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Agriculture and Foreign Trade 



Excerpts from Address of Prof. T. W. Schultz, 

 Iowa State College 



From 1920 through 1930 three times 

 we raised our tariffs. No one today 

 would want to maintain that those three 

 acts did not represent three very vital 

 mistakes. We have continued to act, 

 not recognizing the change in our 

 financial position, not recognizing that 

 we still have an economy requiring us 

 to export huge quantities of raw mate- 

 rials, particularly agricultural surpluses 

 and not realizing that trade of the vol- 

 ume and type that we needed could 

 not be long financed on borrowed cap- 

 ital. 



In the twenties we balanced our ac- 

 counts by lending more money abroad. 

 With the coming of the New Deal we 

 placed a fancy price on gold. We 

 fixed the price so high that we have 

 received billions and billions of dollars 

 worth and thus have furnished tre- 

 mendous amounts of purchasing power 

 to the outside. Again we have learned 

 that that very simple economic prin- 

 ciple that if you fix your price high 

 enough you will receive most if not 

 all of the supply, holds. 



In the early years of the New Deal 

 our domestic policies were chiefly na- 

 tionalistic. We rode off in many di- 

 rections at the same time. But out of 

 all this churning we have evolved one 

 important, consistent, unvarying for- 

 eign policy, persistently and patiently 

 carried forward by the present Secre- 

 tary of State in his trade agreements 

 Erogram. This program of Mr. Hull's 

 as been one ray of calm and rational 

 light in a world that appears to have 

 gone mad with nationalism. 



Measured in terms of potential gain 

 for foreign trade a trade agreement 

 with the United Kingdom is far more 

 significant than all the other trade 

 agreements combined. In evaluating 

 this trade agreement with the United 

 Kingdom not only must the importance 

 of the United Kingdom as a buyer of 

 our agricultural products be considered 

 but also the fact that the United King- 

 dom stands ready to produce and sell to 

 us a very large list of commodities at a 

 lower price which, if available to farm 

 families of the United States, will meas- 

 urably lower their cost of living. 



The United Kingdom is singularly 

 deficient in agricultural products. It 

 always has been and still is the biggest 

 and the best market abroad in which 

 we sell farm products. The British 

 market reflects the demand of over 



FEBRUARY, 1939 



forty million people, families who in 

 the main have a relatively high stand- 

 ard of living. 



In 1926-1930 we exported on the 

 average yearly to the United Kingdom 

 837 million dollars worth of products. 

 In return we bought decidedly less than 

 one-half that amount. Upwards of one- 

 half of the exports of agricultural prod- 

 ucts come out of the corn belt and 

 have gone to the United Kingdom. The 

 same has been true for fruits, for grain 

 and fiber crops in which the United 

 Kingdom has taken from 1/5 to y^ of 

 our exports. 



It is very significant in appreciating the 

 importance of better trade relationships 

 with the United Kingdom to appreciate 

 that outside of the American people 

 themselves few peoples have a level of 

 income high enough to permit them to 

 enjoy such products as bacon, ham, 

 pork chops, beefsteaks, roast lamb, 

 eggs, butter and milk, the products 

 which we associate with the farm pro- 

 duction of the corn belt. Outside of 

 the United States the United Kingdom 

 is probably alone in having a large 

 number of families who can afford a 

 diet made up in the main of these more 

 expensive foods. 



School Conference Okeh's 

 Voluntary Consolidation 



Chicago, Jan. 31 : — Lively interest was 

 shown in reorganization and consolidation of 

 rural schools to provide better educational 

 facilities and instruction, and to reduce taxes, 

 during a conference on school problems at the 

 lAA convention here today. L. M. Knox, 

 lAA director from the IJth district and him- 

 self a school director for many years presided. 



