836 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



the parity issue and came forward with a program which we feel con- 

 forms to the interests of the American family farmers. We so notified 

 Secretary of Agricultm-e Brannan, and the various Senators and 

 Members of Congress, who represent our members in Washington. 



I would like to file with the committee a copy of the convention 

 resolution. It was adopted unanimously by the convention. 



Mr. Pace. Without objection it may be inserted at this point in the 

 record. 



(The resolution is as follows:) 



FE-CIO Farm Policy 



Our union has long believed that the family farmers are the allies of labor and 

 their problems interrelated with the problems of labor, both arising from the 

 strangle hold on the national economy by the large monopoly employees and food 

 processors. 



Pioneering in the field on farm-labor relations we launched a program to apprise 

 farm groups of labor's problems and labor groups of the problems of the farmers. 

 Our objective was farmer-labor cooperation based on understanding and respect. 

 This program has been highly successful within the framework of our limited 

 resources. Our work has borne fruit. 



The break in farm prices within the past year has particular significance to labor 

 and especially to the workers in the farm-equipment industry. Farm purchasing 

 power is shrinking and the agricultural crisis is coming to a head at an extremely 

 increasing tempo in the countryside. 



Today, the farmers have the atomic guns of the large monopolies trained on 

 them, just as labor was bombarded by the propaganda organs of Big Business 

 before the passage of the Taft-Hartley law. The object of the monopolies and 

 their congressional hatchet men is to remove as many as two-thirds of the farmers 

 from any benefits which they might derive from an adequate Federal farm pro- 

 gram, to enact into law measures which would aid only top-bracket farmers and 

 corporation enterprises, drive as many as 4,000,000 farmers completely from the 

 land and into the towns and cities as a reservoir of labor to undermine wage rates 

 and trade-unions, and to prevent the family farmers from receiving the 100 percent 

 of parity which they need in order, together with other measures, to guarantee a 

 floor under their annual income: therefore be it 



Resolved, That we, the delegates to the Fourth Constitutional Convention of 

 the United Farm Equipment Workers, hereby reaffirm our active support of the 

 family farmers and their struggle for security in their farms and homes and for a 

 standard of living comparable to other social groups. 



We support legislation which will — 



1. Guarantee family farmers 100 percent of parity as a base for farm price- 

 support floors. 



2. Compensatory payments to farmers, when needed to enable consumers to 

 take advantage of food crops which are temporarily plentiful. 



3. The food-stamp plan. 



4. Adequate crop storage facilities. 

 .5. Rural telephones and electricity. 



6. Crop insurance. 



7. Cheap Government credit. 



8. Soil conservation. 



9. And the development of the river valleys patterned after TVA. 



We support legislation which will make for a better social and cultural life in the 

 countrj'side, better roads, housing, education, medical facilities, and recreational 

 facilities: be it further 



Resolved, That, pursuant to our policy of developing better understanding and 

 more cooperation between the men and women in the factories and the men and 

 women on the farms that we continue our farm relations work * * * (and) 

 * * * wholeheartedly support the formation of a national farmer-labor 

 committee, now in the process of being formed by our farm relations department. 



Mr. Ayres. Mr. Chairman, we support the broad general outline 

 of Mr. Brannan's farm program. His proposal for relatively high 

 support prices is in keeping with our ideas. 



