Henry A. Wallace 



(Continued) 



and farming. But in the meantime, these 

 people must have a chance to live. And 

 help that the government may give that 

 will improve their production efficiency, 

 and at the same time free them from a 

 credit system that keeps many of them in 

 a kind of economic slavery, will help to 

 bridge the gap until our system can func- 

 tion so as to give more adequate op- 

 portunities to all. 



For the low-income farmers in the 

 South, the problem is closely linked with 

 the trade and tariff policies followed by 

 the nation. Total income in the South is 

 dependent in part on the volume of cot- 

 ton that can be sold in markets abroad. 

 When high-tariff policies keep foreign 

 nations from selling their goods to us, 

 they can buy only a limited amount of 

 our cotton. 



Long Time Measures 



So, as we cast up agriculture's gains 

 from economic self-government, let us 

 not forget those farmers who have not 

 fully shared in those gains. Let us remember 

 that our American system is not truly demo- 

 cratic until it provides at least equality of 

 opportunity for all. I hope and believe that 

 you farmers of Illinois, who stand as the 

 guardians of all that is best in American 

 rural life, will not forget that in a very real 

 sense of the word you are your "brother's 

 keepers." For there can be no permanent 

 solution of the farm problem which does not 

 give a fair chance to those farmers at the 

 bottom of the heap, as well as to the ones 

 at the top 



Long-time measures which will protect 

 farmers and consumers against extreme fluctua- 

 tions of price and supply are needed so as to 

 preserve opportunity for agriculture as a whole. 



In the long run, no farmers — big or lit- 

 tle — gain but they all lose if agriculture's 

 export markets are sacrificed by the erection 

 of ever higher tariff walls at home. 



In the long run, no farmers gain but they 

 all lose if surpluses pile up and wreck farm 

 prices. 



In the long run, no farmers gain but they 

 all lose if short supplies resulting from drought 

 or other cause send prices sky-rocketing and 

 lure agriculture into another cycle of specula- 

 tive dealing in land, soil waste, big produc- 

 tion and finally another crash. 



The co-operative soil conservation program 

 is open to all farmers and is in the interests 

 of all agriculture. 



When we urge as parts of our long-time 

 farm program the ever normal granary, to- 

 gether with commodity loans and crop insur- 

 ance, we are thinking of the welfare of all 

 of our farmers, including those at the bottom 

 as well as those at the top. 



When we declare that after the granaries 

 are full and the needs of consumers have been 

 provided for agriculture must have the right 

 and the power to store for future use part of 

 its fertility in the soil rather than in the bin, 

 we know that such a policy is of vital con- 

 cern to every farmer who sells his products or 

 who hopes to have products to sell. 



For the solution of these problems, agricul- 

 ture must stand united. As the President has 

 said, we all go up or we all go down to- 

 gether. 



Promote General Welfare 



In striving for agricultural welfare, it is al- 

 ways important to remember that agricultural 

 welfare can never be maintained for long if 

 it is brought to pass in violation of the gen- 

 eral welfare. But agriculture must not only 

 avoid violating the general welfare. It must 

 do everything possible to promote it. This 

 means that agriculture is enormously inter- 

 ested in the efforts of labor and industry to 

 work out programs which will increase the 

 production of industrial goods and increase 

 the employment and purchasing power of 

 labor. 



The fact is that progress in attaining eco- 

 nomic democracy in business and industry has 

 lagged behind the progress made by acricul- 

 ture. There are several reasons for this. 

 The problem in agriculture was somewhat 

 simpler, and the work of the land grant col- 

 leges, the Department of Agriculture, the 

 county agents, and the farm organizations had 

 done much to prepare the way. But there is 

 just as much need to make economic de- 

 mocracy work in industry as in agriculture, 

 if democracy is to continue to be workable in 

 this machine age. 



There is need for working out labor and 

 wage policies that take the interests and views 

 of workers, investors and the general public 

 all into consideration. 



For this there is needed a sense of modera- 

 tion, a willingness to negotiate, a spirit of 

 compromise — the same kind of moderation 

 and spirit of compromise which the farm 

 groups have shown during the last four years. 



