Page Six 



THE 



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A. A. RECORD 



Cotton 44,860,000 



Fruits and Nuts 85,343,000 



Oilseeds and Oilseeds Prod- 

 ucts — 144,000,000 



Other seeds 8,5 16,000 



Tobacco - 58,800,000 



Vegetables and Vegetable 



Products : 118,500,000 



In many, if not all of these products, 

 a part of the imports are of qualities or 

 varieties which we do not produce and 

 which are needed for blending in man- 

 ufacture. This is notably the case in 

 cotton and tobacco. Nevertheless, 

 these products present proper cases for 

 tariff protection, and opportunity for 

 the development of our own production. 

 This is particularly true of oilseeds and 

 their products, wool, dairy products and 

 animal products. 



Second, something can be done to en- 

 large the outlet, and the market for 

 farm products. The development of 

 new uses for products, the discovery of 

 uses for by-products, and the cultiva- 

 tion of crops we do not now produce, 

 are all pwssibilities. For those products 

 which must go into export, quality pro- 

 duction is important because superior 

 quality offers the sole escape from 

 comjjetition on price only. 



Proper Use of Land 



Third, the proper use of land. The 

 total acreage of the United States is 

 about 1,900,000,000. Of this, 95 

 million acres are classed as lands in 

 farms. Of the lands in farms, 505 mil- 

 lion are classed as tillable. Of it all, 

 '3 50 million acres are actually in cultiva- 

 tion. In my opinion, the cultivation of 

 all the 505 million acres with intensive 

 methods could easily double the present 

 crop. 



An economic use of land must be de- 

 veloped. There are millions of acres in 

 cultivation in America which are sub- 

 marginal in character. Such lands 

 ought not to be farmed. They will not 

 return to the farmer an American 

 standard of living. Agriculture on 

 submarginal lands is more mining than 

 farming. 



Plant to Trees 



The withdrawal from use of such 

 lands and their reforestation would be 

 a profitable public enterprise. Much 

 more is. involved than our timber and 

 pulp supply. The production of such 

 lands, while small per farm, goes far in 

 its contribution to the depressing sur- 

 pluses. Reforestation would prove a 

 substantial aid to flood control, and 

 would go far to stopping the enormous 

 erosion which results, in many cases, in 

 complete destruction of the producing 

 value of the farm. They should be 

 taken out of cultivation and held for 

 succeeding generations, which, as popu- 

 lation grows, may probably need them. 



I should like to see this association 

 and others of its kind give serious 

 thought to a program of State acquisi- 

 tion of submarginal land, with Federal 

 aid. Private enterprise could also be 

 stimulated to acquire and reforest such 

 lands by exemption from taxation until 

 such time as the forest crop is ready for 

 harvest. 



Fourth: A readjustment of farm tax- 

 ation is needed. This subject has al- 

 ready been exhaustively treated in this 

 hearing. I desire merely to point out 

 that equality in the field of taxation is 

 as desirable as equality in other fields. 

 Taxes, should, so far as is possible, come 

 dut of income, not out of capital in- 

 vested. Further, the farmer has an 

 equity in the community which he him- 

 self has helped to create, but in ■which 

 he shares little. Community life cre- 

 ates new values, social, cultural, eco- 

 nomic. Opportunities are larger in com- 

 munity centers. Land values increase 

 with concentration of population. 

 Through his trade with the community. 



"DEAD Secretary Hyde's speech 

 to the end and write your 

 comments, if any, to Editor 

 Illinois Agricultural Association 

 RECORD, 608 So. Dearborn St., 

 Chicago. We will publish the best 

 letters in the March issue. 



both as buyer and seller, through his 

 contribution to the raw materials of 

 trade and manufacture, the farmer helps 

 to create these values. 



Better Tax System 



On the other hand, the urban centers, 

 in which wealth is concentrated, have a 

 vital interest in the prosperity of the 

 agriculture surrounding them. The 

 whole nation has a deep and direct in- 

 terest in the maintenance of equal edu- 

 cational opportunity for the boys and 

 girls of the farm as well as of the city. 

 It is no more than simple justice that 

 the base of taxation be spread so that 

 the burden of maintaining a vigorous 

 and informed national life shall fall 

 equally upon all classes of our citizens. 



Fifth: Agriculture must be organ- 

 ized. Given a multitude of producing 

 plants, a production too large for the 

 demands of the market, and an annual 

 surplus so great as to seriously depress 

 the price, industry would meet the prob- 

 lem by mergers. But you cannot merge 

 6 million farms. We have no desire to 

 do so. The farm family is a social unit 

 of value so great as to demand its pres- 

 ervation. Its independence, its com- 

 pactness, its ideals, must be maintained, 

 but in maintaining them we must re- 

 member that we are preserving a small 

 producing unit in a society in which all 

 other forms of production are organ- 



ized into large units. The farmer must 

 have help, not only to reduce the com- 

 petition within his own industry, but 

 to see that the social, economic and in- 

 dustrial adjustments and combinations 

 which are going on all about him do not 

 bear too heavily upon him. 



Organization the Answer 



One general answer to farm problems, 

 is organization. Organization to con- 

 trol marketing, to standardize output, 

 to eliminate the waste and duplication 

 in marketing and distribution, and to 

 mobilize the economic power of agricul- 

 ture. Thus the farmer can approximate 

 the position of industry, or of other 

 groups. By the long arm of his own 

 organization, the farmer can make him- 

 self felt beyond his own line fences and 

 in the markets of the world. Through 

 his organization, the farmer can get in- 

 formation as to commodity supplies, 

 can bring his production within the 

 limits of demand, can control the sur- 

 plus problem by preventing it. By or- 

 ganization, the farmer can take control 

 of his own industry; reestablish the in- 

 dependence of his calling, win his own 

 place in the sun of economic equality, 

 and, having won it, hold it against all 

 the changing vicissitudes of the future. 



The modern organization of business 

 and industry has compUcated and en- 

 larged the problems of agriculture. Or- 

 ganization has taken over every industry 

 except agriculture. Competition in in- 

 dustry is no longer between individuals, 

 but between organizations. Labor is 

 organized. Agriculture alone inter- 

 poses against the competitions of power- 

 ful organizations the bared breasts of 

 its individual producers. 



To assist in the organization of agri- 

 culture, to take the problems of the 

 various farm commodities out of the 

 realm of politics and partisan bickering, 

 and to meet them in the realm of eco- 

 nomics, to set up an authoritative, tri- 

 bunal which shall study each separate 

 problem, and afford leadership for agri- 

 culture in all its phases; and to do this, 

 not by subsidy nor by governmental 

 dabbling in business, but by helping the 

 farmer to help himself through his own 

 organizations, this is the purpose of the 

 Agricultural Marketing Act. | 



Industry Should Help 



Industry, which owes much to busi- 

 ness organization, should welcome the 

 opportunity to lend a helping hand in 

 the organization of agriculture. With 

 all due credit to the personal factor of 

 initiative and ability, the fact remains 

 that organization has played the pre- 

 dominant part in the rapid growth and 

 prosperity in industrial and commercial 

 fields. From the standpoint of self- 

 interest, industry can well afford to 



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