—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 9,1969
4
From Wien We
Freedom To Market
Freedom of choice in the marketplace
is fundamental to the principal of economic
freedom and in the final analysis insepar
able from political liberty. This is why the
current attempts to promote union organiza
tion of agricultural workers by forcing re
moval through boycotts of table grapes
from the shelves of retail merchants is a
national issue of the first importance. If
consumers are deprived of the right to buy
grapes in this manner, they may also be
deprived of the right to purchase any one
of the 8,000 or more items found in a modern
supermarket. If the strategy of the grape
boycott proves successful, a precedent will
have been set that could lead to the under
mining of the mass production, mass dis
tribution system—beginning with agricul
tural products.
Recognition of this threat has come
from many knowledgeable individuals and
organizations. An example is the American
Farm Burean Federation’s opposition to
the boycott of farm products as an infringe
ment on the vital “freedom to market.”
The president of the Farm Bureau declar
es, .. . We regard the food boycott as a
highly critical issue not just to agriculture
but to the total economy. Farmers know
that if special interest groups can success
fully boycott table grapes from California,
they can successfully boycott farm pro
ducts anywhere in the nation. Farmers re
gard the boycott of food as totally alien to
the economic freedom Americans have al
ways enjoyed in the marketplace. It denies
farmers a market —whether or not they are
directly involved in a dispute, and it also de
nies consumers their rightful choice of
what to buy or not to buy at the food
store. ...”
Yes, the table grape boycott is far more
than a local issue between California grape
producers and California agricultural work
ers. It is an attack on the basic right of free
choice—and the long run economic well
being of every U.S. citizen.
At least that’s the way it looks from
where we stand.
Wages Up; Purchasing
Power Down
Seldom does economic news rate the
headlines, but inflation has changed all of
that. The rate of inflation in terms of price
increases was recently running at more
than 7 per cent annually. Most competent
observers expect a gradual slowdown in this
rate. But in the meantime, inflation is tak
ing a heavy toll. Every pocketbook is hard
hit. Thus, not only are people complaining,
but they have suddenly taken a new interest
in the subject of inflation wherever it is
discussed—news magazines, financial jour
nals and newspapers.
Under the appropriate heading of “The
Farm News This Week
4-H Livestock Team Wins 2nd
Consecutive Year Page 1
Manheim Youths Take Home
FFA Hog Championships - Page 1
Plowing Contest Held Page 1
LANCASTER FARMING
Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly
P. O Box 266 - Lititz, Pa. 17543
Office: 22 E. Main St, Lititz, Pa. 17543
Phone: Lancaster 394-3047 or Lititz 626-2191
Everett R. Newswanger, Editor
P.obert G. Campbell, Advertising Director
Subscription price; $2 per year in Lancaster
County; $3 elsewhere
Established November 4.1953
Published e\ ery Saturday by Lancaster
Farming, Lititz, Pa.
Second Class Postage paid at Lititz, Pa.
17543
Member of Newspaper Farm Editors Assn.
Stand. ..
New Recession,” The Wall Street Journal
gives the latest box score of price inflation
versus living standards. It points out that
what is going on now is not a recession
in the usual sense. Gross national product
and other major indicators still point up
ward. But, the buying power of weekly earn
ings for millions of people is in a definite
downward trend. In the terms of 1957 to
1959 dollars, after federal income and social
security tax payments have been subtract
ed, the statistics for the months of Septem
ber, 1968, through April, 1969, do not make
pleasant reading. Weekly pay rose from
$110.87 to $112.13. Weekly purchasing power
during the same period declined from $79.86
to $77.62. In other words, although the latest
weekly pay figure of $112.13 is a record, the
purchasing power it represents is not only
$2.24 below last September’s total but, ac
cording to The Wall Street Journal, .. is
below the yearly averages for 1968 ($78.81),
for 1967 ($78.13), for 1966 ($78.39) and for
1965 ($78.53).”
As long as inflation continues at recent
high levels, purchasing power and living
standards will continue to decline irrespec
tive of wage increases. That seems to be
the view of a number of analysts. One
warns that the country is “in the early
stages” of a new type of depression in
which rising prices and taxes will erode
the “real” earnings of American workers.
He believes “an increasing proportion of
the population will find itself . . . pushed to
ever lower economic standards of living,”
even though total pay will continue to in
crease. Attempts to gain wage increases to
be absorbed by employers is almost certain
to backfire, in the opinion of the analysts.
The profit squeezes would almost certainly
lead to layoffs.
Time magazine in appraising “the criti
cal fight against inflation” reviews the
moves toward tighter money, higher ta ves
and the possibility of extensive wage and
price controls. The ways in which inflation
distorts and damages the social and eco
nomic fabric of the United States are varied
and far-reaching. As Time points out,
“Companies find it increasingly difficult to
lure employees from field offices to head
quarters cities where prices are highest
. . . construction costs aggravate the na
tion’s shortage of modern housing and put
homes beyond the financial reach of many
people.”
Where does the blame for inflation lie?
Of course, its roots go back many years
when government spending beyond tax rev
enue, on a gigantic scale, became a way of
life. As for the more virulent form of in
flation which we have today. Times says,
“. . . the blame belongs to the Johnson Ad
ministration ... Between 1965 and 1968, fed
eral spending jumped 47 per cent, and the
government put much more money into the
economy than it took out.” Regardless of
where the fault lies, nearly everyone, at
last, recognises the menace to order.and
progress embodied in inflation. Controlling
it is. another matter. It can only be controll
ed by the acceptance of widespread sacri
fice and discipline.
