GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 835 



myself for about 30 years, or more, and I have a ranch now in western 

 South Dakota. 



Our organization has long been aware of the fact that the interests 

 of the farmers and the interests of the farm equipment workers are 

 interrelated. When farmers have purchasing power they are able to 

 bu3^ the implements our workers make in the plants. Then our 

 membei's have stead}^ emplojanent. Steady employment, of course, 

 at a decent wage is one of our chief concerns. 



We are also interested in the farm problem because we are consumers 

 of farm products. A third reason we are interested in the farm 

 problem is because many of our members live on farms themselves, 

 working part time in the shops. Finally, we are interested in the 

 welfare of the farmers because we believe that it is necessary for the 

 farmers to be in a prosperous state if the economy of the country as a 

 whole is to be healthy. 



For this reason, we have been vitally interested in legislation which 

 will insure high farm incomes and prevent the national farm income 

 from slumping down to the point where we will have a depression. 

 The depression of the 1930's had a devastating effect on the whole 

 farm-equipment industry. Many of the plants were idle and the men 

 unemployed. We do not wnsh to see a recurrence of this situation. 



We are interested in a high farm income, not only for the farmer 

 situated on the best farms and blessed with sufficient rainfall, but for 

 the farmers who have been characterized as being the lower half, who 

 even during the war years and since, when farm prices were relatively 

 high, failed to receive sufficient income to enable them to buy much 

 needed farm equipment and have a living standard comparable to 

 urban and farm families elsewhere. 



When the farm commodity market slumped last fall and this winter, 

 the workers in the farm-equipment plants started to suffer lay-offs. 

 Many of them have had their working hours shortened. Few now 

 work overtime. This is due, in part, to the fact that farmers are 

 worried about the future prospects for farm prices. Farmers are 

 tightening their purse strings, even though some still have money in 

 the bank, waiting to see what sort of a farm program Congress will 

 enact. 



In support of this statement I will quote from a story the news 

 magazine United States News and World Reports carried on April 15. 

 In a report from the rich farming area of Grundy Center, Iowa, we are 

 informed that in farm machinery — 



demand has slumped siifficientl.y to transform scarcity into plenty almost over- 

 night, without much increase in the supply of farm machinery * * * One 

 farmer has just canceled a $5,800 order placed a year ago for a heavy tractor, a 

 corn picker, and a combine. He said a 28-cent drop in the price he could get for 

 his corn and a 67-cent break in the soybean price convinced him that he could not 

 afford that much machinery. Not, at any rate, until the price of machinery also 

 came down. 



This same general condition that exists in Grundy Center, Iowa, 

 holds for the rural towns all over the country. Implement dealers' 

 yards are now well stocked with farm machinery and the farmers are 

 canceling orders. 



PiH'suant to our policy of supporting the farmers, many of oiu- locals 

 passed resolutions favoring 100 percent of parity as a basis for farm 

 price floors. Later, oiu* fomth constitutional convention held in 

 Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in March confirmed the action of our locals on 



