DELEGiiTION BREAKFAST DURING A 



CONVENTION AT NASHVILLE 



More than half of the Illinois County Farm Bureaus wtre represented at the I. A. A. Get-Together in the Andrpw Jackson Hotel. Wednesday morninfr. Dec. 

 12. when a total of £30 out of some 250 Illinois people attending the convention, came out for the 7:30 A. M. Breakfast Meeting. The entire I. A. A. 

 board with the exception of \V. L. Cope. detain<'d on account of illness, attended. Illinois people on the convention program included Earl C. Smith, C. V; Gregory. 

 Donald Kirkpatrick. Geo. E. Metzger. and K. ]. Laible. I. A. A. voting delegate! were Mr. Smith, A. R. Wright, Samuel Sorrells. and C. E. Bambsrough. Illinois 

 had the largest out-of-state delegation. 



.•rented at all tin- foiiiiiiK tariff heariiiK.s. 

 Von shiiirtd hammer away am) repeat 

 over and over again, 'wo want more im- 

 ports of indii.<trial produets," 'wo want 

 more imports of indu.-trial products." 



"Some of our folks, I know, believe in 

 a two price system. They would dump 

 our surplus ahroad and take whatever 

 it brln^rs. Our State l)ei)artment is op- 

 posed to this because if it could be done 

 it would destroy the prosperity of other 

 nations and lead to retaliation. 



"If we don't increase <i\ir e.xiioits moic 

 than ?ir>n.(mt),(iim amiually in the next 

 five years there will Kr a lontj adjust- 

 ment program ahead. 



"There have been too many short time 

 business decii^ions on tariff, and not 

 enoiurh concern shown for the next gen- 

 eration. , Some of our smart busines.s peo- 

 ple try to 'use' farm grouijs to further 

 their own ends. .-Vnd they seem to be 

 particularly successful in reacJiing farm- 

 ers of the extreme right an<l those of the 

 • extreme lift. The livestock and grain 

 exchanges, it seems. . can always get 

 farmers to pull their chestnuts out of the 

 fire for them. 



"People who liaye been benefiting by 

 the tariff will not listen to reason. Cer- 



tain groups in agriculture have trained 



themselves to be .iust as selfish and hard- 

 boiled as th<' Industrial Kast. The best 

 tariff this country had was passed about 

 Ino years ago during the term of .\ndrew 

 .larksnii. It provido<l for a reduction of 

 Id'; a year until duties were down to 

 '2^>' '■ . William McKinley recognized that 

 the protective tariff brought about the 

 formation of monopolies. He mentioned 

 it in his speech at Buffalo the day he 

 was assassinate<l. Theodore Roosevelt 

 liie<l to meet the liidblem with the Sher- 

 man .Anti-Trust Act. 



"The tariff didn't ilo much harm when 

 we were a debtor nation. It's different 

 now that we are a great creditor nation. 

 We missed our chance during the '20s to 

 set our house in order. We're beginning 

 to do it now. 



i^ "Here's something for farmers to think 

 about. Is it sound in time of drouth to 

 lit giain lirices go to unreasonable 

 heights'.' .Speculators who are long don't 

 like to see foreign grains come in. 

 Neither do the few farmers who have 

 grain to sell, although the majority may 

 be penalized by having to buy high- 

 priced feed. The suggestion has been 

 made that the tariff of 63c per bu. on 



flax be reduced to let Argentine flax 

 come in so they can buy our automobiles. 

 Most farmers would benefit by cheaper 

 paint and linseed meal. But our small 

 group of flax producers will jirobably 

 oppose tariff reduction and it's astonish- 

 ing how much hell a handful of |ieo])le 

 can raise. 



"A gain in exjiorts of farm commod- 

 ities will so improve farmers purchasing 

 power that they will buy far more in- 

 dustrial products from the east although 

 tariff reduction may hurt certain special- 

 ties. .Slime industries have been cixldled 

 along with tariffs of 70 to 'M)'", . It may 

 be necessary to wean them gradually. 



"If we don't increase our imports sub- 

 stantiajly. then the' ever-normal granary 

 is the thing. This means adjusted pro- 

 duction and loans on grain in storage 

 only to those who agree to reduce (ap- 

 plause). But we mustn't loan too much. 

 Our problem is to get industries to en- 

 ter a program of continuing balanced 

 abundance. In effect there has been a 

 whole.sale plowing under of factories dur- 

 ing the past three years, and plowing 

 factory workers out on the streets. The 

 corporations insisted on having their 

 normal profits and organized labor in- 



t 



I. A. A. RECORD 