As Time points out, the danger is that if
the present Administration’s” ... anti-infla
tion? r measures are strong enough to pro
duce- en a mild recession, the President
ma? d himself in serious trouble with
man« Aers.” Hov/ever, one thing seems
clear. .' e voters must either accept the
stern an i-inflationary measures of this Ad
ministra* on or pay a constantly rising price
for more -nflation.
Local Weather Forecast
(From the U. S. Weather Bureau at the
Harrisburg State Airport)
The five-day forecast for the period
Saturday through next Wednesday calls for
temperatures to average below normal with
daytime highs in the low 80’s and overnight
lows in the upper 50’s. Seasonable over the
weekend turning cooler thereafter. The nor
mal high-low for the period is 85-64.
Ram may total greater than one-half
inch falling late Sunday and Monday.
God had promised the people
of Israel that he would be with
them, that they were to be hie
people and he would be their
God. He would dally share theiri
lives, guiding them and thelrj
nation, moving them toward hlii
purpose. Of them he asked that
they would respond with offering*
and worship. The tabernacle It.
self would be a visible reminder
of God’s presence In the midst of |
the people,
Worship would be a meanai
I whereby they acknowledged and
„ responded to the presence of God'
a‘£d.,So’s to .i^
Dn.ti>n«i Rxiini: Psoinu 90. sermon, to sing the "old hymns.
This Sunday morning mil* "get Inspired,” “krWned, c«
lions of Americans will go to wallow in
church, but how many of them mentality. The tabernacle was to
will go to worship? be a place where they would com*
That may seem a strange mune with God on a deeper levels
question, but we must realize that "And let them make me a
"going to church* and "wor- Sanctuary that I may dwell In
shipping” are their midst (Exodus 25;8).
not the same This Sunday morning mil.
thing, just as lions of Americans will go to
K 'Wm there is a dif- church, but how manv of them
B ■ ference between will go to worship? The answer
"leading a horse to the question is anyone’s guess,
Si to water” and but many of us suspect that there
■=***» "S "making him will be far more church-going
HlIF’ jMm drink.” Many than worshipping. There will he
people enter more bodies present thdn spiritt
. M church buildings engaged in communion with the
Rev. Althouse on a Sunday Lord. More people will talk and
morning, but that entrance, their sing about God than will meet
presence there, are not guarantees him and respond to him.
of worship. This may even be - h nr «> ence 0 f g nt t
true when people sit and listen TM presence OT boa
attentively to a worship service. K there is anything wrong
Worship is more than mere with our worship, it is _not so
passive submission to a ritual, much that we are using the
or occupying a seat in a "holy wrong liturgy or ignorant of
place.” better techniques, hut that we fail
... ..... to acknowledge and respond to
Missing the point the presence of God. We are more
That many people go to aware of the pastor, the
church without worshipping is the choir, the ushers, and the
sometimes evident in the things woman in front with the strange*
they say about worship services, looking hat, than we are of God.
Some will find the service a failure to looking for
because the pastor’s sermon was him in our daily lives, we find it
too long, too boring, or both, difficult to recognize him on Sun*
Others will judge the service on day mornings. .
the basis of how well the choir The covenant promise which
sings its anthem or how softly God gave to Israel is still our»
the organist plays his offertory, today. As he called them to be ms
Still others will be preoccupied people and promised to be their
with irritations over unfamiliar God, so he calls and promises us.
hymns, rituals, or "other As he desired that they would
changes.” For these people, come to the tabernacle to come
obviously, the worship service is mune with him, so he desires our
largely a program that is ex- communion today. What ho
pected to be "interesting” and wants from us is a worsmpfsu
"uplifting.* response, not just church at*
Of course, these people miss tendence.
the point. They do not really What will you offer him this
understand what worship is, and, Sunday?
not understanding, they do not
Worship. They do not realize that
the sermon, the hymns, the choir,
the ritual are all secondary in im-
Ctance to the encounter of God
self. When men truly worship.
YOUR RESPONSE
Lesion for August 10,1969
they acknowledge and experience
the "woithsbip” «f God,
For Full Market Reports
Read Lancaster Farming
. Lime will strengthen ' s'and and
August and September are helpyMds ik ~ An appH
good months t° appty iime. eation of a - . us-potash
For land that is to be seeded to fertilizer tins t ™
legumes in 1970 now is the lime moval of the a ,o w H also
to start correcting any acidity, improve the vieL.
wmf IS Trrf ' be f W ? en :To Cur * Thbatuc tkefully
with the soil and when +«, .* - ~ y
several m.Mths lime beftm hie j-t- te the favorable moisture
seeding is Me Sort grou--r P 0 "^ 10113 recent weeks the
plowed foi a *970 and ihen tob , a “® C ™P should be heavy
go to smaL ..raj n m 1971 can be sap: tbis means that
limed now so that the lime has in or . de *
time to sweeten the soil. A soil to ° et . of tbe P !ant J uices Just
test is the best way to learn the P ossable after cut
amount needed. I 1 * 3 ’ -** * b:s 13 one shed
„ _ _ burning or rotting may occur.
To Permit Alfalfa To Bloom The use of fans to move the air
Stands of alfalfa that are to through the shefd‘or s barn is sug
be reigned for another year gested, or place the lath on an
should be allowed to come into outside scaffold the' first week or
at Jeasi 75% bloom at one of the so to icduce moisture more xa
lalei t-ulluig this reason This pidly.
“ i
A visible reminder
(lasad on ouHmts copyrljjWod by lha Division
ml Christian Education, Nationcit ft*
Churchas ol Christ in tha U. S. A. bliutd kf
Community frast SnvKt.)
NOW IS
THE TIME . ~
' 1 - j **■ J ,
By Max Smith
Lancaster County Agent'
J . •
jf ,
*