Sell Surpluses Abroad 



Organized Farmers Tell President IVeed For Keeping 

 Our Sliare of World Markets 



y^\ /I <-HEN U. S. farmers produced 



\y\/ a record crop of 19,000,000 



Q ff bales of cotton in 1937 they 



set the stage for a whole train of 



events directed toward biplstering the 



waning fortunes of the Cotton South. 



It was this crop that sent the price 

 tobogganing down to distress levels 

 in the fail of '37 and drove jittery 

 senators and representatives from the 

 cotton states into one huddle after 

 another to rescue the sinking cotton 

 planter. The proposed AAA of 1937 

 on which the Farm Bureau had sought 

 to get action earlier that year was 

 eagerly picked up, made the basis for 

 a new program to maintain fair prices 

 for §ve basic crops. The AAA of 1938 

 was 'enacted soon after Congress con- 

 vened in January 1938. 



Extensive loans above the market 

 value were made by the Commodity 

 Credit Corporation to cotton growers 

 last year thus putting a prop under the 

 declining market. In the meantime little 

 American cotton was sold abroad. 

 Cheaper supplies could be had from 

 Brazil, India, and the Orient. In 1938 

 cotton planters, in return for the cotton 

 loan, whacked down their acreage, cut 

 production to some 12,000,000 bales. 



Normally the United States exports 

 about half of her cotton crop but not 

 so in recent years. Only two million 

 bales were exported during the last half 

 of 1938 as compared with nearly 4,000,- 

 000 in the same period a year earlier. 



The government loan program and 

 high domestic consumption have held 

 cotton prices above world levels. Re- 

 cently the price has ranged around 8.62 

 cents per pound for middling seven- 

 eighth inch staple. Meantime the gov- 

 ernment has accumulated more than 

 eleven million bales as collateral against 

 loans. 



What to do about the big American 

 cotton surplus estimated at 25 million 

 bales has absorbed much of the atten- 

 tion of the Congress, the Department 

 of Agriculture, and the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. For what is done 

 about cotton might well be a precedent 

 for handling surplus corn, wheat, lard, 

 butterfat, soybeans and others. 



To the White House one day last 

 month went Farm Bureau leaders Ed- 



ward A. O'Neal of Alabama and Earl 

 C. Smith of Illinois to sell the Presi- 

 dent on a little different approach to 

 the surplus problem, namely the so 

 called "ever normal warehouse export 

 plan." 



This plan briefly provides for an 

 appropriation by Congress, to be used 

 as sparingly as possible consistent with 

 getting the desired results, in filing 

 surplus cotton in competition with 

 other countries on world markets. Its 

 object is to maintain for the United 

 States its fair share of world markets. 



The plan wou/d dispose of cotton 

 for example, through regular com- 

 mercial channels, giving U. S. exporters 

 a chance, through subsidy, to compete 

 with any other source of supply. This 

 plan it is believed, will hold the domes- 

 tic price up at least to the loan value. 



President Roosevelt approved the 

 AFBF plan in principle. The next hur- 

 dle is to secure such appropriations as 

 are needed from Congress. Farm Bur- 

 eau estimates show that this program 

 will take much less money than other 

 plans suggested by southern cotton 

 leaders one of which would have the 

 Government turn its eleven million 

 bales of cotton over to growers FREE 

 in return for additional reductions in 

 their cotton acreage in '39. This 

 scheme was opposed by the AFBF be- 

 cause it singles out one commodity for 

 preferential treatment, would demoral- 

 ize domestic prices and would jeopar- 

 dize the entire commodity loan pro- 



gram. Such a plan if adopted would 

 establish a precedent for giving back 

 to producers wheat, corn, butter, rice, 

 peanuts, and what have you in return 

 for reduced production. 



Continue AAA Support 

 Unqualifiedly supporting the AAA 

 of 1938 the Board of Directors of the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation who 

 met in Washington last month sug- 

 gested amendments (1) making avail- 

 able for export government loan cot- 

 ton, (2) placing wheat in the same 

 classification as corn (to prevent its 

 use as feed) if and when market quotas 

 are in effect, (3) raising the bushelage 

 exemption for wheat in marketing 

 quota restrictions from 100 to 200 

 bushels, (4) permiting producers of 

 any commodity to utilize marketing 

 agreements provisions in the AAA. 



Facts I 

 About Farm 

 Exports I 

 and I 

 Imports I 



UESTIONS raised by farmers 

 at county meetings this past 

 winter show that there is still 

 much interest in imports and exports 

 of agricultural products, says Dr. L. J. 

 Norton, professor of Agricultural 

 Economics at the University of Illinois. 

 Following are presented imports and 

 exports for 1938 of products Illinois 

 farmers are chiefly interested in: 



1938 Exportt 

 from U. S. 



148,000,000 bu. 

 Ill, 000,000 bu. 



9.000.000 bu. 



16.000,000 bu. 



20^.000 bu. 



}, 000,000 bu. 



Not reported 

 separately 

 6.C00.C00 lbs. 



189,000,000 lbs. 



)3, 000,000 lbs. 



Not reported 



separately 



3.000 head 

 158.000,000 lbs. 



2,000,000 lbs. 



62.000.0C0 lbs. 

 2.000.000 lbs. 

 1.000,000 lbs. 



29,000,000 lbs. 



205,000,000 lbs. 



Commodity 



Com 

 Wheat and 



flour 

 Oats 

 Barley 

 Barley malt 

 Soybeans 



Soybean meal 

 Soybeaif oil 

 Corn flour and 

 starch 



Corn syrup and 

 sugar 



Tapioca 



Cattle 



Meats 



Canned beef 



(Hams, should- 

 ers and bacon) 



Butter 



Cheese 



Condensed and 

 evaporated 

 milk 



Lard 



V 



Imports for 

 Consumption 



400,000 bu. 



4.000.000 bu. 



7,000 bu. 



126,000 bu. 



3,000.000 bu. 



Not reported 



separatelr 



26,000,000 Ibl. 

 4.000,000 Ibt. 



Not reported 

 separately 



Not reported 

 separately 



231,000,000 lbs. 



454.000 head 



148,000.000 lbs. 



79,000.000 lbs. 



44.000.000 lb$. 



2,000,000 lb». 



54.000,000 lbs. 



7CO.0OO lbs. 

 Not reported 

 separately 



"These figures reflect conditions with 

 abundant harvests in the United 



I. A. A. RECORD 



- ./:-■■: I----'.. ■/- 



