GENERAL FARM PROGRAM l4X 



veal production droppeu 20 percent and pork production dropped 

 30 percent. There were further reductions in 1937. It was not until 

 1942 that cattle numbers came back to the 1934 level. 



A more recent example was the short corn crop of 1947. Farmers 

 had already been selling meat animals faster than they were replacing 

 them. The short croj) speeded up the trend, resulting in shorter 

 supplies and higher prices of meat. We are still feehng the effects. 

 Reserves will help us maintain livestock production from year to year 

 and help prevent extreme fluctuations in price. 



Adequate reserves are essential for still other reasons. We believe 

 that free-flowing world trade is necessary to world peace. To the 

 extent that we can, we want to discourage the tendency of some 

 of our sister nations and traditional good customers to return to 

 nationalistic self-sufficiency with its artificial trade barriers and 

 economic warfare. One means of doing so is to assure importing 

 nations that they will have access to supplies they need year after 

 year. That assurance on one commodity can be given through the 

 pending international wheat agi'eement, and at the same time we 

 and other exporters assure ourselves of regular markets. Wheat 

 reserves will enable us to guarantee our commitments under the 

 wheat agreement. Steady supplies of other export commodities can 

 also be assured to importing nations by means of reserves. 



It should also be remembered that a democracy with reserves and 

 great productive power is a great comfort to nations fearing either 

 famine or foreign aggression. Our practical ability to serve as a friend 

 in need will determine how well we can meet om- responsibilities 

 of leadership^ — how well we can serve the cause of world peace and 

 democracy. 



Reserves of storable commodities are a natural adjunct of price 

 supports. The}^ are an aim as well as a result of the farm program. 

 They represent an important part of the insurance which the public 

 buys with the funds it invests in maintaining a healthy agriculture. 



6. A price-support program which safeguards our rural economic 

 strength can help stabilize the rural community and help maintain 

 individual opportunity in our free-enterprise system. 



One bulwark of democracy may be found in the prosperous rural 

 commimity mainly composed of economically strong families farming 

 in the traditional American pattern. It is an ever-present answer 

 to communism. 



We should be aware that for many years there has been a steady 

 increase in the numbei- of large-scale, industrialized type of farming 

 unit. Many of these are absentee and coi'porate OA^Tied. According 

 to the 1945 census, about 100,000 of the largest units — fewer than 

 2 percent of all farmS' — are selling products valued at nearly one-fourth 

 of all the farm products marketed in this country. This is more 

 than is sold in total by two-thirds of all our farms, including half of 

 our family farms. 



If we are to have stable and prosperous rural communities with 

 schools, churches, health services, and other facilities, it is plain that 

 many farm people need greater economic security and ODportunity. 



Price supports are the farmer's equivalent of the laboring man's 

 minimum wage, social security, and collective-bargaining agreements. 



Of course, price support does not meet the fundamental problem of 

 the operator who cannot produce a large enough volume to make a 



