M»y S, 1924 



The BlinoU Agricultural AwocMiKon Record 



P«ge S 



Bill Which Farm Bureau Members Should Know 



— 10— 



"Coo|>er8tlve marketing will cure 

 the Ills." 



Cooperative marketing will help 

 but cannot cure the condition. 

 A cooperative, handling a com- 

 modity consumed in the domestic 

 market can affect price, but not 

 with full effect with a surplus 

 product. Even it it were possible 

 to herd all of the skeptical, the 

 recalcitrant, and the obtuse, 

 among 6.000,000 farmers into 

 one great wheat, corn, cotton, 

 swine, or cattle cooperative, and 

 it is utterly impossible to do this 

 in time to do any good, still 

 that great cooperative could pro- 

 duce but little effect on the 

 terminal price of an export crop 

 unless it had precisely the facili- 

 ties and powers conferred on the 

 proposed corporation by the Mc- 

 Nary-Haugen bill. It would not 

 do so because it would not be 

 able to address the cause. 



The cause is the surplus, the 

 distressed world, and the Tariff. 

 It is an extraneous thing. It 

 cannot be reached by effort here 

 less than the segregation of the 

 surplus from the domestic mar- 

 ket. 



The bill does not oppose co- 

 operation; it fosters, encourages, 

 and makes cooperation possible. 

 It interferes not at all with the 

 benefits derived from cooperation. 

 By just ■* so much as the cooper- 

 atives can secure more equitable 

 grading, reduce the cost of do- 

 mestic distribution, shorten the 

 road from farm to market, can 

 they save for the producer por- 

 tions of the difference between 

 farm price and terminal price. 

 Bat without this bill such is the 

 limit of their power. They can 

 do the things above mentioned, 

 bill or no bill. But they can do 

 them far better with the bill 

 than without it and if, during 

 the five years of the bill's emerg- 

 ency existence as a law, they at- 

 tain to a sufficient unity of pur- 

 pose and quality of efficiency, 

 they can take over the corpora- 

 tion and live happily ever after- 

 ward. 



. — 11— 

 **Di\'ersille<I farming will cure 

 these ills." 



Our trouble is the surplus 

 product and it applies not to 

 wheat alone, or corn alone, or 

 cotton alone, but to any and all. 

 There are vast areas available 

 only for wheat farming. It is a 

 Barmecide feast to proffer the 

 farmers of these areas "diversi- 

 fied farming." 



Diversified farming means 

 "Raise more cattle, corn, swine 

 eggs, poultry and butter fat. ' 

 The consumpti%'e capacity of the 

 country for these things is not 

 cosmic. It is being supplied now 

 Some astute observers believe 

 that a crisis is not far off in each 

 of these products. It is already 

 upon the producers of corn, cat- 

 tle and swine. If the 20% of 

 the wheat acreage could and 

 would turn to these other prod- 

 ucts, what would happen? We 

 should have precisely the same 

 situation with the other products 

 that we now have with wheat. 



To the extent that the market 

 <lenian<lK a product at a profitable 

 price, natural laws will supply 

 that product. The moment we 

 produce in excess of the normal 

 demand for that product we de- 

 stroy the profit thereof. There 

 is no profit in any of the com- 

 modities suggested for increased 

 production by the advocates of 

 diversification which indicates 

 that the total supply on the do- 

 mestic market should be much' 

 increased. It could not be in- 

 creased without destroying profit. 



Therefore conversion from one 

 to another of these crops will re- 

 sult merely in a shifting of the 

 field of loss and distress. 



There is much murky thinking 

 on this subject and to say that 

 diversification offers the slightest 

 help to this grievous situation 

 addressed by the McNary-Haugen 

 bill is either inane or immoral 

 depending on the information of 

 the person saying it. Diversifi- 

 cation is a wise counsel for the 

 individual. It is simply the old 

 admonition about not putting all 

 eggs in one basket. But it is 

 nothing more and It has no ap- 

 plication whatever to the ba.sic 

 economic problem addressed by 

 this bill. 



—12 — 

 "We will cnre the ills by lending 

 the farmer monej-." 

