2 MARCH 1929, Page 17

SOCIALIZING AGRICULTURE

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

Ste,—Your Moscow correspondent (issue of January 12th), in discussing " the socialization of agriculture," declares, 'looking backward, " that the peasants did not wish to part with their produce at the comparatively low prices fixed by the State so long as the cost of State manufactured goods remained, in their opinion, unfairly high."

Curiously enough this is exactly the cause of agrarian dis- content here in the United States. The cost of State pro- tected manufactured articles is, the farmers think, unduly high, while the Goveznment does • not correspondingly help the fanners to obtain high prices for their products. AlthoUgh it is proposed to accomplish this in the Hoover administration through the tariff, it is difficult to see how this can be done. The profit to the farmer must come through marketing his surplus of production abroad, and the prices of such surplus will be governed for the most part by prices obtaining in iverpool.—I am, Sir, &c., A. R. KIMBALL.

175 Grove Street, Waterbury, Connecticut.