RESOLUTIONS COMMIHEE AFTER MIDNIGHT 

 "By 3 a. m. they w«r* ready to report" 



TWO "BOBS" IN AN EARLY MORNING 

 TETE-A-TETE 

 Treasurer Robert A. Cowles and Director 



Robert B. Endicott. 



CORPORATE SECRETARY PAUL E. 



MATHIASAND DIRECTOR RAY IHRIS 



"A strip-mining resolution was born." 



RESOLUTIONS 



Adopted at 22nd Annual Convention of Illinois 



Agricultural Association, Chicago, Jan. 28-29, 



1937 



I 



We pledge our continued and aggressive 

 support to the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion in all efforts to secure the enactment of 

 the new laws or amendment of the present 

 laws or effective change in regulations of such 

 laws to put into effect the resolution adopted 

 at the recent aniSual meeting of our National 

 Federation under the heading "The National 

 Agricultural Policy," as follows: 



The fundamental objective of the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation since its organiza- 

 tion has been to secure and maintain for the 

 farmers of the nation a fair and equitable por- 

 tion of the national income. The Federation 

 continuously has dedicated its major efforts 

 to the study of current problems which con- 

 fronted farmers in efforts to obtain this ob- 

 jective. Changing conditions caused the Fed- 

 eration to develop and support various meas- 

 ures, but always uppermost in mind has been 

 the fundamental objective of the organization. 



The Federation has always considered the 

 farm problem as national in character, and has 

 maintained that to insure stable farm prices 

 at equitable levels it is necessary to balance 

 production of commodities with the market 

 demand. 



During the post-war period which found 

 American agriculture with a greatly over-ex- 

 panded production plant, the Federation sup- 

 ported measures that aimed at segregation of 

 surpluses over and above domestic market 

 requirements so as to maintain domestic price 

 levels commensurate with American standards 

 of wages and living; and the disposition of 

 surpluses in world markets at world price 

 levels. 



The defeat of these efforts resulted in the 

 most acute oversupply of farm products and the 

 lowest price levels for farm products in the 

 history of the nation. Changing world con- 

 ditions, particularly the large debts of foreign 

 nations to the United States, increased trade 

 barriers, international misunderstandmgs and 

 intrigues, forced the Federation to continue 



its efforts to develop and secure the passage of 

 legislation providing governmental assistance 

 to cooperating farmers in balancing the supply 

 of products with the total demand of markets 

 at fair price levels. The results of this legisla- 

 tion are a matter of record and call for no 

 apology by the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion. 



The decision of the Supreme Court on the 

 constitutionality of this legislation made it 

 necessary to alter in essential detail certain 

 policies of administration of the Agricultural 

 Adjustment Act, and to secure the passage of 

 the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment 

 Act, but it did not alter in any way the chief 

 objective of the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion. 



We reaffirm the Federation's continued sup- 

 port of this objective and pledge its every 

 effort to develop and secure enactment of 

 such amendments to existing law, or the en- 

 actment of additional measures as may be 

 found necessary to maintain price levels of 

 farm products in line with the American 

 standard of wages and American standards 

 of living, and to assure to the farmers of 

 America their rightful share of the national 

 income. 



Such a national farm policy must provide 

 for restoring and maintaining a high degree 

 of soil fertility; a schedule of agricultural 

 tariffs to fully protect the domestic market 

 from competing imports that hold or force 

 American, prices below parity levels ; reduction 

 of excessive industrial tariffs to equalize the 

 price levels of industrial and agricultural com- 

 modities ; aggressive efforts to develop new 

 domestic and foreign outlets and markets for 

 American-grown farm products with the con- 

 tinued use of a substantial amount of import 

 revenue; state and federal marketing agree- 

 ments and orders to enable producers with 

 distributors or consumers to stabilize the price 

 level of any agricultural commodity; and the 

 holding of current annual or seasonal sur- 

 pluses of farm products from market channels 

 in the most economical way under a system of 

 Federal loans based upon warehouse or trust 

 receipts, thus protecting producers from the 

 otherwise price-depressing effect of surpluses. 



while at the same time insuring the consuming 

 public of an ample supply of farm products 

 at all times and protecting the nation from 

 the dangers of drouth, insects, disease or other 

 disasters. 



Recognizing both the opportunities and 

 limitations of these factors, to be effective 

 this farm policy must have adequate provision 

 to insure such a balance of supply of farm 

 products with demand as is necessary to as- 

 sure farmers of parity prices for their prod- 

 ucts. 



n 



We urge appropriate amendment of the Soil 

 Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act so 

 that the administration of the act by the sev- 

 eral states will be delayed until July 1, 1940, 

 in order that sufficient experience may be had 

 under federal legislation to point more clearly 

 to the essential factors that should be included 

 in necessary state legislation. 



Ill 



We recognize the serious effect of the 

 steady increase in farm tenancy of both state 

 and nation, and that federal assistance is desir- 

 able in many sections of the United States 

 for the relief of this situation. Wc emphat- 

 ically assert that, in large part, the problem 

 will be ultimately solved by restoring farm 

 commodity price levels to a fair and permanent 

 basis. 



We do not believe farm tenancy can be 

 corrected solely through liberalization of credit 

 or supervision by experts of tenant farmers 

 who may purchase farms. Any laws enacted 

 to relieve the increasing tenancy situation 

 should be based only upon a system of sound 

 credit extended over a long period of years 

 and administered by the Farm Credit Admin- 

 istration and the Secretary of Agriculture 

 through the Director of Extension in each 

 State, under whose direction the management 

 in counties or regions should be administered 

 by young men qualified for appointment as 

 county agents in each state. 



Eligibility of efficient tenants or other 

 worthy young men with farm experience should 

 be determined by an independent local com- 

 (Continued on page 26) 



FEBRUARY, 1937 



