810 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



It would insure credit for farm products and encourage private venture capital 

 and private enterprise. 



It would mean a saving in the cost of living for the consumer; 



It would eliminate waste on farm products through overproduction; 



It would afford business a chart for production, and 



It would insure against communism and socialism. 



It is our opinion that such a law at this time would prove a stablizer for jittery 

 business and prevent the predicted and expected depression. We farther believe 

 a law which has been tried and proven successful is to be preferred to large ex- 

 penditures through WPA programs and drastic rules and regulations as would be 

 necessary to bail us out of a depression. The fact is buying power is the sustaining 

 element of free enterprise and our competitive system. We respectfully submit 

 this petition for your consideration and have voluntarily contributed our financial 

 assistance thereto. 



Respectfully. 



Now right at this particular time salaries from the President on 

 down have been increased, whereas farm income has dropped down 

 to and below the level of 1942. Unemployment has increased to its 

 highest point since 1941. In the face of that fact all of these wages 

 have been increased. 



It would insure food for national defense; it would insure credit for 

 farm production and increase private capital for private enterprise. 



Right at this particular time it| is impossible for a banker to loan a 

 farmer money on a vegetable crop. He has no idea what price those 

 vegetables will bring. 



It would mean a saving in the cost of living for the consumer. It 

 would eliminate waste of farm products on the farm. 



Now in the circulating of this petition we have found that 98 

 percent of the people with whom we have been in contact, doctors, 

 lawyers, bankers, bootblacks, Japs, farmers, carpenters, painters, 

 have signed this petition. They have signed it for the reason that 

 they believe that peace and prosperity are at times, and at the present 

 time, the two most important things of life. 



Within the past few years we have fought two world wars. The 

 cost cannot be estimated. Hundreds of thousands of the finest 

 citizens lost their lives; thousands were wounded and will never be 

 able to take up life as they had. Billions of dollars and mountains 

 of resources were used in these wars. 



While we know it was all man-made and inevitable, we have recently 

 discovered preparedness is one way we will be able to prevent war. 

 We have learned the way to peace is expensive. Isolationists now 

 recognize we are a world power and that our responsibilities are not 

 confined within the boundaries of these United States. At last we 

 have set up a program, costing billions of dollars, not as a preparation 

 for war but for the preservation of peace. 



Like peace — we are beginning to learn — progress costs money. 

 As we venture into the higher standard of living, more money is 

 required to attain that level. 



The day of the one-mule farm in Georgia is passed. Our prosperity, 

 like peace, has been attacked many times, and depressions, like wars, 

 are costly. 



We find that isolationists are against safeguarding prosperity, just 

 as they were against preserving the peace. We know depressions are 

 farm-fed and far -led ; that the farmer is the first to fall and suffer from 

 low prices, and to plow under a farm product means decreased buying 

 power, unemployment, and closed factories. We come to you this 

 morning with the idea that agriculture is equally as important as 



