

The 

 Illinois Agricultural Association 



RECORD 



Number 1 January, 1935 Volume 13 



A. F. B. F. Convention 



> ■ ■ ■ . 



By The Editor 



FOR enthusiaBm, attendance, and 

 richness of progrram the recent an- 

 nual convention of the AA.merican 

 Farm Bureau Federation at ' Nashville 

 was the most outstanding: I ever at- 

 tended. Cold weather and snow, un- 

 usual for early December in Tennessee, 

 were a g^eat disappointment to our 

 friendly hosts and hostesses, but the 

 warm rays of their southern hospitality 

 all but overcame the chilly winds from 

 the north. By Wednesday, typical sunny 

 south climate was restored and within 

 a few hours the light skiff of snow had 

 melted. 



The unbounded enthusiasm shown by 

 all the 34 state delegations reached a 

 climax at the banquet on Tuesday night 

 in the Shrine Temple where state songs 

 and yells encouraged by a 10 piece darky 

 orchestra followed in rapid succession 

 throughout the dinner. 



Situation Not Licked 



So impressed was Secretary Henry 

 Wallace with the effervescence of good 

 cheer that he thought it necessary to 

 comment, "your optimism is splendid; 

 the good feeling exhibited here and in all 

 the recent State Farm Bureau conven- 

 tions I have attended is fine; but remem- 

 ber it's necessary to use your heads also. 

 We have made progress but the Situa- 

 tion is not yet licked." 



Secretary of State Cordell Hull, tall, 

 white-haired and distinguished-looking, 

 had prepared a clear, understandal)le, in- 

 formative talk on agriculture and for- 

 eign trade. Responding to President Ed- 

 ward O'Neal's introduction, he spoke a 

 few words of grreeting in a husky voice 

 and excused himself from reading his 

 speech because of an attack of laryngitis. 

 He introduced his friend. Judge Garden- 

 himer, who read the address. Packed 

 full of statistical information. Secretary 

 Hull's talk was a clean-cut presentation 

 of foreign trade today contrasted with 

 that of a few years ago and what action 

 must be taken to restore prosperity. 



Here are a few quotations: "Probably 

 80 per cent of the people of the whole 

 world are living around or below the pov- 

 erty line; in the fiscal year 1924-24 farm 

 products made up 48 p«r cent of all ex- 



^ANUART. 19S5 



ports; cotton exports fell from |671,- 

 000,000 average in years 1928-32, to 

 1345,000,000 in 1932; lard from |72,000,- 

 000 to 131,000,000; sooner or later states- 

 men everywhere will be literally driven 

 back in the direction of economic sanity; 

 in my judgment lower tariffs from 1922 

 to 1929 would havp done much to extend 

 our ag^ricultural markets, lower agricul- 

 tural costs, and increase agricultural in- 

 come; over and over again, it has been 

 demonstrated that artificial obstructions 

 have destroyed international trade with- 

 out creating equivalent domestic trade in 

 any country; have thrown out of eih- 

 ployment many millions of wage earners 

 producing for export without providing 

 employment for them elsewhere. 



"International trade of the world 

 should normally be 35 to 40 billions of 

 dollars instead of the present 15 billions; 

 we imported 3 billions more of commod- 

 ities in 1929 than in 1933, while 6 mil- 

 lion wage-earners more than the present 

 number were employed; the world can 

 profitably maintain 35 to 40 billions of 

 international trade annually and, I be- 

 lieve, Americans still have enough vision, 

 ingen °ty, initiative and determination to 

 secure 16% to 20% of this volume. 

 Devaluation Aids 



"Devaluation of the dollar was of the 

 greatest aid to our exports but it made 

 the cost of imports higher; the first 10 

 months of this year, exports increased 

 36% in value over the corresponding pe- 

 riod of last year; imports, however, have 

 increased but 16% — a commodity excess 

 of exports of 1396,000,000. Gold was im- 

 ported in response to our higher price 

 for it, in the amount of 1921,000,000 for 

 the 10-month period; our greatly in- 

 creased excess of imports were paid for 

 entirely \yith this gold. Sales cannot be 

 permanently paid for in this way. 



"Since the Cuban treaty was concluded, 

 necessary initial steps have been taken 

 and we are now negotiating trade agree- 

 ments with 12 other countries, some of 

 which will soon be completed. 



"This Government is clinging stead- 

 fastly to the most-favored-nation policy* 



* Attures to tlic dtiieiu of ■ fonifn tUto all 

 •uoh priTilef ei wlthlB tiM tarritory of oaothor itato 

 as may at any time b« acconiad to th« oitUa&s 

 •f tka "moat farocad aatioa." 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELTS. MESSAGE* 



"My Friondt of the Farm Boraao: 



"Tou and I know that the yoar oow ead- 

 inc has h oo n ono of sic&ifioaBt acoomplish- 

 monts for acricultore. Daspita tha worst 

 drovffht of rooord, farm Inooma is niBBiiir 

 about a hllUoii dollan aboTO last yaar. 



"All of us would Uka to s«« an eran 

 larger inoroaao in 1M6. but wo know that 

 this cannot coma onlasa, in the first plaoa, 

 Industrial produetioa incroasas sufficiently 

 to expand tha market for farm products; 

 unless, In the second plaoe, more of our 

 export trade is paid for by increased im- 

 ports; and unless, in the third place, acri- 

 culture oontinnes to adjust its total pro- 

 duatioa to the market that actually exists. 



"To fuiflU these three requirements, I 

 ssk a continuation of the splendid support 

 you hare so unselfishly riven in the past. 



"Z wish rery much that it were poaaible 

 for me to bo with you today, and I fire you 

 my ncards," 



•Telephoned to Pres. Edward A. O'Meal 

 from the White Houae at tha start of tha 

 conrention and amplified so all could hear. 



as nearly as possible in its unconditional 

 form. To do otherwise would be to eat 

 our own words condemning the German 

 government for violating the doctrine of 

 equality of treatment with respect te 

 debts due our nationals . . . this is no 

 time to fall back into the narrow, short- 

 sighted practices which have lowered 

 standards of living and produced un- 

 satisfactory international relationships. 



Must Act Unitedly 



"It is especially important to develop 

 international trade, for foreign markets 

 alone can take all our agricultural sur- 

 pluses. . . . We must act unitedly and 

 not permit relatively unimportant spe- 

 cial, or notoriously inefficient or un- 

 economical industries to secure that de- 

 gree of protection which, though gainful 

 to a particular unit, is damaging to the 

 country at large, and particularly to ag- 

 riculture, which, geared to an export 

 business on a large scale, has been 

 brought well-nigh to ruin by the destruc- 

 tion of world trade." 



Secretary Wallace threw caution to the 

 winds on the Tuesday night program, and 

 speaking extemporaneously, deliberately 

 challenged farmers to stand up and fight 

 for a square deal on the tariff. 



"I believe there must be a cut in im- 

 port duties, chiefly on non-agricultural 

 products, for two reasons," he said: (1) 

 to equalize the dispatity between agri- 

 cultural and industrial prices; (2) 'be- 

 cause the demand for industrial products 

 is more elastic and for farm products 

 relatively inelastic. 



"People ate just about as much wheat 

 in the year 1932 as they did in the years 

 of industrial prosperity. 



"Farm organizations should be repre- 



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