 All the projects to finance the 

 stricken agricultural districts can 

 not cure the farmers' ills. He 

 owes too much to the rural 

 banks, his suppliers, and for 

 taxes to his state and county 

 What will it advantage him to 

 change his creditor and extend 

 his time when he sees no profit 

 out of which to pay and no fu- 

 ture save a deeper debt? What 

 the farmer must have, is an 

 eqnalized price for his product, 

 not a change in the person of 

 his creditor. 



All this is obvious. What is 

 the purpose of the suggestion? 

 It can hardly be other than an 

 attempt to still his clamor by a 

 deferment of his most persistent 

 present annoyance — and mortgag- 

 ing of his future. The only help 

 that can be held out in this pro- 

 ject is that he can stay on his 

 land hoping for some change for 

 the better. But, if the only pos- 

 sible solution of his problem is 

 elimination of the surplus and 

 the only methods of elimination 

 are starvation of this acreage oi 

 segregation of surplus, how does 

 it help the case to lend money to 

 perpetuate the acreage? It does 

 not and cannot do so. The argu- 

 ment that he can stay, diversify, 

 and live, has been shown to be 

 unsound. Whether so intended 

 or not, the project to extend, 

 credit is only a soporific to soften 

 his political protest. It is no 

 remedy because, far from eradi- 

 cating the cause of the difficulty, 

 it simply aggravates and pro- 

 longs it. 



— 13— 

 "Decrease of e\i>ense and cost^ 

 not increa.se in price is the 

 remedy. Tlie farmer must get 

 back to the sturdy self-deny- 

 ing existence of his grand- 

 father. Let him give up his 

 movies, automobiles, radios, 

 phonographs, electric light.s, 

 and other fancy contrivances. 

 He can live." 



The world moves on. The 

 farmer has not nearly so many 

 of the conveniences ' of modern 

 living as the common laborer, 

 the clerk or the city dweller in 

 any walk of life. But he has 

 some and of course he has in- 

 finitely more than his grand- 

 father. We shall have no more 

 luck in creating a peasant class 

 on our farms than we had in 

 creating a submerged class in 

 our labor. The benefits of the 

 industrial age in America are 

 very great and we have preserved 

 them by the tariff, restriction of 

 immigration, and other "legisla- 

 tive enactments." Restoration of 

 fair exchange value to the farmer 

 will not do one iota of harm to 

 any other class in the country. 



of all these things which go to 

 make life convenient and pro- 

 gressively easier. This will give 

 increased employment and profit 

 to every other class and improve 

 the general prosperity. 



Frugality in the farmer is 

 necessary and desirable. Denial 

 to the farmer of a modest share 

 of the conveniences of our con- 

 stantly Improving national life is 

 not only neither necessary nor 

 desirable— It is lm|iosslble. 



r-14 — 

 "Let the situation alone. It is 

 very bad but it will cnre Itself." 



This is the Manchester doctrine 

 of Lalssez falre. It is sound in 

 its economics. The situation will 

 cure itself by the immutable law 

 of compensation. "Laissez falre" 

 does not, however, follow as a 

 conclusion. Smallpox becomes 

 innocuous to a race if left alone. 

 That is no argument against vac- 

 cination. Let us see how the 

 situation could be cured or cure 

 itself. It is due to a combina- 

 tion of two causes; the tariff, 

 raising the American price level 

 above the world price level on 

 all the farmer buys, the surplus, 

 importing the world price level 

 into America for the farmer 

 alone on every crop producing a 

 surplus. Therefore, the cures 

 are these — • 



I Free Trade — ■ give the 

 farmer world prices for 

 what he buys as well as 

 for what he sells. 

 II Curing the demoralization 

 of the world and thus rais- 

 ing world prices to the 

 American plane. 

 Ill Elimination of surplus by 

 (a) Its destruction as 



such, 

 (bl Its consumption at 

 home by a 20% in- 

 crease in population, 

 (e) Its segregation as 

 proposed by the bill, 

 (d) Its avoidance by 

 abandonment of acre- 

 age. 



