Must Holler Loudly

By Don Shearon First Published August 19, 1969“Some of the eastern periodicals these days are running stories of how farm income is on the rise.“This is bad publicity for the farmers, be-cause this kind of information leads the man in the large city to think the farmer is really in the money.“He cannot be a big money maker with wheat only slightly above one dollar per bushel, when everything the farmer buys is out of line.“What the easterners are now trying to do is to say that the farm population is down, that an abundance of food is being raised, so why give the farmer any consideration any more. This is because the nation has moved from rural to urban and that is where the vote is today in the states and in the nation.“The farmer is going to have to raise his voice higher than he ever has before in the nation, if he expects to be heard. Unless he does he will see the soil conservation service and farm payments discontinued.”The above is quoted from the Marysville, Kas., Advocate, and is in line with what we have said several times—that the country's farmers need to present a solid front, united and positive, it they are to recapture their rightful place in the fabric of American life.What the Advocate has to say is true enough, as far as it goes. It should be noted that the “easterners” they cite have not taken into consideration that seemingly high income IS more than matched by high indebtedness. The farm debt, nationally, has outstripped any income rise in recent years, and continues to mount at an alarming rate.It is completely accurate to say that this country's population complexion has changed from rural to urban; it is no less accurate to say that the country still depends upon the vital food and fiber provided by the agricultural segment of our society.Further, the rural areas—including small communities like our own—provide a major outlet for the production in the easterners' factories. Needless to say, those products are vastly more expensive today than in the past, which only serves to put the farmers deeper in debt.And we come the full circle to the original point: The country's farmers, to survive, must join to make themselves heard and to make their potential political muscle respected where it will count.

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