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At the same time, better seed, fertilizers, chemicals, processes and breeding made an acre of land more productive. That meant much more production for far less work. In 1910-14, the production of 100 bushels of corn required 135 man-hours of work. By 1950-53 it took just 34. Total farm output in 1955 was 48% above the pre-World War II years, and labor used to produce this output was down about 30%. In 1935-39 an American farm worker produced enough to feed ten other people; last year his output would feed 19.
A Painful Squeeze. In the midst of this revolution in productivity the U.S. farm economy has been hit hard from the other side. The seemingly insatiable world appetite created by war and famine fell off as peace and production were restored. Consequently, U.S. farm prices went down and surpluses went up. From a peak in February 1951, during the Korean war,* farm prices slid 28% by last December. In the same period, prices of what the farmer had to buy went down only 3%. The parity index, which rates the price the farmer gets for his products against the price (100) of what he buys, hit a peak of 113 in February 1951, slid to a low of 80 at the end of 1955.
Compared to what farmers and non-farmers were making in 1940, the per-capita income of farmers now is still relatively higher than that of non-farm people. Farmers' per-capita income is 228% above 1940, while non-farmers' income is up 181%. The trouble on the farms is that income shot up to a heady 273% above 1940 in wartime, and then slid painfully downward while the rest of the economy continued to rise. As a result farmers are caught in a painful cost-price squeeze.
Job for an Archangel. "I doubt if an archangel with my first name could have been popular as Secretary of Agriculture in years like these," says Gabriel Hauge, White House economic adviser. No arch angel, but an apostle of the Mormon Church, Ezra Taft Benson is the first clergyman in a century to serve in the U.S. cabinet.* An earnest, praying man, he works night and day at a pace that would kill weaker men. He is up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. to meditate, pray and work in his small basement study, austerely fitted with an iron cot, a plain wooden chair and desk. When he arrives at the office shortly before 8, he has already done about two hours of work. Since 1953 he has traveled 284,000 miles on the job (only 25,000 less than globe-hopping John Foster Dulles) to campaign for his principles and to try to sell the Administration program to the farmer. And he has placed only one limitation on his tireless performance: he will not work on Sunday except to rescue the Biblical "fallen ox," i.e., to handle a crisis.
Apostle Benson's firm beliefs are the key to the way he has handled his job in the Cabinet. As a devout Mormon, he believes firmly in self-reliance, economic independence, avoidance of debt and of Government bounty. He accepts the Mormon beliefs that God favored the U.S. over all other lands and that the U.S. Constitution is a divinely inspired document. Serving in the Cabinet is more than an important Government post for Benson ; it is also a mission of faith.