EDITORIAL 



Farm Bureau Policy* 

 IF ARTIFICIAL STIMULI AND CONTROLS ARE 



to continue for American business and American labor, 

 equivalent stimuli and controls must be accorded to Amer- 

 ican agriculture. If, however, American business and 

 American labor will relinquish the use of artificial instru- 

 mentalities and permit the restoration of free competition, 

 organized American agriculture will no longer request the 

 support and cooperation of federal government to restore 

 a balance for agriculture with industry and labor. The 

 battle (for fair farm prices) is not one of aggression. It 

 is one of self-defense ... or rightful repossession. . . . 

 The Farm Bureau refuses additional emergency programs 

 and its demand and drive for a sound, permanent and 

 equitable program will be aggressively continued with in- 

 creasing force until its objective is attained. 

 Farm Surplus Control 



WE ENDORSE THE ESSENTIAL PROVISIONS 

 of the AAA of 1937 as presented by the Federation to the 

 House and Senate committees on agriculture on May 17, 

 which offers the nation assurance of ample supplies of 

 farm products, and affords farmers the opportunity to 

 effectively control surplus reserve supplies and assures to 

 each farmer his fair share of the current market at fair and 

 reasonable prices. We assert that such provisions of law 

 are essential to national welfare and, in their self interest, 

 as well as the public interest, we invite the support of 

 American business and American labor. 



McDrketing and Distribution 



TO REDUCE THE SPREAD BETWEEN THE 

 prices received by producers and paid by consumers of 

 farm commodities and in order that producers may re- 

 ceive a fair share of the consumer's dollar, we recommend 

 that speculation be eliminated; that transportation costs be 

 reduced to the lowest possible amount; that improved 

 marketing facilities be devised; that unnecessary services be 

 eliminated; and that the use of marketing agreements and 

 the provisions of Section 32 of the Agricultural Adjustment 

 Act be encouraged and cooperative effort promoted. 

 Monetary Policy 



IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR AGRICULTURE TO 

 thrive under a monetary system which permits inflation and 

 deflation in commodity prices. Farming is a hazardous oc- 

 cupation with long term investments and it cannot success- 

 fully operate under a monetary system with the following 

 record: 



From 1872 to 1896, basic commodity prices in the 

 United States fell 55 per cent; from 1896 to 1914, rose 51 

 per cent; from 1914 to 1920, rose 136 per cent; from 

 1920 to 1921, fell 45 per cent; from 1921 to 1929 re- 

 mained about stationery; from 1929 to 1932, fell 48 per 

 cent; from 1932 to 1936 rose 58 per cent; and from April 

 1937 to December 1937 fell 17 per cent. 



We urge the Congress of the United States to enact 

 monetary legislation in line with President Roosevelt's 

 statement to the London Economic Conference July 3, 

 1933 quoted as follows: "the United States seeks the kind 

 of a dollar which a generation hence will have the same 

 purchasing and debt paying power as the dollar we hope 



* From resolutions adopted at annual convention of American Farm Bureau 

 Federation, Chicago. Dec. 13-15. 1957. 



to attain in the near future." ... In order to accomplish 

 this Congress should establish and maintain a managed 

 currency regulated on an index of basic commodity prices 

 through a monetary authority which will have the power 

 to reprice gold and regulate the gold content of the dollar. 



Labor 



WE RECOGNIZE THAT LABOR IS ENTITLED 

 to reasonable hours, proper working conditions and a fair 

 share of the national income. We have already demon- 

 strated on behalf of organized farmers our fairness to all 

 other groups by limiting our requests for governmental aid 

 so as to stabilize farm price levels on a basis of parity with 

 industrial prices and wages. . . . We oppose the enactment 

 of legislation increasing further the disparity through short- 

 ening the hours of labor and raising wage rates, especially 

 of those groups whose wage rates are above a parity level 

 with farm prices thus adding unduly to the cost of dis- 

 tribution, until such time as farm prices are restored and 

 maintained on a parity relationship with industrial prices 

 and wages. ' ■. . L 



ReUef 



WE MAINTAIN THERE IS NO CONTINUING 

 need for gigantic federal relief rolls and expenditures. 

 Responsibility for relief should be turned back to the 

 states and their respective sub-divisions at the earliest prac- 

 ticable date. The wage scale for those on relief should not 

 be such as to make relief work a career but rather to en- 

 courage a return to private employment, even though not 

 of a specially remunerative or desirable character. . . . 

 Monopoly 



WE FAVOR LEGISLATION THAT WILL CON- 

 trol industry and labor to the end that monopolistic prac- 

 tices not permitted under legal regulation shall be elimi- 

 nated. We urge that federal and state laws legalizing 

 resale price maintenance be repealed. 



Rural Electrification 



FARMERS HAVE UNDERTAKEN BY SIGNING 

 membership agreements in local cooperatives to use the 

 service afforded through the Rural Electrification Adminis- 

 tration and to repay the Administration the investment in 

 monthly payments for services plus amortization and in- 

 terest, and tJierefore are entitled to have a definite voice in 

 the development and operation of these enterprises. . . . 



In order for these cooperatives to be successful, we 

 believe they should be directed by capable men selected by 

 the members in their respective communities; that they 

 should operate in accord with general policies of the REA 

 and that since REA was set up primarily as a lending 

 agency, that they exercise only such veto power as is neces- 

 sary to protect their investment. We also believe that 

 federations of local projects should be permitted to provide 

 efficient accounting, legal, engineering, and other profes- 

 sional services impracticable to be had by local projects, yet 

 indispensable to successful operation. Unless such is pro- 

 vided, the success of these local cooperatives will be limited 

 and their future jeopardized. 



We believe that unless the present policy of the Ad- 

 ministration is changed, unless boards of directors are per- 

 mitted to operate and direct their projects along sound co- 

 operative business lines, farmers would do well to refuse 

 further allotments and loans. 



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