John C. Watson, director of taxation and 

 statistics with the lAA, showed how re- 

 organization has reduced taxes in many coun- 

 ties. In Adams county, for example, 11 rural 

 schools were closed and the pupils sent to 

 other districts. Seven schools with average 

 daily attendance ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 pu- 

 pils were being supported on less than $85,- 

 000 of assessed valuation or a total of $440,- 

 550. 



Had the seven schools levied a rate of $1 

 j>er $100 of valuation they could have received 

 state aid. But the cost would have totaled 

 $4405.50 for the seven districts. By closing 

 their schools their average tax rate was 19 

 cents or a total tax of $833. The four other 

 schools, supported on a total valuation of 

 $491,473, reduced costs to $726. 



From this conference grew the fifth resolu- 

 tion which was later adopted by the board of 

 delegates. It embodied these points: (1) 

 Favored reasonable reorganization of schools 

 into larger units with approval of farm peo- 

 ple of such units. (2) Opposed any effort to 

 force reorganization by state or county boards 

 of education with mandatory powers. (3) 

 Favored setting up fact finding bodies of rural 



A DRIVING LESSON 

 Don Norris, Kane county, winner of the 

 state Skilled Drirers' contest, makes a left 

 turn in the best parlor fashion as per- 

 plexed EathrYn Maes. lackson county win- 

 ner: Harriet Hoier, Mercer; Edith M. Poole, 

 LaSalle: and Bertha Ame, Ogle, look on. 



Kane County Boy 



Skilled Driver Champ 



Chicago, Feb. 1 : — A perfect paper won 

 the title "State Champion Skilled Driver" 

 for Don Norris, Kane county, in the fifth 

 Skilled Drivers' examination at the lAA 

 annual meeting here, it was announced to- 

 day. Runner-up, LeRoy Kotter, Massac 

 county, lacked two points of tieing. Fifteen 

 rural young men and women took the test 

 under the direction of C. M. Seagraves, 

 lAA safety director. 



Representing 15 Illinois congressional dis- 

 tricts, these young drivers ranked first in 

 their counties in a written examination on 

 good driving practice. County winners 

 were tested by state drivers' license exam- 

 iners in actual driving problems to select 

 district winners. Examiners commented fre- 

 quently on the superior knowledge of driv- 

 ing displayed by county winners. 



Skilled Drivers' Clubs with a total mem- 

 bership of 1,560 are sponsored by the lAA 

 and County Farm Bureaus in 39 counties 

 to encourage the study and practice of bet- 

 ter driving methods among rural young 

 people. District champions, guests of the 

 lAA at the convention, are: Don W. Norris, 

 Sugar Grove; Edith M. Poole, Ottawa; 

 Bertha Arne, Rochelle; Harriet Hofer, 

 Aledo; Clarence E. Berry, Canton; Robert 

 Leigh, Toulon; Raymond Veatch. Thawville; 

 Lola Jean Honeywell, Stockland ; Dan Scales, 

 Champaign; Francis John Taylor, Virginia; 

 Howard Hodges, Butler; Eugene Linker, 

 Valmeyer; Carl Albright, Shobonier; LeRoy 

 Kotter, Kamak, and Kathryn Maes, Mur- 

 physboro. 



Don Norris as winner of the state con- 

 test automatically becomes president of the 

 Illinois State Drivers' Club for the year. 



parents and taxpayers in each county to work 

 with the Farm Bureau and lAA, to discover 

 possibilities for reorganization. (4) Favored 

 state aid for needy high schools. (5) Favored 

 increase in non-high school tax rate, up to 75 

 cents per $100 of valuation, to permit needy 

 non-high school districts to meet obligations. 

 (6) Believed apportioning state school funds 

 on the basis of 18 pupils in average daily at- 

 tendance is keeping many schools with small 

 average daily attendance from transferring 

 their pupils to other schools. (7) Favored 

 amendment to state school law providing that 

 the state shall pay at least one-half of the 

 cost of transporting puDils to larger distria 

 units now existing or hereafter established. 



