The President's Annual Address 



By EARL C. SMITH 



C\y4— E COME together for the 

 ^^yl/ 22nd Annual Meeting of the 

 Q (f Illinois Agricultural Associ- 

 ation -with justified realization that 

 throughout 1936 the nation maintained 

 steady progress from the depths of the 

 depression, that agriculture continued 

 to lead this advance, but with full ap- 

 preciation of the complex problems that 

 lie ahead. It is my belief these prob- 

 lems will be solved to the extent bus- 

 iness, labor and agricultural leaders of 

 the nation recognize their brotherhood 

 of interest and interdependence. It 

 seems significant, therefore, that for the 

 first time in 14 years an annual meeting 

 of the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 is convening in the city of Chicago, 

 recognized not only as the metropolitan 

 center of the middlewest, but as the 

 commercial capital of American agri- 

 culture. It seems that the experiences 

 of all classes of industry, of American 

 workers and of American farmers dur- 

 ing recent years should have led them 

 to full and frank recognition of their 

 inter-relationship and that, therefore, 

 they should approach their respective 

 problems at all times with this funda- 

 mental fact clearly in mind. It can 

 truly be said that much has been ac- 

 complished in this respect, but I regret 

 there are yet entirely too many business- 

 men and labor leaders, and I fear some 

 agricultural leaders, that do not recog- 

 nize or subscribe to this axiom of mu- 

 tual interest. ... 



Income Up 11% 



A year ago I presented figures to 

 the annual meeting disclosing the re- 

 lationship of improvement of respective 

 economic groups in the country in sup- 

 port of my profound belief in the ulti- 

 mate dependence of business and labor 

 upon a prosperous agriculture. It is 

 interesting to continue these compari- 

 sons. 



National net income in 1936 was ap- 

 proximately $60,000,000,000 or about 

 11 per cent over that of 1935. Farmers' 

 gross income was $9,530,000,000 in 

 1936 as compared with $8,508,000,000 



* Excerpts from annual address before 22nd I. A. A. 

 convention. Chicago. Jan. 28, 1957. 



in 1935, which discloses an increase of 

 12 per cent. Farmers' net income at 

 $5,300,000,000 in 1936, which largely 

 represents farmers' purchasing power, 

 was approximately at the level of gross 

 farm income in 1932. Can anyone suc- 

 cessfully deny that in large measure 

 this restored buying power of farmers 

 is the basic cause for a 6.6 per cent in- 

 crease in factory employment and an 

 increase of 15 per cent in factory pay- 

 rolls in 1936 over 1935.' 



All Business Gains 



Can anyone doubt that this increased 

 buying power materially influenced the 

 16 per cent increase in industrial pro- 

 duction over 1935; or the increase in 

 carloadings of 14.5 per cent over 1935.-' 

 Do we not properly visualize the ma- 

 terial influence of this buying power in 

 the increase of 1 1 per cent in the pro- 

 duction of motor cars and trucks and 

 in the improvement of 40 per cent in 

 the production of steel.' Taken to- 

 gether, were not these improvements 

 in production and employment the di- 

 rect cause of the increased value in 

 quoted stocks and bonds amounting to 

 24.3 per cent? And were not the in- 

 creased earnings of industrial corpora- 

 tions necessary to justify an increase of 

 43.2 per cent in dividends paid by all 

 reporting corporations? If I am not 

 correct in my reasoning that improve- 

 ment in agricultural prices and income 

 is the chief foundation-stone of these 

 improvements in values, dividends, em- 

 ployment and wages, I invite correc- 

 tion. On the other hand, if I am cor- 

 rect, I appeal to American business^ 

 leaders, labor leaders and leaders of 

 government to place more emphasis 

 upon the importance of a stable and 

 prosperous agriculture to the welfare 

 of their respective interests when con- 

 sidering the solution of their own 

 problems. 



I do not ask this consideration from 

 the standpoint of selfish interest of 

 farmers, but from the standpoint of 

 national welfare. If I know the thought 

 of American farmers, if I am a proper 

 representative of their attitude, I know 

 that they want to see American work- 

 ers receive fair wages and that they 



are willing for American investors to 

 receive a fair return upon capital; but 

 that they are determined and rightly 

 so, to demand a return for the product 

 of their labor and investment in line 

 with the level of wages and the returns 

 upon monetary investment. Upon this 

 principle of equity there will be no 

 compromise. American farmers accept 

 the responsibility to produce food and 

 fibre to meet the requirements of this 

 nation. They are willing and anxious 

 to produce food and fiber to meet the 

 demand of world requirements above 

 the production possibilities of the re- 

 spective nations of the world; but they 

 are increasingly determined to secure 

 for these efforts and upon the invest- 

 ment necessary for the production of 

 these requirements a return in line with 

 the level of wages and the returns en- 

 joyed by the investors of this nation. - 

 Nothing less will be satisfactory, noth- 

 ing less is justifiable, and nothing less 

 will insure prosperity for American 

 workers, American capital and the na- 

 tion as a whole I hold a deep 



conviction that the difficulties in Amer- 

 ica are not prices of farm products, not 

 the level of American wages, not the 

 return upon capital investment, but the 

 maladjustment that exists between these 

 important groups of our economic so- 

 ciety. The thing we need, the thing 

 we must have to restore permanent 

 prosperity for all is balance — possibly 

 Secretary Wallace would term it bal- 

 anced abundance — a balance based 

 upon justice and equity as between re- 

 turn on investments, wages to workers 

 and returns to the basic industry of this 

 nation — American agriculture 



Need Balanced Production 



Second only in importance to a bal- 

 anced economic structure in the United 

 States is the problem of securing and 

 maintaining a balance of supply of farm 

 products with the total demands of 

 market outlets at parity price levels. 

 You are all acquainted with the ob- 

 stacles confronting farmers when di- 

 recting their efforts to secure proper 

 and necessary assistance of government 

 to control the supply of farm products. 



(Continued on page 8) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



