Senator Barkley Talks 



To I. A. A. Radio Audience 



Advocates Federal Legislation Involving 

 Active Power of Government in Con- 

 trolling Surplus Farm Crops. 



T^HE active authority and power of 

 -'- the United States government 

 should be given to agriculture in help- 

 ing this basic national industry con- 

 trol and orderly market surplus farm 

 crops. 



This is what Senator Alben W. Bark- 

 ley said in a radio talk broadcast on 

 the I. A. A.'s program over station 

 WJJD on Wednesday, Sept. 7. Sen- 

 ator Barkley asserted that no one who 

 has given agricultural conditions any 

 thought or study Can deny that there 

 is a- serious problem confronting the 

 people of our country. "And no man 

 will confidently deny that this problem 

 of the farmer cannot be solved by the 

 farmer alone." 



Calling attention to the extent of 

 organization in other professions and 

 industries and the ease with which 

 they have been enabled to fix prices 

 for goods or services, in some cases 

 with government aid, he said: 



An Absurd Situation 



"This is not true as to the service 

 rendered the public by the man en- 

 gaged in agriculture. He is compelled 

 to take what is offered for his product, 

 and large numbers of those who buy 

 from him are indifferent to the ques- 

 tion of what it has cost to produce it. 

 Not only is the farmer helpless in fix- 

 ing the price of what he sells to others 

 but he is utterly ignored when it comes 

 to fixing the price of what he pays to 

 others for what they sell him. This 

 is an absurd situation." 



Senator Barkley, who is a leading 

 Democrat, steered clear of partisan 

 politics but addressed himself to the 

 economics of the surplus control mea- 

 sures passed by the 69th Congress and 

 subsequently vetoed by President Cool- 

 idge. He told why he worked for the 

 measure and why it was needed by the 

 farmer. He predicted that the major 

 issue before Congress in its next ses- 

 sion would be the farm surplus prob- 

 lem. 



Government Help Needed 



"By whatever name any measure 

 may be known it will be a failure un- 

 less it brings the power of the govern- 

 ment to bear in aiding agriculture to 

 control its surplus," he said. "The 

 surplus control bill passed during the 

 recent Congress and vetoed by the 

 President was designed to assist the 

 farmer in coping with some of these 

 difficulties to which I have alluded. 

 None of its advocates or supporters 

 contended that it was a perfect mea- 

 sure, or that it would not have to be 

 amended, in the light of experience. 

 Some of these who voted for it with 

 hesitation felt that it was the best pro- 

 posal offered dealing with the agn"icul- 

 tural situation, and that it was worth 

 (Continued on page 8) 



«i- 



I. A. A. RADIO SPEAKER 



SEN. ALBEN W. BARKLEY 



Senator Barkley is the junior Senator 

 from Kentucky. He became interested 

 in the surplus control plan as a Cong-ress- 

 man, soon after its introduction, and aft- 

 er studying^ it thoroughly gave it his 

 active support. 



Senator Barkley was born in Graves 

 County, Kentucky, in 1877, was educat- 

 ed in the county schools and at Marvin 

 College, Clinton, Ky., and later at the 

 University of Virginia Law School. Prior 

 to being elected to the senate, he was 

 prosecuting attorney for McCracken 

 county, Kentucky, and for° five sessions 

 was Congressman from the first district 

 of his home state. He was the speaker 

 of the day at the recent Piatt County 

 Farm Bureau picnic and the following 

 day. Sept. 7, addressed Illinois farmers 

 during the noon hour on the I. A. A. radio 

 program from Station WJJD, Chicago. 



Swisher Gets $50 



Check For Claim 



LAST winter, S. P. Swisher accom- 

 ' panied by his neighbor, E. C. Betz, 

 both of LaSalle county, went to South- 

 ern Wisconsin to buy several purebred 

 Milking Shorthorn cows. They rode 

 back on the same freight train with the 

 cattle and were delayed an extra day 

 at Rockford where in switching to an- 

 other line, the cattle received very 

 rough handling. 



When they were unloaded, one cow 

 was down in the car and the others 

 in a very weakened condition with a 

 subsequent heavy loss in flow of milk. 



Swisher laid the case before the 

 LaSalle County Farm Bureau, who in 

 turn referred it to the I. A. A. Trans- 

 portation Department. Evidence was 

 gathered and submitted, but the rail- 

 road rejected the claim twice on the 

 ground that there was no evidence of 

 specific damage. The 1. A. A. per- 

 sisted, however, in establishing the 

 justice of the claim and last week a 

 check for $50 from the railroad was 

 forwarded to Mr. Swisher in settle- 

 ment. 



"To say that I was highly elated is 

 putting it mildly," said Swisher in ex- 

 pressing his thanks. "I note that you 

 have not spoken of your commission 

 (Continued on page 8) 



Fruit Growers' Exchange jy 

 , I Sells 4,000 Cars Produce 



Leeper TeDs of Obstacles and Experiences 

 in Fruit Marketing in Radio Address. 



PROBLEMS and pitfalls experienced 

 ^ in sdven years of cooperative 

 fruit marketing were revealed re- 

 cently by A. B. Leep- 

 er, manager of the Il- 

 linois Fruit Growers* 

 Exchange in a radio 

 talk broadcast on the 

 I. A^ A. program, 

 over station WJJD. 



Marketing fruits 

 and vegetables is dif- 

 ferent from any 

 Mother according to 

 JLeeper, first because 

 such crops are perish- 

 able, hence the im- 

 portance of the time 

 which eliapses between harvest and 

 consumption; secondly, because they 

 must be: graded, standardized and 

 packed it containers at the shipping 

 point rendy for the consumer; and 

 thirdly, because they must be shipped 

 by the n^ost direct route to the con- 

 suming ndarkets. 



"The real essentials in the proper 

 marketing of fruits and vegetables," 

 said Leeper "are — standardization, 

 communication, transportation, and 

 distribution. A cooperative market- 

 ing association must have a properly 

 graded ptoduct to sell, must know the 

 demands: of all the different markets 

 on the ^ay of shipment, must have 

 adequate facilities to send to the mar- 

 kets, and then so distribute the prod- 

 uct as not to overload the markets. 

 If all thiese were possible, conditions 

 would be ideal. But, unfortunately, 

 coopteratives meet ever changing con- 

 ditions ahd must be prepared to meet 

 them as they arise day by day. It 

 is in this uncertainty that we find most 

 of the pitfalls of fruit marketing, the 

 most hazardous business of all the 

 lines of merchandising. 



"During the seven years the Illinois 

 Fruit Growers Exchange has been 

 operating we have had to meet a dif- 

 ferent condition in the marketing of 

 each commodity each year. During 

 this time we have sold over 4,000 cars 

 of fruits and vegetables. These have 

 been shipped direct to 150 or more 

 different markets in the United States 

 and Canada. We have avoided a 

 great many pitfalls, but not all of 

 them. In the first years of operation 

 the greatest prttfall encountered by the 

 Exchange was the lack of reliable in- 

 formation. It was hard to get re- 

 liable information from competing 

 sections, from the markets, and from 

 our own grrowers themselves. We 

 have almost entirely overcome these 

 difficulties and today we feel reason- 

 ably sure that we can get the right 

 information on all the markets whe -e 

 we expect to ship. Competing sections 

 are now more willing to exchange 

 Continued on page 6) 



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