THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Sine 



then we had better be looking to that home 

 market, while there is yet time. ^Then home 

 consumption does catch up with home supply 

 it will require every ounce of effort agriculture 

 can miuter to preserve protective tariff rates. 

 If anyone is inclined to doubt this, he thould 

 read in the Congressioiul Record the tariff 

 debates going on at the present time. Eastern 

 members of Congress generally. Demo- 

 crats and Republicans alike, are bit- 

 ter against the farmer. They will 

 defend any sort of an increase on a 

 product of industry on the ground 

 that industry must be kept employed 

 so the country generally will be pros- 

 perous. Then there will be a demand 

 for farm products. On the other 

 hand, if it is proposed to place real 

 protection on an agricultural product, 

 these same gentlemen orate with 

 passsionate indignation against raising 



the cost of living 



"Let us not belittle too much the idea of 

 tariff rates on those products of which we now 

 produce a surplus. W^hile these rates may not 

 be effective now, they will be some day, and 

 on that day agriculture will be fighting for 

 its life in an effort to maintain them. To 

 have them a part of the law at that time 

 will be of tremendous advantage. The farmer's 

 fight for tariff rates has not yet begun. I 

 wonder if he is alive to the situation." 



E. D, Lawrence, 

 McLean County, 111. 



Kefoiestation Important 



I HAVE read the article in the February 

 Recoro, by Secretary Arthur M. Hyde. 

 It has stimulated my "thinking machine" — no 

 doubt having done the same for others. The 

 facts the secretary presented concerning the 

 reforestation of marginal lands has interested 

 me considerably. 



It would seem to be economic folly to keep 

 on using, and increasing the use of our poorer 

 lands. In fact, considering the justice to fu- 

 ture generations, it might even be declared to 

 be criminal folly to use up our reserve food 

 and lumber supplies in the depletion of our 

 marginal lands, as we now use the term. We 

 shall need those acres some day, far more than 

 we do now. Incidentally by using such lands 

 we have helped create a vicious circle, the cen- 

 ter of which is the bug-a-bear, price-breaking 

 surfdui. 



Shortsighted Policy 



You only have to glance at some of the large 

 river systems of the world to understand what 

 is meant by deforestation. Wherever the trees 

 have been removed and the grassy lands plowed 

 up — specially on inclines — the rivers have car- 

 ried the future food and wood supplies out 

 into the oceans, in form of fertile, (ilty soil. 

 Some of the abandoned lands of Chiiu are an 

 example — and we have plenty here in our own 

 country. Famine in the arricles used by man 

 has been the result and will continue to be 

 the result of such national and individual short- 

 sighted policy. 



With the ever increasing shortage of lumber, 

 for building purposes, industrial uses and farm- 

 ing needs, I believe the time is here now to do 

 something about placing our poorer acres into 

 growing future lumber supplies and soil con- 

 serving. To be sure we have our national 

 parks with their giowing timber; and some of 

 the states own forest lands, many of which 

 are only stump lands, reverting to the state 

 for lack of uz paymenu. But as to actually 

 doing something about the marginal lands, 

 scattered all over the country, we practically 

 have only growled about the production of 

 surplus cropt, of which they are capable. 



Grow More Trees 

 It has occurred to me that a system might 

 be developed, wherein the marginal acres on 

 our farms, is well as large tracts, might be 



placed back to growing timber and conserving 

 our soil resources. The county adviser, or 

 some other county official, is in a position to 

 know about the fertile, marginal and poor 

 lands of every county in the United States. 

 With the help of soil surveys developed by 

 the state agricultural colleges, a record of 

 such lands could be made. Adaptable trees 



HOW many of our readers will follow 

 the advice of Secretary Hyde and 

 Chairman Alex Legge of the Farm Board 

 and plant S to 10 acres to treesT Who 

 has a plan for acreage reduction to 

 eliminate crop surpluses and how could 

 it be enforcedt Write your comments 

 to the Reader's Forum, I. A. A. RECORD. 

 608 So. Dearborn St.. Chicago. 



could be secured and planted. And such 

 land kept free from taxes, until production of 



lumber begins 



Emet N. Hopson, 

 Macoupin County, 111. 



SECRETARY HYDE'S address is an able ex- 

 position of the farmer's problem. Agricul- 

 ture is fortuiute in having such a strong 

 defender. While Secretary Hyde does not dis- 

 cuss some of the vital issues, yet his discussion 

 of surplus production, marketing, the tariff, 

 sub-margiiul land, taxation and organization 

 will appeal in the main to farmers everywhere. 

 Such themes as forced money deflation, price- 

 fixing, speculation, market manipulation, credit, 

 banking and legislation are themes that lie at 

 the very heart of the farmer's plight but they 

 are often overlooked in discussions of this sort. 

 Please bear with a few suggestions: 

 On nearly every farm there is a certain 

 amount of submarginal land. If this is 

 neglected or abandoned will not the interest and 

 taxes thereon eat up the profit from the pro- 

 ductive land? As a rule farmers aim to make 

 every acre contribute something toward the 

 total income. 



