Page Two 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Geo. N. Peek 



Peek Hits Hard In i 



Radio Talk On Veto ' 

 Message from KFNF 



Calls Document Most Intemperate and 

 Ill-Humored of Any In History 



AFTER carefully analyzing and ex- 

 - plaining the provisions of the re- 

 cently vetoed McNary-Haugen bill, 

 Geo. N. Peek, 

 chairman of the 

 North Central 

 States Agriciiltur- 

 al Conference, 



launched into a 

 discussion of the 

 veto message and 

 the political ele- 

 ments involved in 

 his radio talk from 

 Station KFNF, 

 Shenandoah, Iowa, 

 on June 7. 

 After explaining the bill Mr. Peek 

 said: "This all seems so simple that 

 you wonder why the question has not 

 been settled long ago. 



"The answer is that Secretary Wal- 

 lace did try to get the Harding admin- 

 istration to take definite constructive 

 action, but he was pushed aside for 

 Secretary Hoover who has been the 

 real agricultural adviser and dictator 

 of the last two administrations. Hoov- 

 er has had for his advisers the grain 

 exporters, dealers in farm commod- 

 ities, millers, and other manufacturers 

 of the farmers' crops. 



Don't Want Anything New 



"These men do not want anything 

 to happen which by any possibility 

 might interfere witii their business and 

 so the farmers have arrayed against 

 them the exchanges, boards of trade, 

 and I am sori-y to say, some of the big 

 bankers who finance .their members." 



Discussing the veto message in gen- 

 eral Mr. Peek voiced the belief that 

 the President knew but little about the 

 bill and what it contained. "His veto 

 message proves that this is still the 

 case," he said. "It is a lengthy docu- 

 ment said to be the most intemperate 

 and ill-humored of any veto message in 

 our history. It was openly charged in 

 the Senate debate on May 25 that the 

 President did not himself write the 

 message and no one in Washington be- 

 lieves that he did. 



"Many of the assertions in the veto 

 message can only be answered by a 

 blunt statement that they are not true, 

 either as economic fact or as interpre- 

 tation of the bill. 



Adjectives No Argument 



"The use of epithets and the calling 

 of names is not argument; they can 

 only be answered in kind, and it is 

 best that such passages be ig^iored 

 even though that means ignoring much 

 of the last message which, compared 

 with the veto message of February, 

 1927, adds many new adjectives but 

 no new ideas to the discussion. In 

 general the veto message shows (1) 



RESOLUTION ADOPTED AT 

 MASS MEETING HELD IN 

 CHAMPAIGN, MAY 31, 8 

 P. M., AT COLI- 

 SEUM, 1928 



WHEREAS, The President's recent veto 

 message of the McNary-HauRen bill dis- 

 closes a lack of proper understanding of and 

 Kenoine sympathy for American agriculture 

 by the present administration and its ad- 

 visers ; and 



WHEREAS, The principles of this legisla- 

 tion are well within the pledge of equality for 

 agriculture set forth in the party platform of 

 1924, upon 'which this administration came 

 into power; and 



WHEREAS, This pledge has been treats a-< 

 a scrap of paper; 



NOW, THEREFORE. BE IT RESOLVED. 

 That we, the citizens of this section in mass 

 meeting assembled, and regardless of party, 

 feel we can no longer depend upon party 

 pledges. We serve notice here and now upon 

 the responsible leaders of all parties of our 

 individual and collective support only of those 

 candidates for President of the United States 

 who have a sympathetic understanding of this 

 great question and who have the initiative 

 and courage to see that the benefits of gov- 

 ernmental policies are extended to all eco- 

 nomic groups of the United States on an equal 

 basis ; 



AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED. That 

 as an act to secure justice for farmers we will 

 resist by every honorable means every candi- 

 date for office from President down to county 

 officials who refuse to give us a square deal. 



We request the secretary of this meeting to 

 send a copy of this resolution to each dele- 

 gate from Illinois to the Republican and Dem- 

 ocratic National Conventions. 



