AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



recommendations of both the Joint Commission of Agricultural Inquiry 

 and the National Agricultural Conference, in 1922 enacted the Capper- 

 Volstead Act, which legalized cooperative marketing associations and 

 defined the terms under which producers engaged in interstate commerce 

 could organize. The Capper- Volstead Act, referred to as "the Magna 

 Carta of Cooperative Marketing," bore the names of two representatives 

 from the western Middle West, Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas and 

 Representative Andrew Volstead of Minnesota. In 1922 Congress also 

 passed the Grain Futures Act, which sought to protect cooperatives from 

 discrimination at the hands of boards of trade and chambers of commerce. 

 Financial help was provided by extending the life of the War Finance 

 Corporation and by passing the Intermediate Credits Act of 1923. The 

 Purnell Act of 1925 made available more funds for marketing research. 

 In 1926 Congress created the Division of Cooperative Marketing in the 

 Bureau of Agricultural Economics, which proved to be of great help to the 

 cooperatives. Added moral support came from a report of the National 

 Industrial Conference Board and the Business Men's Commission, which 

 recommended the establishment of cooperatives to stabilize farm prices 

 and to aid agriculture. Finally in 1929 the Agricultural Marketing Act 

 was passed. 5 



The personal equation was also a factor. One of the most ardent ex- 

 ponents, as well as the very personification of the promotional phases of 

 the cooperative movement, was Aaron Sapiro. Sapiro, unlike other farm 

 leaders, did not support the McNary-Haugen program. Instead, he 

 preached the cooperative gospel with an evangelical vehemence. His 

 activities began on the Pacific Coast and then spread eastward. He helped 

 organize tobacco growers in the South, wheat growers in the western 

 Middle West, broom-corn raisers in Oklahoma, milk producers in the 

 Chicago area, potato growers in Maine and Minnesota, and grain growers 

 in Canada. In 1923 he was made general counsel for the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. Despite the fact that he won his greatest following 

 in the South, his influence was felt in the western Middle West. 6 



5. Federal Farm Board, Cooperative Marketing oj Farm Products, Bulletin 10 

 (Washington, 1932), pp. 21-22; Wilson Gee, American Farm Policy (New York, 

 1934), pp. 30-34; Cooperative Marketing (70 Congress, i session, Senate Document 

 95, serial 8859, Washington, 1928), pp. 392-93. 



6. Silas Bent, "Three City-Bred Jews That the Farmers Trust," Outloo\, CXXXIV 



