Agriculture and the Nation's Business

Abstract

In recent years considerable attention has been given to the problem of stabilizing the business cycle. Much is hoped from the recent progress in standardization, in a more even distribution of employment in the highly seasonal industries, such as the building, clothing, and canning industries, and in the more adequate organization of the nation's financial and credit institutions. One important element, namely agriculture, has, however, received inadequate consideration, but it will need to be taken into account before stability in general business conditions is ever accomplished. Agriculture, which supplies the raw materials to industries employing at least one-third of all factory wage earners, and upon whose income depends the welfare of many individual industries and enterprises, has of course been much discussed, but the specific ways in which agricultural production contributes to the physical volume of general business, how agricultural prices may affect business activity through their influence on industrial profits and urban living costs, and how farmers' income affects the welfare of specific industries serving the farm market, have not generally been recognized. The interrelationships between agriculture and industry are so diverse and numerous that many views---some of them misconceptions-are afloat. Agriculture is frequently given an importance in national welfare, depending on the individual viewpoint, which ranges all the way from a dominant factor to one of little influence or significance. The latter view is likely to be held by those whose interests do not bring them directly in contact with farmers, or who see in agriculture a declining element in our population as the country moves on to a greater degree of industrialization. Others, whose interests are intimately associated with the welfare of agricultural communities, are apt to think that the nation's business rises and falls with the ups and downs of the farmer. Among these are to be found country bankers, country editors, manufacturers and distributors of farm implements, machin-