cheaper than the rest of the world. Just what kind of a whistle do we want, and what price are we willing to pay for it? Here is a problem which we commend to the earnest study of the research department which the National Farm Bureau Federation may some day possess. CORN BELT LAND VALUES IN RELATION TO COST OF PRODUCING CORN Rent or interest on the money invested in land is a legitimate item in cost of production—so far as the individual farmer is concerned. But society is likely to reach a time when it will assert the right to object to paying a price for corn which will permit of paying a very high rent, which in turn is used to support very high land values. Society may say, in effect: Your high land values are just as vicious as watered railway stock, and you have no more right to expect a five per cent return on the inflated value than the railroads have to expect such a return on their watered stock. Society may be expected to pay a price for corn which is established by competition between farmers in this country and in the Argentine, and by the need of Europe for our pork products. This price doubtless will bear much the same relation to the general price level as before the war. It may be high enough to permit of corn belt land values as they existed in 1920, or even higher values. Or it may be low enough to compel a reduction in corn belt values and farm-hand wages. In the case of a severe drop in corn prices, it is conceivable but not probable that corn belt farmers will organize sufficiently to compel the return to a price high enough to maintain 1920 land values and farm-hand wages. It is believed that under conditions of free competition it will be necessary for corn to sell for about 85 cents a bushel, on a basis of December 1st farm valuations in the corn belt in the ordinary crop year, in order to maintain land values as they existed in 1920. This means that prices might go as low as 70 cents a bushel in years of big crops, or as high as $1 in years of small crops. It is also assumed that labor at harvest, without board, will settle down to about $4.25 a day, which was the 1918 level. If labor at harvest, without board, continues at $5 a day, which was the 1919 level, it will be necessary for corn to sell for about 88 cents a bushel, on a December 1st farm basis, in order to maintain the 1920 level of land values and farm-hand wages. It is recognized that this prediction may be wide of the mark in case farmers are able to organize themselves for selfish purposes as effectively as capital and union labor. For forty years preceding the war, the farmer paid his regular monthly labor a sweated wage, and, in effect, sold his own labor just as cheaply. During the war, the farmer had a taste of a higher standard of living, and, having had this taste, he will be loath to let farm product prices slip back to a point where he will be reduced to his former state or even lower.