There are no other ways save 

 these or the combination of two 

 or more of them. Free trade 

 may be dismissed. No matter 

 how ardent a theoretical free 

 trader might be, he would . jiot. 

 i>eing an equally ardent Ameri- 

 can, favor a sudden throwing 

 down of the dykes and letting in 

 on our guarded domestic struc- 

 ture the existing depression of a 

 world in chaos — an influx of 

 goods representing the hollow- 

 eyed labor of gaunt Europe, en- 

 tailing the sudden destruction of 

 American living standards. He 

 would not — at this perilous junc- 

 ture — toss away, for a beautiful 

 theory, the relatively happy state 

 of our whole people. Even the 

 bankrupt farmer — his home 

 threatened and the savings of his 

 life already absorbed — does not 

 ask this. 



The most bloodless Manches- 

 terian would not counsel the 

 farmer to wait till the world i; 

 restored to something approach 

 ing normal prosperity. The causes 

 of its depression are too deep — too 

 menacing of further depression. 

 We can omit to consider as a 

 counsel of value, the voice that 

 tells the farmer "Wait till the 

 world is restored to pre-war pros- 

 perity." 



Nor would anyone dare sug- 

 gest that we burn our surplus or 

 sink it in the seas — not in the 

 presence of the hungry mouths 

 that wail across the world. We 

 are hardly ready to espouse such 



It will do great good to all. It sabotage on a scale so vast, 

 will restore to the market a It is quite true that the time 

 great block of buyers who have is well within sight when we 

 long been out of it — purfchasers I shall consume our entire farm 



surplus at home. At the present 

 rate of increase of population 

 decreased fertility, soil erosion, 

 and considering the fact that we 

 are . already near the limit of 

 practicable productive ' acreage, 

 that time is perhaps not more 

 than fifteen years in the future. 

 But they would be Job's com- 

 forters who would sit down at 

 the farmer's barren b*ard and 

 attempt to console him with the 

 thought that all. will b^ well in 

 fifteen years. j i 



Now, the "Lbissez taireians" 

 mean that the sijtuation will cure 

 itself much quicker thab in any 

 way yet discussed, by the aban- 

 donment of, for example, some 

 20% of our wheat acreage. It is 

 a pretty theory. It vfill take, 

 say five years of contipued de- 

 pression, to beat down tie sturdy 

 resistance and the griini struggle 

 of owners and tenants of the 

 wheat and corn lands to preserve 

 their homes and the ren^nants of 

 their forutnes. In five yiears per- 

 haps only 80% of the fittest will 

 have survived and the surplus 

 will have been starved out*. The 

 "fittest" does not refer to the 

 most efficient workers. It refers 

 to the most efficient areas — those 

 nearest to markets and most fac- 

 ile. The wrecked homesteads, 

 and deserted villages, the ruined 

 fortunes and the scattered fam- 

 ilies proposed by opponents of 

 the bill, will not result ■ at once. 

 Five years at least will be re- 

 quired. This breed does not quit 

 in the face of adver*ity. It 

 sticks. Then we shall : have to 

 give further years whil^ the in- 

 dicator needle of domestic de- 

 mand shivers - nervously and be- 

 gins the upward swin; which 

 will restore tenants to those 

 abandoned lands and sq on for 

 five further years, up to the limit 

 of our productive power when 

 we shall either begin to import 

 these products or widen our own 

 borders. 



Is this a counsel of sanity? 

 Build up — destroy— build up — in 

 alternating periods of half-dec- 

 ades? Is it not better t» use an 

 emergency measure to preser\e? 

 For what will happen tn these 

 five years of de«tructio»7 Are 

 our people a race of yellow-faced 

 economists who will resoect this 

 scientific reasoning with stoical 

 indifference behind thei(- horn- 

 rimmed glasses? They (ire not. 

 They are freckle-necked, hairy 

 chested fighters. Such powerful 

 forces can crush them but not as 

 one could press the life out of 

 a sick kitten. They will press 

 back. There is a social and po- 

 litical bearing in this economic 

 problem. . 



