E D I T O R TA L 





That Year of 1937 



r^ NINFORMED newspapers, and one in particular 



vJ/ which makes a business of deliberately misrepre- 



£^ senting or covering up truth, point to present low 



farm prices as proof of the ineffectiveness of the AAA 



program. 



Yet any honest analysis of crop production records 

 clearly shows that the year 1937, when there was no ad- 

 justment program, is largely responsible for piling up tre- 

 mendous supplies of cotton, corn and wheat. 



At a recent meeting of the House Agricultural Com- 

 mittee, Chairman Marvin Jones said: "The present farm act 

 is in no way responsible for the oversupply of cotton. The 

 tremendous overproduction of nineteen million bales in 

 1937, before the present act took effect and when there was 

 no control program, is responsible ... If the six million 

 bales which was produced that year in excess of the aver- 

 age had not been produced we would have no unusual 

 cotton problem." 



Similarly the tremendous 874,000,000 bu. wheat crop 

 of 1937-1938, most of which was planted before the de- 

 tails of the 1938 adjustment program became known, re- 

 sulted in the present 300,000,000 bu. carry-over, largest 

 since July, 1933, when it reached the all-time record of 

 360 million bushels. 



The enormous corn crop of 1937, when there was no 

 adjustment program, followed two of the shortest corn 

 crops in history, 1934 and 1936. Otherwise 1937 corn 

 prices would have been substantially lower. It required 

 the substantial '38 corn crop, too, to send com prices 

 down below average cost of production. 



When you simmer it all down, at least part of our 

 present difficulties grew out of the unfortunate decision of 

 the Supreme Court in January, 1936 which killed the AAA 

 of 1933, and that year of 1937 when there was no adjust- 

 ment program. 



Attend Your Town Meeting 



r^^N April 4 township elections and town meetings 

 If / will be held throughout Illinois. The township 

 (^ / supervisor is required to make his financial report. 

 Half the supervisors and assistant supervisors in the state 

 are to be elected. Levies of taxes for ordinary township 

 purposes and for relief, which comprise a substantial part 

 of the farmers' tax bill, will be voted. Tax levies for 

 township purposes are not limited by law. These levies 

 are decided entirely by the voters. 



It should not be necessary to urge attendance at your 

 township meeting Tuesday (2 P.M.), April 4. The meet- 

 ing affords an opportunity to talk over your road, relief, 

 school, and other problems with your elected officials and 

 neighbors. If you have a just complaint to make about 

 roads, relief expenditures or any other local problem, here 

 is the place to deliver it. 



There are plenty of nations today in which no indivi- 

 dual dares to speak out and criticise the government or pub- 

 lic officials. Current world events should give us a new 

 appreciation of the liberty and democracy exemplified by 

 the town meeting. 



34 



This Is The Real Test 



^^^^^ HE primary function of a cooperative marketing 

 — ^ association is to increase the farmers' net returns 



J 



for his products. Directors of such cooperatives 

 must think not so much in terms of the institution and its 

 welfare as of the interests of producers trying to make the 

 farm pay. 



"This remark dropped by President Earl C. Smith at 

 the annual meeting of the Illinois Livestock Marketing 

 Association embodies a fundamental principle of coopera- 

 tion which differentiates the farmer-owned marketing sys- 

 tem from all others. Farmers in the end will judge their 

 own cooperative institutions in the cold light of results 

 which means price and service, and no end of explaining 

 will prevent them from eventually abandoning any system, 

 cooperative or otherwise, which fails to bring the producer 

 maximum returns. 



Of course thinking farmers will not be blind to tem- 

 porary situations in which a private competitor may spend 

 money by forcing prices up to unnatural and unreasonable 

 levels to squeeze out a farmer-owned co-op. We have 

 seen that situation develop in the creamery business in this 

 state, but producers are generally not fooled by such tactics. 

 It is not difficult to discern when prices are based on real 

 competition and when the market is being rigged. Some- 

 times the cooperative earns its way not in the dividends it 

 pays but by its mere existence in compelling enterprisers in 

 the field to operate within a fair margin of profit. 



On Eating Up The Surplus 



y^F ALL the skinny, undernourished people in the 

 M country were put, not end to end, but elbow to 

 vj/ elbow around a huge table loaded with tasty 

 food three times a day they would soon eat up all the farm 

 food surplus, some experts believe. As proof there is 

 the recent experiment of the British army in feeding some 

 1900 skinny youths up to requirements, reported by Time. 



At two camps the thin boys have been consuming a 

 cup of tea and a biscuit before getting up, a breakfast of 

 hot cereal, milk, liver and onion sauce, bread, butter and 

 marmalade, a morning in-between lunch of an apple and 

 milk; a noon lunch of meat pie, cabbage, and mashed po- 

 tatoes, soup, figs and custard; a good big high tea in mid- 

 afternoon, and an evening dinner of fish and chips, tea, 

 bread and milk. 



Result: 1400 have passed the army tests. Laborite 

 members of Parliament are reported to be asking why 

 undernourished women and children cannot also be fed 

 back to health. 



The standard of living is somewhat lower among the 

 British poor than here, yet it is undoubtedly true that mil- 

 lions of our own people eat too little for proper nourish- 

 ment. If all the thin underfed men, women, and children 

 in America were turned loose on the farm surplus there 

 might not be enough left to fill up the ever-normal gran- 

 nary. Our real problem in the United States is to bring 

 about the proper balance in wages, farm prices, and indus- 

 trial prices — such a balance as would promote a rapid 

 exchange of goods and services. Then everyone could 



have all he wanted to eat. ; 



I 



L A. A. RECORD 





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