Economic democracy and class warfare are. 

 not the same thing. To achieve economic 

 democracy in industry, the various groups con- 

 cerned must find ways to thresh out their 

 problems and co-operate for their mutual ad- 

 vantage in an orderly way. They must recog- 

 nize and fulfill their own part in it. The 

 investors and managers as well as the labor 

 unions, the white collar class as well as the 

 farmers, the courts as well as the legislative 

 bodies, all must be willing to assume their 

 share of social responsibility. And always, in 

 every complicated question, the touchstone by 

 which any proposed solution is tested should 

 be the general welfare, or the greatest good 

 for the greatest number. 



As President Roosevelt said in his inaugural 

 address, "there can be no era of good feeling 

 save among men of good will." 



Now, in conclusion, reverting to my discus- 

 sion a few minutes ago, I want to express 



my appreciation of the fact that the directors 

 of the American Farm Bureau Federation, at 

 a meeting in Washington early in January, 

 listed as the first item among their recom- 

 mendations for a sound program the ever- 

 normal granary. Many farm people, in their 

 approach to their own welfare and the general 

 welfare, realize the importance of more uni- 

 form supplies and more uniform prices of farm 

 products from year to year. They recognize 

 the foolishness of those who have advocated 

 the fixing of prices for farm products without 

 regard to the supply-and-demand situation. 



They have been concerned about the 

 droughts of recent years and "are fearful that 

 another drought in 1937, combined with cer- 

 tain other circumstances, might result in prices 

 at a point which would discredit the farm 

 program in the eyes of millions of people in 

 the cities. They do not want this to happen. 

 But neither do they want favorable weather to 

 bring about a situation which would result in 

 disastrously low farm products prices within 

 a year or two. Many farm people apparently 

 want both production control and the ever- 

 normal granary along with a soil conserva- 

 tion program. They also want commodity 

 loans. Some of them want crop insurance. 

 The problem is to put these things together 

 in a practical program that will best serve 

 farmers and consumers over a long period of 

 years. 



Congress undoubtedly will be passing some 

 kind of legislation this winter. I hope the 

 farm groups, insofar as they discuss these 

 things with Congress, will take into account 

 the essentials of a sound farm program. I 

 believe these essentials are very nearly identical 

 with the seven-point program recommended by 

 the American Farm Bureau Federation's board 

 of directors. 



Work Together 



In the years immediately ahead, I hope the 

 Federal government, the state governments, 

 organized agriculture and the unorganized 

 farmers can move steadily ahead in the pro- 

 gram the President has laid out — a program 

 of making the ideal practical, of making eco- 

 nomic justice workable, of developing ways of 

 economic democracy. This is not a job for 

 the President of the United States alone, for 

 the Secretary of Agriculture alone, for the 

 Administrator of the Triple-A alone, or for 

 the President of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation alone. It is a job for six million 

 farmers co-operating in their respective fields 

 of action with their own organizations and 

 with their township, county, state and federal 

 agencies. This is a job that can and must be 

 done, and I am confident that, working to- 

 gether, we can do it. 



But as we accept the challenge to wipe out 

 the line between the ideal and the practical, 

 let us take care to understand what such ac- 

 ceptance means. It means that we must have 

 courage to look our problems in the face and 

 the perception to see them as they are. It 

 means that in making plans, the goals we seek 

 must be real, must be attainable, must be 

 worthy. It means that having fitted these 

 goals fearlessly but wisely to the realities, we 

 must then hammer out practical measures for 

 fulfillment. Willingness to work humbly 

 and without stint, a spirit of give and take 

 between groups in the interests of the general 

 good, readiness to correct errors and make new 

 starts — all these will be required. And 

 beyond them, so far as the government is 

 concerned, there will be demanded the energy, 

 the skill and the integrity that go to make up 

 good administration without which even the 

 soundest plan cannot succeed. 



Note: Excerpts from address before 22nd an- 

 nual lAA convention, Chic Opera Bldg., Chi- 

 cago, Jan. 28, 1937. 



10 



I. A. A. RECORD 



