nation as a whole would be in a depression in a couple of years. But I don't hear farmers calling for government intervention and the reason is obvious.

Nearly eight years ago hog prices were really in a bad way. They slipped to $10 a hundred and farmers and politicians were ready to go for government supports. Wiser heads prevailed and in the intervening seven years hog prices have averaged about $4.00 hundredweight more than they would have had the government stepped in. Besides that, we would probably have had pork supplies up to our collective ears and politicians clamoring for controls.

This is just another incident of how the free market works to get all concerned more for the money and hour than any other system.

We will ride this one out and have a higher net income than a politically manipulated market can ever give.

—o—

RECENTLY ON TV a nationally known figure, in order to prove his point that farmers are the only group that have to take what the consumer offers, said that when one goes into a store to buy a hat he pays the price that the storekeeper sets. When he sells a product he takes what is offered.

I didn't know if the man really believes what he says but the fact of the matter is that nobody sets his own price. There may be selected instances when that is not true, but for the most part we are all in a competitive world. Even labor, which has had a monopoly in setting wage prices, has come to realize recently that they are in competition with other workers. Sometimes it is the workers in their own town, some times it is the workers across the continent and if not then it is the workers in other countries. 

For a nationally known figure to make such an untrue statement can be very harmful. He is expected to be factual and his statements bear a lot of weight. His following will be misled and much hard feeling can be generated because of not knowing the facts. He will do himself much harm if he persists in such untruths whether he believes it himself or not.

The saying that what you don't know won't hurt you is false. What you don't know can hurt you just as bad and sometimes more than what you do know. What you do know you can avoid.