Truth About Imports 



^ NUMBER of political writ- 

 . "Tr ^f* have recently discovered 

 /^7^^ / that the U. S. imports some 

 farm products. For several months the 

 papers have been filled with propaganda 

 designed to undermine the faith of farm- 

 ers in the agricultural adjustment pro- 

 gram. Another purpose is to prejudice 

 city people against any plan that assures 

 the farmer a fair price for his products. 



In all the propanganda we have yet to 

 see a reference to comparative farm prices 

 in 1932, a year of negligible imports, and 

 prices of 1935 and 1936, years of larger 

 imports. 



So much misleading information has 

 been published that the I. A. A. in re- 

 sponse to numerous requests for facts 

 undertook an extensive study of agricul- 

 tural import records from 1919 to 1935. 

 The data were compiled under the direc- 

 tion of John C. Watson, director of Taxa- 

 tion and Statistics. The survey which is 

 based on unquestioned records of the 

 Federal Departments of Commerce and 

 Agriculture reveals some startling in- 

 formation in the light of what you read 

 in the daily papers. 



The Chicago Tribune has recently 

 made much of imports of wheat during 

 the past year in attacking agricultural ad- 

 justment. A recent article said, "Had 

 there been no government interference 

 with nature during the last three years 

 farmers would have more wheat for sale 



today approximately 40 million 



bushels of wheat including flour have 

 been imported into this country during 

 the last year." 



When you dig into the records you 

 find facts that m^e this statement a mis- 

 representation of the truth. First, the 

 record shows that in 1935 there were not 

 40 million bushels of wheat for human 

 consumption imported but 14,509,716 

 bushels. The record shows that 12,929,- 

 1 54 bushels of feed wheat unfit for hu- 

 man consumption were brought in. And 

 thereby hangs a tale. 



When the Hawley-Smoot tariff act was 

 approved June 17, 1930 the following 

 day the tariff duty on feed wheat was cut 

 from 30 cents per bushel to 10 per cent 

 ad valorem. This reduction accounts for 

 imports of feed wheat into the U. S. be- 

 ginning in the year 1930 and becoming 

 especially large in the years 1934 and 

 1935. The average tariff duty on nearly 

 13 million bushels of wheat imported 

 last year as unfit for human consumption 

 was about 6.85 cents per bushel. Had 



12 



The Propaganda Boys are Working Over Time 

 These Days, So Be Carehil What You Believe. 



the duty on this wheat remained at 30 

 cents per bushel comparatively little or 

 perhaps none would have been shipped 

 into this country. But farmers got the 

 benefit of such imports. They needed it 

 for feed. So why worry about it. 



So we have 27l/^ millions of the 

 Tribunes 40,000,000 bushels of wheat 

 imports accounted for. Where is the 

 balance.' When wheat is imported for 

 grinding and later exported as flour 

 it comes in duty free. This is called 

 "grinding in bond." A total of 11,431,- 

 528 bushels of such wheat was imported 

 last year. Any fairminded person will 

 agree that such wheat should not be in- 

 cluded in a statement of imports. But 

 the Tribune ignores such salient facts. 



Intellectual honesty is lacking in most 

 of the import propaganda. Might point 

 out for instance that in 1920 a total of 

 35,712,035 bushels of wheat for human 

 consumption were imported into this 

 country, more than twice that of last 

 year. Yet 1920 was the year that this 

 country exported more than 218 million 

 bushels of wheat. In 1921 we exported 

 280 million bushels, yet we imported 21,- 

 706,841 bushels of wheat for human 

 consumption or close to 50 per cent more 

 than such wheat brought in last year. 



The import boys consistently fail to 

 mention that imports were at low ebb in 

 1932. Farmers know why. Farm prices 



were at bottom levels. The average farm 

 price for wheat, for instance, was 37.9 

 cents per bushel in 1932. In 1935 it 

 was more than two and one half times 

 greater. 



"Foreign Farm Products Pours Into 

 U. S. at Near Record Rate" says a Trib- 

 une headline of August 23. Take it with 

 a grain of salt. It just isn't true. Go 

 back to the '20's when prices of farm 

 products were more nearly in line with 

 those of today and you find a different 

 story. All imports are gaining. Lucky for 

 us they are. Prices are up. We are get- 

 ting the benefit of the tariff. Prices are 

 once more high enough to attract a 

 sprinkling of foreign produce to Amer- 

 ican shores. 



Look at another flagrant example of 

 careless handling of truth about imports. 

 This time the Chicago News is the of- 

 fender. On the financial page of Sep- 

 tember 10, 1936 John A. Mirt says in his 

 column. Bull Meets Bear, "Up until this 

 year few live hogs have been either im- 

 ported or exported. In the first six 

 months of 1936, however, 6,536,000 

 head have been brought into this coun- 

 try, a figure which exceeds the number 

 slaughtered in the fall of 1933 in con- 

 nection with the government's hog reduc- 

 tion program. The bulk of these came 

 from Canada." 



John C. Watson in a letter to the edi- 



^ 1" 



