EDITORIAL 



Helping the Tenant 



>^N ITS recent report on farm tenancy, the President's 

 [)j commission found plenty of things to criticise, 

 \^ most of which apply with greatest force to condi- 

 tions in the south. At the bottom of the trouble, the report 

 indicated, is poor soil, inadequate income both for land- 

 lord and tenant, wide ups and downs in crop and land 

 values which in every depression knock thosuands of ten- 

 ants off the ladder to ownership, and general human lazi- 

 ness and incompetence. 



Granting all of these things, the committee recom- 

 mends that a Farm Security Administration be set up under 

 the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Agriculture; that a Farm 

 Security Corporation be created with authority to buy land 

 and lease or sell it to selected tenants "on the basis of 

 thrift, integrity, industry, experience, health and other 

 qualities." 



No down payment would be required. Preference 

 would be given to families living on the farms acquired by 

 the corporation. A low interest rate of 21/^ per cent is 

 recommended with variable principal payments ammortized 

 over a period of 40 years. In years of good crops and 

 higher income a larger principal payment would be re- 

 quired. In years of poor crops and low income, smaller 

 payments, or none at all, would be taken. 



To curb speculation, the committee recommended that 

 a tax be levied to take substantially all of the profit from 

 resale of land within three years of purchase, so as "to 

 keep land values on a level where farmers could better 

 afford ownership." 



While the above are only recommendations, much 

 can be said in behalf of a sound public policy to encourage 

 farm ownership by those actively interested in farming. 

 Even in Illinois where the standard of living on tenant- 

 operated farms is relatively high, ownership by families 

 living on the farm makes for better care of the land, better 

 communities, and happier farm life. But ownership with- 

 out a fair income will not greatly improve the lot of the 

 tenant-farmer or sharecropper. Ownership of poor, un- 

 profitable soils will not produce a higher standard of liv- 

 ing. And making ownership more accessible will not 

 solve the problem of the shiftless, the lazy, the inexperi- 

 enced, and the incompetent, whether due to poor health or 

 hereditary causes. This is a problem for the geneticist, not 

 the legislator. Maintaining a satisfactory price level for 

 farm crops free from the wild gyrations/ of former years 

 will do more to aid worthy tenants to bffcome owners than 

 all other influences combined. \_ 



The Four-Point Program 



C^"^V^ HE Illinois Agricultural Association is squarely 

 ^ — -^ behind the program for maintaining parity prices 

 ^^ for farm products as outlined by Secretary Wal- 

 lace and adopted at the recent conference of farm repre- 

 sentatives in Washington. 



This four-point program provides for (1) continua- 

 tion of the present soil conservation program; (2) com- 

 modity loans on basic farm crops at near parity levels to 

 hold the surplus off the market in years of plenty; ( 3 ) ad- 

 ditional payments beyond the regular soil conservation 



grants to secure greater conversion of cultivated land into 

 grass and legumes when "the granary overflows;" and (4) 

 positive control of production in an emergency brought on 

 by extreme surpluses when the first three methods prove 

 inadequate. The fourth proposal is to be developed under 

 the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, or 

 the power to levy taxes for the general welfare, or through 

 effective co-operation between the states and the federal 

 government. 



Thus the plan as outlined is a long-time program. It 

 looks into the future. There is no immediate need for 

 crop control. But a succession of two or more big crop 

 years may change the picture unless by some miraculous 

 turn of events our lost foreign markets are restored. The 

 time may come when there will be a desperate need for 

 positive control of production. • 



"^ 



Good Neighbors 



E HAVE always found farmers more respon- 

 sive than any other group of people toward 

 helping their neighbors in time of trouble." 



This statement by the director of Red Cross flood 

 relief work at Marion is borne out by the action of County 

 Farm Bureaus in raising donations of grain, feed and cash 

 to aid the 4,000 drowned-out farmers in Illinois. 



In a one-day drive on Feb. 4, the Livingston County 

 Farm Bureau secured approximately 4,500 bushels of corn, 

 several hundred bushels of oats, $2,800 in cash. The sup- 

 plies were transported by truck to Carmi and Ridgway in 

 the flood zone. Other counties, likewise, responded to 

 the call for aid, and as this is written, the lAA is directing 

 a co-ordinated effort to provide feed for livestock in the 

 eight affected counties. 



"The flood will work a hardship on those farmers who 

 are not destitute and therefore will not receive aid from 

 the Red Cross," writes a Farm Bureau president. "These 

 farmers have lost most of their feed and seed. This is 

 the class which we feel would most appreciate any con- 

 tribution that might be made through the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association." 



The flood sufferers are our neighbors. Let's be good 

 neighbors and help them in this time of need. 



George Washington On Fanning 



C""^^. HE young man on the farm \^ho is looking ahead 

 ^>— ^ to his future life work may well pause to con- 

 yj sider the words of a famous farmer, George 

 Washington. 



In a letter to Arthur Young, British agricultural ex- 

 pert, Washington wrote: "I think with you that the life 

 of the husbandman of all others is most delectable. It is 

 honorable, it is amusing, and, with judicious management, 

 it is profitable. To see plants rise from the earth and 

 flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the laborer 

 fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy 

 to be conceived than expressed. 



"I know of no pursuit in which more real and im- 

 portant services can be rendered any country, than by im- 

 proving its agriculture — its breeds of useful animals — 

 and other branches of husbandman's cares." i 



34 



L A. A. RECORD 