We know^ whalt repeiKussion, 

 precisely this situation, once did 

 bring to the nation. It Ibrought 

 the bloodiest ci\11 war i in the 

 history of the world. Beginning 

 with the South Carolinji erup- 

 tion of nullification, exactly this 

 same subsidy of Aortherq indus- 

 try, by the tariff, ^and at [ the ex- 

 pense of the eKport-pi^KlucinB 

 agricultural Soutk — exactly this 

 was the economic cause of the 

 civil war and economic causes 

 are the only real causes ef mod- 

 ern war. Would it now result 

 in red revolt? Perhaps not, sim- 

 ply bec^se it is not suQciently 

 sectional and more because we 

 have learned the greater effect 

 of more peaceful means^ But 

 it will result in something far 

 more objectionable than the Mc- 

 Nary-Haugen bill. It is '' result- 

 ing so. We have here an intrin- 

 sic inequity — an immoral policy, 

 a great subversive cause l)ear- 

 ing bitterly down on one of the] 



sturdiest and most indt|i<>ndent 

 segments of our poTililation. Thai 

 segment is becoming ' highly ar- 

 ticulate. If its grievances re- 

 ceive no mercy at the hands of 

 the sacred two-party system' of 

 our political structure, it knows 

 the power of another way and it 

 can, should, and will use that 

 power ruthlessly against oppres- 

 sion. It has tasted the savor of 

 "Bloc" control. Washington is 

 being invaded by strange, new 

 faces and voices that compel at- 

 tention if not delight. A general 

 election is upon us. and. depen- 

 dent solely on immediate relief 

 of this oppression.... hangs the 

 quality of the next congress and 

 the policy of the next adniinip- 

 tration. Our business structun- 

 would do well to give ear to a 

 measure economically and polit- 

 ically sound or it may give sec- 

 tions of its smoking flesh to 

 measures which are not so. 



There is no argument against 

 the McNary-Haugen Bill which 

 can be said to go to its merits 

 There are only grievances. Thes>- 

 grievances are not for wrongs 

 done or threatened. They are 

 for inequitable privileges, accus- 

 tomed franchises of subsidy and 

 exploitation, now felt to be 

 threatened. They are protests 

 against the cleansing of an un- 

 just condition. They cannot pre- 

 vail because they have no right 

 to prevail and no man can advo- 

 cate them without miring him 

 self in a morass of deceits. In- 

 consistencies and evasions. 



"Laissez falre" may be the 

 answer to a proposal to interfere 

 with the working of a natural 

 law in a normal status. But 

 when natural law has already 

 been interfered with by the in- 

 terposition of arificial controls, 

 such as the tariff, and these arti- 

 fices create subsidies, oppressions 

 and rank injustice. "Laissez 

 faire" of the resulting condition 

 is a counsel of dissolution. We 

 can either abolish the old inter- 

 ference entirely, or we can amend 

 iU evil. But we cannot leave it 

 alone. We are dealing with an 

 American public of the twentieth 

 century and not with a French 

 proletariat of the early eight- 

 eenth. 



If we are to retain the doc- 

 trine of protection (and we are I 

 there is only on^ practicable way 

 to restore justice and that is to 

 segregate the surplus, sell it 

 abroad and regulate supply to 

 demand on the domestic market. 

 Such is the McNary-Haugen Bill. 



—15— 

 "It is improper thai farm pric<>s 

 should be made by the prices 

 of other things. The> shouUI 

 be made by cost of pr<Mlucti<Hi 

 pln.s a pmflt." 



The price t>f every commodity 

 is made by "the price of other 

 things. " That is the essence of 

 the law of barter, the law of 

 trade, the law of supply and de- 

 mand. The price of a thing is 

 merely the measure of its value 

 in terms of the things for which 

 it is exchanged. The McNary- 

 Haugen Bill did not make this 

 law. God made it. But as far 

 as export farm products is con- 

 cerned, man amended the Ijiw or 

 at least changed the scene of its 

 operation from Chicago. New 

 Vork and New Orleans, to Man- 

 chester, Liverpool. Havre. Ham- 

 burg, Rotterdam and Genoa. 



The price of every other .\mer- 

 ican commodity is made by the 

 price of "other things" in Man- 

 chester. Liverpool, and other 

 foreign markets where these 

 "other things" are on a price 

 level just as mOch lower than 



yj^ork for the McNary-Haugen Bill— Write Now! 