W. E. Riegel, Chairman, 

 F. D. Lewis, 

 I John T. Smith, 



Eugene Curtis, 



Resolutions Committee. 



that the real Coolidge objection is 

 not against the equalization fee as has 

 been frequently stated, but against 

 making the protective tariff operate to 

 enhance the profits of farm crops of 

 which we produce a domestic surplus; 

 (2) that his interest in co-operative 

 marketing development is pretended, 

 not real; (3) that in order to support 

 his criticisms of the measure the Pres- 

 ident is forced to assume that the board 

 which he alone would appoint would 

 be foolish or criminal in its adminis- 

 tration of the act; (4) that he has no 

 constructive proposal for an agricul- 

 tural policy except the dangerous one 

 that American farm production must 

 be reduced to meet domestic demands, 

 which is economically unsound and na- 

 tionally unwise; and (5) that he is un- 

 willing to permit the Supreme Coui't 

 to pass upon the constitutional ques- 

 tions involved." 



The Real Ground* 



Delving into the message Mr. Peek 

 said: "It clearly exposed the real 

 grounds for the Coolidge objections 

 to the McNary-Haugen bill. For 

 months it has been stated on his be- 

 half that his real objection was to the 

 equalization fee provisions of the 

 measure. Talk of the equalization fee 

 is only camouflage. 



The speaker denounced the veto 

 message as exposing President Cool- 

 idge's pretended interest in co-opera- 



Indiana Farm Bureau 



Protests Cal's Veto 



Use Strong Language 



Must Have Leader to Administer Office 

 In Perfect Fairness 



tj^OR the second time we farmers of 

 the Mississippi Valley have been 

 silent witnesses to the exercising of a 

 veto privilege that for sheer audacity 

 and a genuine disregard for the rights 

 of a large group of citizens, is prob- 

 ably the most daring piece of nullifica- 

 tion that the world has witnessed since 

 the infamous episode of Germany's 

 'scrap of paper'," declared the In- 

 diana Farm Bureau Federation follow- 

 ing the recent presidential veto mes- 

 sage. 



"We have just witnessed a most as- 

 tonishing paroxysm of hate in the mes- 

 sage of veto," continued the Feder- 

 ation. "Fortunately for the country, 

 the farmers have just begun to fight, 

 and we ^re preparing for the day when 

 we can go to the polls and vote into 

 office some Western man who has cour- 

 age, sympathy, and a desire to be Pres- 

 ident of «// these United States. Out 

 of the material already offered, the 

 South and the far West can find a 

 leader that we can elect «nd depend 

 upon, who will administer this great 

 office in perfect fairness to all citi- 

 zens and to all classes." 



tive marketing development as a sham. 

 "The bill as presented to him would 

 build co-operative associations," he 

 said. "Mr. Coolidge turned his back 

 upon that bill with its carefully work- 

 ed-out provisions to do the job he ad- 

 mits needs to be done, and through the 

 very agencies which he himself has 

 suggested for the task." 



The Real Question 



The rest of Mr. Peek's talk was de- 

 voted to amplification and enlarge- 

 ment upon the five points presented 

 above. In closing he said: "The ques- 

 tion which confronts the Government 

 is whether it should take effective 

 steps to correct an injustice to the 

 basic industry of agriculture. Shall 

 equality be restored by bringing agri- 

 culture under the protection which the 

 tariff law and restrictive immigration 

 give industry and labor — shall the in- 

 equality be allowed to persist — or shall 

 the inequality be removed by dragging 

 down the condition of industry and 

 labor to the present condition of agri- 

 culture? 



"There is practically a concensus of 

 intelligent opinion that the effective 

 remedy which exists for this situation 

 is involved in the proper control of 

 the surplus supply of farm products 

 and the feeding of them out in re- 

 sponse to demand through devices for 

 orderly marketing similar to the prac- 

 tice in industry." 



Note: Complete copies of Mr. Peek*» ad- 

 dress may be had by writing the Illinois Ag- 

 rictdtural Asaociation, 60S So. Dearborn St., 

 Chicago. 



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