THE I. A. A. RECORD 



Page Five 



"After many years of discussion and de- 

 liberation congress finally passed the agri- 

 cultural marketing act which many of you 

 people are now branding as socialistic, or 

 anarchistic, and complaining of interference 

 with, or necessitating some readjustment in 

 the present system of handling certain com- 

 modities. 



"Nearly 10 years of discussion, contro- 

 versy and compromise led congress, in its 

 wisdom, to declare that permanent solution 

 of the agricultural problems lies in collec- 

 tive action on the part of the farmers. It 

 created the farm board to help producers 

 organize for such action, both as to pro- 

 duction and marketing of their crops, the 

 purpose being to enable them to put their 

 industry on economic parity with other in- 

 dustries. In that legislation congress defi- 

 nitely committed this country to the prin- 

 ciple of co-operative marketing of farm 

 products. 



"The farm board believes that principle 

 is sound and the only one that really will 

 give the farmer a chance to get his fair 

 share of the national income. The country 

 generally and business men for the most 

 part gave their approval of the agricultural 

 marketing act before it became a law. I 

 am sorry to say that there has been consid- 

 erable evidence the past several months that 

 entirely too many of your members were 

 for the principle of co-operation only so 

 long as it didn't work. When it became 

 apparent that a means had been provided 

 that really would help the farmer get or- 

 ganized co-operatively so that he, like other 

 producers, would have some voice in deter- 

 mining the sale price of his commodity, the 

 effort was branded as government price fix- 

 ing, putting the government in business, 

 etc. And all of this notwithstanding the 

 fact they had declared unmistakably for 

 the principle of co-operative marketing 

 only a year previously. 



Farmers Third of Nation 

 "I do not recall in years gone by of hear- 

 ing your business men making any such 

 complaint against government aid that was 

 extended to the manufacturing industry, to 

 transportation and to finance. And these 

 all played their part in adding to the dis- 

 advantages of the farmer as did also the 

 preferential treatment to labor through im- 

 migration restriction and other measures. 



"We are not complaining about what the 

 government has done for others but it does 

 seem to us that these beneficiaries ought to 

 be willing that the farmer also be given a 

 helping hand from the same source so that 

 he, too, will be in position to take care of 

 himself in the economic system that has 

 been built up in this country so largely by 

 special favors. 



"Farmers constitute nearly one-third of 

 our population. For the most part they have 

 been producing and selling blindly as in- 

 dividuals with the result they have little 

 or nothing to say about what their product 

 brings. Costs of production can be passed 



THE HEN'S HELPERS 



Millett Asks For Repeal 



V 



Courte fy. Chicago Dally Newt 



along to the buyer by nearly every one but 

 the farmer. Unorganized, he has to take 

 for his product what the other fellow is 

 willing to give him. 



"All the farmers are trying to do, with 

 farm board assistance, is, by acting together, 

 to apply the same methods and business 

 principles to their industry that were 

 adopted in other lines long since. If they 

 were good for you fellows they are like- 

 wise good for the farmer. 



"The farm Ixftrd hopes to help farmers 

 organize so that in the future they will be 

 able to protect themselves in the market- 

 ing of their crops. It asks the support of 

 you business men, not as a generous act of 

 charity to someone else, but because it is to 

 your own best interests. 



"We hear much to the effect that these 

 operations are putting the government per- 

 manently into business. We wish to assure 

 you that on this point every commodity 

 organization is set upon a basis where, as it 

 gains financial strength and experience, it 

 can and will become entirely independent 

 of government aid or supervision. In all 

 these organizations provision is made for 

 the farm board having a voice in their pol- 

 icies only so long as they are indebted to it. 



"The natural opposition which so many 

 of you have felt in the past against inter- 

 ference or dictation on the part of your 

 banker or financial backer is quite as pro- 

 nounced on the part of the farmer as in 

 the case of those engaged in other lines of 

 industry, thus affording constant incentive 

 to work away from it as rapidly as pos- 

 sible." 



