The A.A.A. 

 of 1937 



By EARL C. SMITH* 



\^\. HP AAA. of I')S^ pcnJini: in 

 1^ tiic Senate of the United States 

 ^_/ at this moment is a smierc ef- 

 fort to hrint; stability to America, to re- 

 store a balance between agriculture, in- 

 cJustry aiul labor. We hear a lot about 

 this, that and the other that is in the 

 bill. That is just mctlianism. The pur- 

 pose is to restore balance, to remove the 

 maladjustment as between these three 

 great economic groups, and to which be- 

 longs directly or indirectly every citizen 

 of America. 



rhrou,i:hout the years, and particularly 

 since the turn of the century, artificial 

 stimuli such as tariffs, corporate devel- 

 opment and corporate agreements, com- 

 binations of every kind and character, 

 monopolies, both within industry and 

 labor that we heard something about last 

 night, liave resulted in maladjustment 

 from the original intent of our fore- 

 fathers when they founded this nation as 

 a nation of free men, and wherein it was 

 intended that initiative and frugality and 

 right living should largely determine each 

 individual's future. 



VC'e are liearing a lot about this bill 

 constituting some 80 odd pages of litera- 

 ture or words. That is correct. But 

 there is printed upon about 1 J pages the 

 fundamentals of this legislation. It has 

 a purpose clause, which takes up con- 

 siderable space, it has legislative findings 

 prepared by attorneys so as to point out 

 the legal reasoning, the legal structure 



• Editurs N.itc Fxtt-rrts from address bcrfore 

 Aonual convcntmn A.F.B.F. C^hiiai:o. Dec. 14, 

 Kr. The hill r.iwj the Senate Dn . 1" hv a 

 Tote of '^>) to :^) T)ie House hill passed Det . 11. 

 A conferente oinirnittee ot Ht)use and .^en.ite mem- 

 bers wtil attempt to compose ditTeien«es and hrins 

 out a measure tor submission to b»jlh houfcs for 

 final adoption. 



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"IT DOES NOT PROVIDE AN ECONOMY OF SCAHCTTV: 

 rather it definitely provides an economy of plenty." — Earl C. 

 Smitli speaking before AFBF Convention in Cliicago. 



upon which the act is founded, to assist 

 lawyers in their reasoning, particularly 

 during constitutional considerations. It 

 has many, many p.iges that set forth con- 

 sumers safeguards and amendments that 

 are necessary for the weaving of this par- 

 ticular structure into the soil Conserva- 

 tion Act so as to remove conflict as be- 

 tween them. But when you get right 

 down to the real fundamentals of the 

 bill. I think if vou could projxrly inter- 

 pret about 12 pages you could understand 

 the bill anil its workings anil its intents 

 and its purposes. If I believed that the 

 A. A. A. of 1937 was as complex as some 

 of our newspapers and political friends 

 would have you belie\e. I certainly 

 wouldn't have had the courage to stand 

 here before you this morning with the 

 brief preparation that I have been per- 

 mitted to give, to my remarks. 



First, may I say something about what 

 is not in the bill, and particularly if 

 there is a representative of tlic Chicago 

 Tribune here. // doe^ nut pronJf .m 

 L'l'onorny of scanity. Rather, it definitely 

 provides an economy of plenty. 



And then the one most important fea- 

 ture in the bill — - it gives to farmers 

 something they have never enjoycil in 

 this country, the opportunity through co- 

 operation to control their own surplus 

 supplies rather than, as in the past, to 

 Ic-t them become the property of the 



"If the farmers are grilling in the national in- 

 terest to protect the consumers' Interests as well 

 as their own, should not the people who are pro- 

 tected by that production and carry-over pay 

 the cost of keeping the Surplus from breaking 

 the price?'' 



speculators, resulting in widely flmtuat- 

 ing prices. 



Now I submit to this audience that if 

 the peo|-'lc who by the sweat ol their 

 brow and through the payment ol the 

 largest percentage of taxes in proportion 

 to wealth that arc paid by any other 

 group in this nation, cannot Ix- permitted 

 to control their own surplus products 

 then something certainly is wrong in 

 America. And thai is the fundament.il 

 jiurpose of this legislation. 



Sciondly. to all of you folks from the 

 wide areas of Amerua who arc interested 

 in the .Soil Conservation Act, the pro- 

 duicrs of other than these great basic ex 

 port crops, the AAA. of 1937 dcxs not 

 change in any respect the effect of the 

 .Soil ( onservation Act as related to all of 

 these other crops. It does class wliat has 

 been known as Class 1 payments under 

 the Soil ( onscrvation Act for the pro 

 ducers of corn, wheat and cotton, and 

 did for a time as presented to the .Senate 

 by your organization provide similar 

 treatment of rice. It substituted for (lass 

 1 payments what are known as price ad- 

 [ustment payments that we will disiiiss a 

 little Liter. 



Now how does it provide control of 

 surplus supplies.' I'irst, through a dctinite 

 schedule of commodity loans. Secondly, 

 through ( ongress providing for voliin 

 tary cooperation by farmers for the m\ 

 justment of production s«) as to keep sur 

 pluses from running away from us. 

 breakini; down, or, as Henry Wallace 

 savs. overflowing tl>e ever normal gran 



ary. 



Now. numlxfr three, wlicn supplies 

 reach excessive levels over and above 

 .inything we have experienced normally, 

 it provides definitely for marketing 

 cjuotas upon every individual vvho pro- 

 duces these comniodities for market, 

 whether they are cooperatively-minded or 

 of the individualistic Si lnH)l 



Now. every farmer and every farmer's 



JANUARY, 1938 



