

I 



Robert C. Vial Broadcastins 



He Answered the Critics of the AAA 



WHILE the ether crackles with the 

 utterances of AAA opponents, 

 while headlines scream at the con- 

 sumer, pointing the accusing finger at 

 the adjustment program, while business 

 men issue solemn statements amidst in- 

 creasing business and payrolls, there was 

 one man who looked on calmly and with 

 a twinkle in his eye. 



He is a farmer, a dairyman, a fact 

 finder with the ability to put things to- 

 gether in a clear understandable way, 

 flavored with humor and colored with 

 a philosophy born of nearly 70 years of 

 full living. 



That man is Robert C. Vial, Farm Bu- 

 reau member of Dupage county, and 

 readers of the La Grange, Hlinois Citi- 

 zen are better informed on the pros 

 and cons of the AAA than most news- 

 paper readers in this country. 



Invited by the Citizen to answer letters 

 that had appeared in that newspaper 

 attacking the AAA, Mr. V'ial wrote a 

 masterly series of articles entitled "Let 

 'em alone or AAA — which?" that single- 

 handedly changed the attitude of most of 

 a large community toward the AAA. Re- 

 ()rints of these articles have been re- 

 quested from all over the country. It is 

 an informed farmer's reply to attack.-^ 

 on the AAA. It is written in clear, sim- 

 ple language. It has all the earmarks of 

 a masterpiece. 



Holding up business as the model from 

 which farmers got their pattern for the 

 crop reduction program of the AAA Mr. 

 Vial says, "Automobiles are sold in ad- 

 vance (to the dealer) and at the manu- 

 facturer's price, at a profit. This last 

 idea from the automobile industry is cer- 

 tainly a fine argument for AAA for 

 farmers. This plan of opsratien of the 

 automobile industry is the last word in 

 controlled production and if I sense the 

 object and aim of organized farmers in 

 .AAA it is to do that very thing, to pro- 

 duce only what can be sold at the farm- 

 er's price and at a profit." 



Continuing Mr. Vial states, "Low 

 prices to the farmer do not neces.sarily 

 mean low prices to the consumer. Neither 

 do higher prices to the farmer necessar- 

 ily mean higher prices to the consumer. 

 There is at present too much slack in 

 between the two. The goal is threefold 

 as follows: 1. Higher income to the farm- 

 er. 2. Lower prices to the consumer. 3. 

 Less profits to the distributor. Right in 

 and around this third provision originates 

 much opposition to the AAA. . . . Propa- 

 ganda against AAA is being circulated 

 amongst farmers. Strife is being stirred 

 up." 



. . . "While farmer.^ were creating 

 wealth in 1929 to 1933." writes Mr. Vial, 

 "what were steel and auto manufacturers 

 doing? They gradually closed up shop 

 until they got down to as low as 15 per 

 cent of normal production. Did anyone 

 say that these manufacturers were un- 

 patriotic ? Who were the patriots I ask ? 



ROBERT C. VIAL v.' 



"He kept informed and told 'em how 

 a Dupage county farmer feels about 

 crop adjustment." 



They met the situation by cutting their 

 operations. They are the champions of 

 curtailed production. It is from them 

 that AAA got the cue for curtailed pro- 

 duction and now they are the first ones 

 to complain about farmers doing exact- 

 ly as thev did under similar circum- 



PERCENT 



In every community there exist.s 

 a need for informed members who 

 are able and willing to answer 

 destructive criticism and malicious, 

 false propaganda against the Farm 

 Bureau and its program. 



Robert C. Vial of LaGrange. Du- 

 page county dairyman and member 

 of the Dupage County Farm Bu- 

 reau, recently pinch-hit in such a 

 capacity when Chicago subur- 

 banites attacked the AAA crop ad- 

 justment program in the' La- 

 Grange Citizen, weekly .news- 

 paper. 



Mr. Vial graduated from the 

 College of Agriculture, University 

 of Illinois, way back when "book 

 learnin' " and better farming ac- 

 cording to scientific information 

 was ridiculed. So he had a good 

 start in defending his cause against 

 uninformed critics. Unbiased read- 

 ers of the Citizen generally agreed 

 that Mr. Vial got the best of his 

 adversaries in the AAA argument. 



stances. 'O consistency thou art a jewel!' 

 No one is more ready than thf 

 farmer to start in at full speed at a 

 six, eight, ten or twelve hour day if all 

 the groups start together, work for a 

 moderate wage or profit and stick to- 

 gether at it. but the farmer, hereafter, 

 does not propose to do it alone. So. let's 

 pull togetherl" 



Of particular interest to Illinois Farm 

 Bureau members is this statement of 

 Mr. N'ial's regarding the 'corn loans': 

 "Had the farmers not received such a 

 loan they would have been forced to sell 

 this corn at a low price to pay their 

 bills, the corn would have been removed, 

 they would have been without this corn 

 on the farm when the drouth came on. 

 Speculators and processors would have 



FARKERS KAnrTAINED THEIR PRODUCTION FBOM 1929 TO 1»S2 WHILE INOUSTRT SHARPLT 



REDUCED 



MAY, 1935 



