What Farmers Want 



By EARL C. SMITH* 



Q\ .Y FRIENDS — I desire on 

 ^_]^~-\^ this occasion to discuss a 



C , ^ X Yf problem of >.onimon inter- 

 est to both rural and urban citizens. 

 It is my opinion that a sound, permanent 

 solution to this tjuestion is essential to 

 the welfare of America. 



The 7'ith Congress adjourned on 

 Auirust 21 lc\uins,' American agriculture 

 at the cross-roads. Every farm policy 

 adopted by previous f'ongresses has been 

 offered as an emergency treatment for an 

 emergency situation. For the first time 

 in many years the Congress, just 

 adjourned, had an opportunity and 

 plenty of time to study and devise a 

 permanent solution to the farm proWem 

 that was based upon sound economic and 

 business principles. This it failed to 

 do, in spite of the fact that President 

 Roosevelt had sent a message to Congress 

 urging legislation to provide for the 

 control by farmers of excessive supplies 

 of farm products, in spite of the fact 

 that several state delegations in Congress 

 had petitioned for action, and in spite 

 of the fact that the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, Henry A. ^X'allace, had testified 

 in support of specific provisions of legis- 

 lation of the character supported by 

 organized agriculture. 



Since early in May the Agricultural 

 Committees of Congress were repeatedly 

 warned that the acreages planted to the 

 great basic crops, if followed by favor- 

 able weather, would result in surpluses 

 that wouKI again depress farm com- 

 moility prices to low levels, thus sub- 

 stantially decreasing the purchasing pow- 

 er of farmers that had been so helpful 

 in leading the Nation out of the depths 

 of depression and despair. 



All of these requests and warnings 

 were ignored until the very closing days 

 of Congress when our predictions became 

 a reality in the form of fast declining 

 prices of farm commodities in the future 

 markets of the country. In desperation. 

 Congress again treated the problem as 

 an emergency- by urging loans and in the 

 case of one commodity, subsidy treat- 

 ment, and by the passage of a resolution 

 that was the equivalent of a promise to 

 enact surplus control legislation im- 

 mediately upon reconvening. 



The failure of Congress to recognize 

 its responsibility and to discharge its 

 duty is definitely unsatisfactory to the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation, which 

 labored for manv months to have enacted 



a measure providing for the control by 

 farmers of excessive supplies of farm 

 products and thereby eliminate the ne- 

 cessity of providing emergency treatment 

 of one of, if not the greatest, funda- 

 mental problems confronting America. 



I am convinced that the problem of 

 recurrent surpluses which has plagued 

 the American farmer almost continuously 

 since the World >X'ar can be solved in a 

 sensible and practical manner through 

 legislation of the type proposed and 

 sponsored by the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation. It is based upon a philosophy 

 of plenty and not upon an economy 

 of scarcity as many of our Metropolitan 

 newspapers would have the American 

 public believe. You and I have read 

 editorials in many of our city papers 

 about the farm organizations wanting 

 legislation to create a scarcity of food. 

 You have been told that we are out to 

 cut acreage of crops so as to get high 

 prices. You have read that the AAA 

 program is responsible for the present 

 scarcity of meats and other food stuffs. 



Nothing could be farther from the 

 truth. What farmers want and what the 

 Nation needs is a reserve supply of 

 surplus farm products at all times, so 

 controlled by farmers that the price levels 

 of farm products may be maintained on 

 a fair, stable basis. In other words, 

 farmers want the opportunity provided 

 by the Government to keep agricultural 

 surpluses under the control of cooperat- 

 ing farmers rather than to become the 

 property and the tool of speculators in 

 farm products who are largely responsible 

 tor the wide fluctuations in the prices 

 of such products and resulting wide 

 fluctuations in the price levels of food 

 and fibre. Does that sound like an 

 economy of scarcity.' 



I do not know of any farmer who 

 wants to reduce the production activities 

 on his or her farm, but I know of mil- 

 lions of farmers who recognize that 

 farming is a business and must be run 

 in a business-like manner. They recog- 

 nize that successful business and indus- 

 try does not continue to produce com- 

 modities in excess of market demand. 

 They know the impossibility of antici- 

 pating in advance weather conditions 

 which play such an important part in 

 the volume of production. Therefore, to 

 apply business principles to the business 



• (From recent radio address over National Farm 

 and Home Hour.J 



of farming, we propose only to control 

 surplus reserve supplies so as to remove 

 their otherwise bearish effect on price 

 levels in years of plenty, and to have 

 them available to fill the gaps in market 

 channels of the country created by the 

 short.ige m production in years of 

 drought, insect pests, or other disasters. 

 Production control or adjustment is not 

 authorized except to the extent necessary 

 to keep surplus reserve supplies from be- 

 coming so large as to break down the 

 whole plan of stabilized volume and 

 price levels of farm commodities. 



I believe that the American consumers 

 want American farmers to receive a fair 

 price for their 'products. I believe that 

 they largely recognize the importance 

 of farm buying power in absorbing the 

 products of American industry and labor. 

 I believe they know this buying power 

 cannot be sustained except through the 

 continuance of a stable income to the 

 producers of farm commodities. I be- 

 lieve that the people of America, whether 

 living in the cities or upon the farms, 

 recognize their inter-relationships or 

 inter-dependence. I can not and I do not 

 believe that the consumers in our cities 

 want to see a return of 15c corn, 35c 

 wheat, 5c cotton, $3.00 hogs and S5.00 

 cattle, such as was experienced in 1932 

 and 1933. I believe they know that a 

 return of such conditions to producers 

 of food and fibre would soon result in 

 the unemployment and long bread lines 

 that we saw in our cities during the same 

 period. 



I, therefore, believe that a sound, prac- 

 tical, and permanent solution of the 

 farm problem is of as much interest to 

 the people of our cities as it is to the 

 farmers of America. We should all rec- 

 ognize that it is very difficult, if not 

 impossible, for six million farmers scat- 

 tered throughout America, confronted 

 with the peculiar problems presented by 

 each basic farm commodity, to so organ- 

 ize and correlate their efforts on a vol- 

 untary basis as to remove the need of 

 Governmental assistance and coordina- 

 tion. It is for this reason that thinking 

 American farmers are urging the enact- 

 ment of legislation that provides both 

 funds and Governmental authority to 

 coordinate, and with the cooperation of 

 farmers, put into effect an adjustment 

 program of the character I have described. 



I repeat, American farmers accept the 



(Continued on page 15) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