At the close of his formal address, Mr. 

 Legge threw out a challenge to the con- 

 vention to match a contribution which he 

 offered to make for the establishment of a 

 national agricultural foundation in accord- 

 ance with the recommendation of the Busi- 

 ness Men's Commission. He got no im- 

 mediate response but later in the meeting, 

 Julius Barnes told the convention that he 

 would undertake to match this contribution 

 dollar for dollar by raising the money from 

 business interests. 



A proposal that the agricultural marketing 

 act be repealed was made by Daniel A. Millett, 

 investment banker and stockman, of Denver, 

 Colo., before the recent Chamber of Commerce 

 convention. 



"The agricultural marketing act," said Mr. 

 Millett, "in its intent and language violates 

 the sound and proven rule of business, that 

 penalty of loss must rest on the loser, as an 

 ever-present controlling factor, in order to in- 

 sure efficiency. 



"The men in the great marketing and dis- 

 tributing businesses of this country, with their 

 enormous investments of capital in plant and 

 organization, properly fear the working of this 

 act. It is evident that in the long run they 

 cannot compete with the Government, which 

 they support and supply with funds through 

 taxes — which taxes are used to their undoing." 



Mr. Millett concluded his prepared address 

 as follows: 



"The farm marketing act is part and par- 

 cel of what is to me the fantastic dream, world- 

 wide, of stabilization, with or without govern- 

 mental agency, so that every producer in every 

 line will be assured a profit through control of 

 production, and without the discipline of the 

 economic law of supply and demand working 

 through price, which eliminates the marginal 

 producer. 



"I have tried to show that interference with 

 the economic law, by private combinations, 

 direct governmental control, and indirect action 

 by Government through tariff, tends to failure, 

 but that such interference, in its attempt, 

 brings not stability but unsettlement and dis- 

 tress in business, with disaster indicated, if 

 continued. 



Tariff Kevision Downward 



"For myself, the conclusion has been reached, 

 that as practical public policies, in the interest 

 of the farmer and business alike we should: 



"I. Repeal the agricultural marketing act 

 and cease any such governmental attempts, and, 



"2. Revise our tariff downward, not up- 

 ward, with its elimination save in the few re- 

 spects theretofore mentioned as speedily as 

 possible, as our ideal. 



"I believe the time has come, if it is not 

 already overdue, for the people of America to 

 take down that priceless heritage of the English- 

 speaking peoples of the world, the King James 

 version of the Book of Books, and turning to 

 the 12th chapter of the Gospel according to 

 St. Luke, commence to read at the 16th verse: 



" 'And He spake a parable unto them, say- 

 ing. The ground of a certain rich man (the 

 United States) brought forth plentifully: (that 

 is the surplus.) 



" 'And He thought within himself, saying. 

 What shall I do, because I have no room where 

 to bestow my fruits? 



■"And He said. This will 1 do: I will pull 

 down My barns and build greater; and there 

 will I bestow all My fruits and My goods. 

 (That is the withholding program.) 



" 'And I will say to my soul. Soul, thou hast 

 much goods laid up for many years; take thine 

 ease, eat, drink and be merry. (That is the 

 high price that will be realized.) 



"'But God (the economic law) said unto 

 him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be 

 required of thee.' " 



Opposition to the agricultural marketing act 

 was expressed by the following: 



H. W. Jones, representing the National 

 Poultry and Egg Dealers Association; L. W. 

 Smith, Michigan canning industry; C. E. 

 Webb, Philadelphia Wool and Textile Associi-" 

 tion; F. C. Adams, Boston Wool Trade As- 

 sociation; W. F. Jensen, American Association 

 of Creamery Butter Manufacturers; S. Stephens, 

 National Retail Coal Merchants Association; H. 

 C. Netterau, New York Mercantile Exchange; 

 W. J. McCabe, of Duluth, Minn., grain ex- 

 changes and grain trade. 



V'> 



