The Purchasing Power of the Farmer's Dollar From 1913 to Date

THE farmer's will buy, of course, exactly as much as anybody else's dollar-once he gets it. It would be more strictly accurate, therefore, to talk about the purchasing power of the farmer's products. However, the dollar form of expression is the popular one and nobody is likely to misunderstand that the discussion herein relates to the general position of agriculture as reflected by the exchange value of its products. The past ten years have had somewhat the same bearing on agricultural history as an earthquake has upon geologic history. All those economic processes which normally spread themselves over long periods of time and occur in mild degree were precipitated by the war period as sudden, violent phenomena. From the late nineties down to 1913, the period had been one of slowly rising prices. That was a chapter of agricultural stabilization, of gradually improved production, of increasing property values, of moderate farm prosperity. During this time agricult al products exchanged for industrial products and services on a plane of comparative stability and slowly increasing advantage. With the advent of the war in 1914, a new chapter opened. The first shock of war merely sent the price structure into violent fluctuation: