Round Table Conference 



Features AFBF Convention 



Labor, Industry and Agriculture Talk Things Over 

 and IMew York's Mayor Has His Say 



O^ N NOV. 12, 13, 14, 1919, farmer 

 J^ I delegates representing 33 states 

 \_^ from Maine to California, the 

 Great Lakes to the Gulf, gathered at 

 the Sherman Hotel, Chicago, resolved 

 to form an organization "to promote 

 and represent the business, economic, 

 social, and educational interests of the 

 farmers of the Nation," adopted a 

 constitution and by-laws later to be 

 ratified by the states, called their baby 

 the American Farm Bureau Federation. 

 On Dec. 12, 13, 14, 15, 1938, the 

 baby grown to lusty manhood, surviv- 

 ing the darkest years in American agri- 

 cultural history, celebrated its 20th an- 

 niversary in a grand and enthusiastic 

 convention in the worldy, brawling 

 metropolis of the deep South, New 

 Orleans. 



Want Price Stabilized 



Commenting on the initial meeting 

 in Chicago to organize the AFBF, old 

 gray-haired Zealy M. Holmes of Peoria 

 county, Illinois, said in welcoming the 

 lAA annual meeting to Peoria in Jan- 

 uary, 1920: "What we want and ex- 

 pect is that the prices of farm products 

 can be stabilized so that after produc- 

 ing the crops, we can, in return, receive 

 cost of production plus a reasonable 

 profit. In the contracts our govern- 

 ment made with other industries, they 

 allowed cost plus a certain per cent of 

 profit. The farmers stood by the gov- 

 ernment at all times. They have worked 

 from early morning until late at night 

 to help feed the world, and so far have 

 succeeded in doing it . . . The farm- 

 er is entitled to equal treatment. We 

 should so organize that we, as repre- 

 sentatives of one of the largest and 

 most important industries of the 

 world, should be recognized by other 

 industries so that we may be able to 

 work together for the best interests of 

 all humanity and be patriotic, loyal, 

 law-abiding Americans." 



Still chiefly concerned with the prob- 

 lem of farm prices and their relation 

 to the prices of industrial goods and 

 services was the New Orleans conven- 

 tion. But in the intervening 20 years, 

 the Farm Bureau has carved its name 

 deeply into the economic and political 

 life of the nation, and today has the 

 respect, recognition, and standing 

 which the founding fathers planned for 



Old Zealy Holmes's prophetic words 

 became a reality this year for the New 

 Orleans convention brought together 

 in public discussion patriotic represen- 

 tatives of agriculture, industry, labor, 

 and government, each commenting, 

 criticizing, and expressing their diver- 

 gent points of view on the common 

 problem of all — how to restore 

 economic justice, employment and 

 prosperity for all groups in America. 

 The meeting itself which drew a con- 

 gratulatory telegram from President 

 Roosevelt and the presence of leaders 

 in many walks of life was a demonstra- 

 tion of the importance with which 

 agriculture is regarded in restoring 

 natural prosperity. 



And carrying this feature of the 

 convention a step farther. Chairman 

 Earl C. Smith and his associates on the 

 Resolution Committee drafted a re- 

 sounding declaration of policy chal- 

 lenging labor and industry to match 

 the farmer surplus production and pro- 

 gram of plenty, urged the President of 

 the United States "to select leaders of 

 the three major economic groups to 

 work out a program of action designed 

 to bring about economic balance and 

 full utilization of our great productive 

 resources." 



Respect Each Other 



Henry I. Harriman, broad-visioned 

 and liberal ex-president of the U. S. 

 Chamber of Commerce dwelled at 

 length on the labor movement in Great 

 Britain. There, he indicated, both 

 labor and industry have great respect 

 for each other's rights. Hours of work 

 are not regulated in the British Isles 

 except for women and children, em- 

 ployers recognize the right of the 

 workman to his job, and seldom are 

 collective agreements between labor 

 unions and employers violated. Harri- 

 man supported the AAA of 1938, 

 urged that it be retained until given 

 a full and fair trial. 



Charlton Ogburn, counsel for the 

 American Federation of Labor, stoutly 

 defended the labor unions' demands 

 for higher wage rates and shorter 

 hours. Technological unemployment 

 and the need for dividing the work 

 among the available workers, he said, 

 justified such a course. He laid him- 

 self wide open when he asserted that 

 farmers had received far more aid from 

 government than labor ever requested. 



A moment later, Clifford Gregory, 

 speaking for agriculture, struck back 

 citing the vast federal appropriations 

 for PWA and WPA. Farmers feel 

 that this money is a subsidy to labor 

 and industry in defiance of the law of 

 supply and demand, he said. 



Ogburn denied that increased wage 

 rates were responsible for the disparity 

 between farm and city prices. He men- 

 tioned the cigarette industry which 

 he said has installed labor-saving ma- 

 chinery and reduced its labor cost 31% 

 from 1919 to 1931 while greatly ex- 

 panding production. He took the Farm 

 Bureau to task for its "unfriendly res- 

 olution adopted in 1937," asserted that 

 labor has always supported farm leg- 

 islation, suggested that the 6,000,000 

 farmers need the support of the 40,- 

 000,000 workers in coping with the 

 power of the corporations to fix prices 

 and eliminate competition, emphasized 

 that the laborer is the farmers' best 

 customer, that low wages only weaken 

 the farmers' market. 



High Wage Rates 



Gregory agreed that labor needs a 

 fair share of the national income but 

 insisted that high wage rates had been 

 pursued by organized labor far be- 

 yond the point of diminishing returns. 

 "What most laborers I have talked to 

 want is more annual income and se- 

 curity. They are not so much con- 

 cerned with shorter hours and high 

 hourly wage scales," he said. To il- 

 lustrate the tremendous increases in 

 cost of distribution, he pointed to the 

 milk drivers of the Twin Cities who 

 he said were paid $90 a month in 1918 

 when the farmer got $3.10 per cwt. 

 for milk and $234 a month in 1938 

 when the farmers' price was $1.94. 



After listening to the speeches in 

 the morning. Mayor LaGuardia of New 

 York City, first on the afternoon pro- 

 gram, began by inviting his audience 

 to the 1940 World's Fair at New York, 

 then suggested a new policy, the organ- 

 ization of "The American Truth Telling 

 Society." He complimented Harriman 

 as making the most progress in national 

 thinking, criticised Gregory's labor ex- 

 amples, talked about the high cost of 

 living in the city, agreed that farmers 

 ought to have parity prices, ridiculed 

 the idea of surpluses "so long as there 

 is a man, woman, or child without 

 enough to eat or proper clothes to 

 wear."* 



LaGuardia spoke impressively with- 

 out notes. His frankness captivated the 

 audience of several thousand which 

 filled the main floor of the big munici- 

 pal auditorium and flowed over into 



• New York City, the mayor disclosed, is spendini: 

 $10,000,000 a month of its own money fur relief 

 in addition to WPA funds. 



(Continued on page 10) 



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