and a half farmers, scattered over the ten 

 states of the corn belt, cooperate and co- 

 ordinate their eflForts so effectively as 

 that." 



Wallace said that with good growing 

 weather this year farmers will harvest a 

 crop of about 2,460,000,000 bu. and that 

 the corn loan to cooperators would be at 

 least 57 cents a bu. He warned against 

 the dangers of getting the corn loan too 

 high so as to be out of relation to market 

 prices. He charged that enemies of the 

 corn adjustment program condemned the 

 marketing quota feature of the Triple A 

 Act when it was enacted, and instead of 

 sending up a cheer because the referen- 

 dum on quotas was not needed, they 

 turned right around and played the other 

 side of the street, attacking the govern- 

 ment on the ground that it juggled of- 

 ficial figures in order to avoid a referen- 

 dum on the quotas. Bad weather during 

 August, he said, cut the corn crop so that 

 the supply turned out to be nearly 100,- 

 000,000 bu. below the quota level. 



He predicted that if growers cooperate 

 in the 1939 acreage program, and with 

 corn yields about average, quotas will 

 not be needed next year. The ever- 

 normal-granary program, he said, is the 

 farmer's conclusive answer to charges of 

 scarcity. 



Livestock farmers can face the future 

 with confidence, the Secretary told his 

 large attentive audience, with the corn 

 plan in effect, whereas without a control 

 program livestock feeders have no as- 

 surance that their stock will pay a rea- 

 sonable price for corn. 



"In the past, farmers have been driven 

 by low incomes into terrible waste of 

 soil. Lacking any soil program they often 

 have had to depend on sheer volume, re- 

 gardless of price. Terrific destruction of 

 soil fertility has resulted from such com- 

 petition. Tens of millions of acres have 

 been denuded of their top soil by water 

 erosion. Now, after all the years of soil 

 waste, the farm program is a practical, 

 systematic means of conserving soil." 



Secretary Wallace quoted from an edi- 

 torial in the Saturday Evening Post in 

 which it defended production control of 

 oil, although the same editorial could 

 easily have been applied to soil conserva- 

 tion. This magazine has been generally 

 unfriendly to the agricultural program. 

 "Soil and oil are both a part of the na- 

 tion's heritage and we cannot afford, as 

 a nation, to waste either one," the speak- 

 er said. 



Secretary Wallace answered charges of 

 the opposition and said that criticism is 

 a good thing because it makes farmers 

 think. "God bless our enemies for the 

 help they give us. Many of their charges 

 won't stand the light of day." 



Price fixing without production con- 

 trol, he declared, would break down 

 and result in great harm to agriculture. 



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More Money Than Ever 



Recent information supplied by Mr. 

 Chester C. Davis, member of the board 

 of governors of the Federal Reserve Sys- 

 tem shows that the total of bank de- 

 posits is at the highest point in our his- 

 tory and that the quantity of money in 

 circulation is at the highest point ever 

 known, except for the peak in 1933 when 

 cash withdrawals from banks were un- 

 usually large. 



The "money in circulation" figure is 

 over two billion dollars above the 1929 

 pre-depression level (Sept. 30, 1929 it 

 was $4,532,000,000 and Sept. 30, 1938 

 it was $6,622,000,000). The United 

 States has 55% of the world's total of 



Wallace quoted from a recent news dis- 

 patch, referred to on the editorial page 

 of the October Record, to the effect 

 that automobile manufacturers would 

 maintain rigid control over the produc- 

 tion of automobiles in the coming year 

 so as to avoid any surplus and maintain 

 the price at a profitable level. 



He charged that the Smoot-Hawley 

 Tariff Act of 1930 was a major factor in 

 the farm depression because it brought 

 on retaliatory measures and destroyed 

 much of the farmers' foreign outlets for 

 surplus products. 



"The Secretary closed his address chal- 

 lenging farmers to "fight for the best 

 farm program that agriculture ever had. 

 Fight for that program and you will 

 guard the security of your incomes, the 

 security of your farms and the security 

 of your homes." 



Claude R. Wickard, Washington, D. 

 C, director of the north central region 

 of the AAA, said that every effort would 

 be made to provide individual farmers 

 with 1939 acreage allotments on or be- 

 fore Jan. 1. He said that some simplifi- 

 cation would be in order and that the list- 

 ing sheets may be about "six inches 

 shorter." 



gold stocks, or over $13,000,000,000. 



The weight of evidence, in view of the 

 above facts, Mr. Davis says, is that pres- 

 ent farm price levels are not due to 

 monetary causes. If new currency were 

 issued now by the government or by the 

 Federal Reserve would not increase the 

 quantity of money in circulation at all, 

 but would show up in the excess reserves 

 of the banking system. 



The Federal reserve discount rate is 

 1% in the New York district, 11/2% 

 elsewhere, the lowest in the history of 

 this or any other country. In other 

 words, the U. S. is pursuing an "easy 

 money" policy. 



What the Members Say 



I have read an article by Carl Thompson of 

 127 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. warning 

 voters against the Banking Amendment to the 

 Constitution of Illinois that it will shackle 

 the State of Illinois for all time to the Money 

 Trust. I hope if that is true the Record 

 will explain to farm folks before the election 

 day in November. 



I am wondering if our farm organizations 

 are satisfied with our present monetary sys- 

 tem which surely is not based on reality or 

 science. Should not the creation, issuance and 

 regulation of our medium of exchange be 

 made a government function according to con- 

 stitutional mandate and be completely divorced 

 from the business of Private Banking? 



I have not seen any effort recently to get 

 the facts about our dishonest money system 

 to the farm folks of America who seem to 

 suffer most under fluctuating purchasing pow- 

 er of the dollar. How can we hope to stabilize 

 farm prices while we allow banks to mint and 

 unmint the modern ledger-entry currency? 



Just why shouldn't we make our money 

 supply fit production of goods wanted and 

 needed by consuming public? I would like 

 to know if our farm organization is satisfied 

 with our debt system. 



Yours very sincerely 

 Mrs. Samuel Crossman, 

 Macon County, 111. 



The Illinois Agricultural Association board 

 of directors took action to support the bank- 

 ing amendment and authorized its president, 

 Earl C. Smith to serve as a member of the 

 state committee to secure its adoption. The 

 article on page 4 sets forth briefly the rea- 

 sons for this action. 



The American Farm Bureau Federation has 

 been consistently in favor of a commodity 

 dollar with constant purchasing and debt-pay- 

 ing power. It outlined this position in a hear- 

 ing before the Senate Agricultural Committee 

 in June 1937 when it said: 



"The wide fluctuations in the purchasing 

 power of our dollar have been a major cause 

 of the recurring periods of inflation and de- 

 flation which have been so disastrous to the 

 entire nation. 



'The establishment and maintenance of a 

 medium of exchange with a stable purchasing 

 and debt paying power is essential to the well 

 being of our nation. . . The time has come 

 when Congress should exercise its constitu- 

 tional obligation to regulate the value of 

 money by establishing and maintaining as a 

 permanent policy, a managed currency regu- 

 lated on an index of basic commodity prices 

 which will maintain a dollar with a constant 

 purchasing and debt paying power." 



In June 1937 farm prices were generally 

 satisfactory and Congress was reluctant to do 



8 



L A. A. RECORD 



