THE FARM BLOC, 1920-23 335 



1921. There were duties of thirty cents per bushel on wheat, three cents 

 per pound on beef, two and a half cents per gallon on milk, eight cents per 

 dozen on eggs, fifty cents per hundred on potatoes, and twenty-four cents 

 per pound on scoured wool. 44 



Demands for added credit facilities were very strong during 1922. A 

 sharp controversy revolved around the structure of this permanent rural- 

 relief agency, but even at that some steps were taken to bring aid. Most 

 important was the act extending the powers of the War Finance Corpora- 

 tion for another year. Another act of March 20 made available $1,500,000 

 for the purchase of seed grain in areas of crop failure. Under these provi- 

 sions about twelve thousand loans in amounts of less than $300 were made 

 to farmers in the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. 45 



An amendment to the Federal Reserve Act provided for the placing of 

 an agricultural representative on the Reserve Board. Farm spokesmen ac- 

 cepted this as proof that agriculture was finally beginning to get treat- 

 ment equal to that enjoyed by commerce and industry. Such a step had 

 been advanced by those who felt that the postwar policies of the Federal 

 Reserve Board had been guided by people who had no idea what effect 

 its deflationary policy was going to have on the farmers. But evidence 

 proved that the board had not adopted a discriminatory policy against 

 agriculture, as farm leaders had long charged. 46 



Once the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional the measure 

 that had been passed in 1921 to regulate the grain exchanges, Congress 

 was faced with the task of passing a new law. This was to be the Grain 

 Futures Act of 1922, which was no different from the unconstitutional 

 Futures Trading Act except that it was based on the power of Congress 

 to regulate interstate commerce rather than on its power to tax. 



Meanwhile, bloc tactics had started to assume different dimensions. 

 The congressional elections of 1922 injected new life into the progressive 

 ranks. Toward the end of the Sixty-seventh Congress a progressive bloc 

 was formed, and into this passed many, if not most, of the old bloc mem- 

 bers. This new bloc was formed in December, 1922, when the economic 

 fortunes of the farmers had taken a turn for the better, and consisted of 



44. F. W. Taussig, "The Tariff Act of 1922," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 

 XXXVII (November, 1922), pp. 4-9. 



45. The New International Year Boo\, 1922, p. 24. 



46. Capper, The Agricultural Bloc, pp. 123-24. 