Tariff On Imports 



Why dismiss from tariff consideration the 

 61% of agricultural commodities which we 

 do not produce? A tariff on these would of 

 course increase the price to the consumer and 

 therefore divert his food demands to the com- 

 modities which we do produce. If the 61% 

 comes in duty free, then the consumer would be 

 attracted to the cheaper imported foods and raw 

 material and diverted from our own farm com- 

 modities. Why not go the full length with 

 agriculture as with industry? 



Why eliminate the surplus? There seldom is 

 a world surplus. Taking one year with another 

 the world consumes all the food produced and, 

 at that, millions suffer the pangs of hunger. 

 It is a question whether the elimination of the 

 surpluses is wise, ecomomic or humanitarian. 

 The consimiing public should be protected 

 against^ a shortage of food. A surplus adds to 

 our national income and fortifies the nation 

 against disasters such as war, crop failures, and 

 physical losses due to fire, flood, tornado and 

 enemies. The aim of surplus control legisla- 

 tion should be not to eliminate the surplus but 

 to prevent it from destroying the domestic price 

 .... William Osburn, Grundy County, 111. 



From Union County 



Editor I. A. A. Record: 



AGRICULTURE must be organized, this is 

 - easily said; but cleaning an Augean (table 

 is child's play in comparison with this job. 



uniting those six million farmers in a work- 

 able unit. Of this I am very doubtful. Now 

 supposing it would come tc this — the unifica- ? 

 tion of us hayseeds — then the trouble would 

 begin. 



Suppose we would want tb reduce the acre- 

 age. Will the big landowner who lives in city 

 and town submit to a mandate to reduce his 

 acreage in proportion to his holdings? 

 And suppose we fartners were success- 

 ful in controlling the acreage thereby 

 getting more money in our hands, '' 

 would that better oor condition? For 

 a year or so, and af(er that we would 

 find ourselves in the same plight. 



It is not that we raise too large ; 

 crops. It is taxation. Take the in- 

 come tax schedule. Sixty-five per cent 

 of all the wealth is an the possession of 

 two per cent, 2 J pet cent is owned by 

 eight per cent, and 10 per cent by 90 

 per cent of the people. Thus 90 per 

 cent of the people are the genuine taxpayers — 

 and not all of them. The majority of the 

 farmers are included in the 190 per cent. Mr. 

 Lowden and Mr. Schwab form a class by them- 

 selves. Ten per cent of the people unload their 

 taxes on our shoulders, and the result, fore- 

 closures, until we have a few rich families and 

 the rest their slaves — what next? .. 



History Repeats 



It might be that I see the future with the 

 eyes of a pessimist; but history repeau itself. 

 The drifting of our nation's wealth in lesser and 

 lesser hands will bring more and more hard- 

 ships and suffering to the common people be- 

 cause the Shylocks want their pound of flesh. 

 How many farmers did lose their land since the 

 world war? Do we know the exact number? 

 From 1920-'2J, 22 per cent ©f all who farmed 

 lost their holdings — 14 per Cent renters, eight 

 per cent landowners. Nineteen hundred and 

 twenty-eight foreclosures of farm mortgages 

 were still six times greater than 1917. Surely 

 wars will and do enslave the wealth-producing 

 farmers and laborers, and to whom? 



Farmers and laborers in all the last warring 

 countries, except Russia, suffer on account of 

 taxation, paying interest un war debts, pen- 

 sions, standing armies and navies. To whom are 

 the nations in debt? Not to the masses. I 

 am, for one, to cancel all the war debts. I am 

 willing to grant a person his bonds, if they 

 don't call for millions, were they the last straw 

 to support him. I know a good many per- 

 sons who bought liberty bonds paid in full and 

 sold them for less money because they needed 

 money. That is one way to get rich. That last 

 crash on the stock market swallowed up a good 

 many sharks. The income ;tax should show 

 this plainly. \ 



Goes On I 



This digesting goes on undisturbed 'till the 

 end comes. To prevent this end coming — it 

 might not be so blessed — the best cure would be 

 canceling all war debts, reducing the interest, 

 and reducing the salaries of all our officers, and 

 an inheritance tax high enough so no person 

 will try to become a millionaire. That means 

 to be more honest. No really honest person — 

 to my thinking — can become a millionaire. 

 Profit is the soul of all business. Look at our 

 millionaires. They surely took profit by hook 

 or irrook. The last oil scandajl should convince 

 any person who thinks. | 



G. Rudert, the writer of this, is one of the 

 charter members of our Farm Bureau in Union 

 county. Polirically a red blooded socialist, 

 born in Germany, raised on a farm there. My 

 relarives over there and forefathers were farm- 

 ers and landowners say for centuries our fam- 

 ily records show. When 16 yean old wander- 

 lust got hold of me, and I left for America— 

 the point, to get rich. 



Well, I never will get rich, and don't care. 

 I always read a lot. ■ I have in my possoaaB 

 (ContiuutJ on ptft 14) -■ . .. : 





