410 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



The appointment of Legge was bound to cause comment. It was hardly 

 surprising that "friends of the farmers" looked upon him with suspicion. 

 To some the fact that he was president of International Harvester and 

 had several million dollars of his own had sinister implications. Others 

 believed that Legge was more concerned about higher prices for plows 

 and farm implements than he was about better prices for the farmers. His 

 confirmation by the Senate was described as "an act of reluctant 

 acquiescence." l 



The ordeal to which the Board members were exposed before con- 

 firmation was indicative of the rough road over which the administration 

 farm policy shapers were to travel. The Board was face to face with a 

 hostile and suspicious Congress, "disappointed with the results of its farm 

 relief legislation so far, differing in fundamental respects with the views 

 of members of the Board regarding the policies the Board should pursue, 

 and determined to exercise constant pressure determined to make the 

 Board meet the Congressional view." It was even said that the legislation 

 passed was "unsatisfactory to nearly everybody concerned" with farming. 

 According to these critics, "The law was passed as a compromise and a 

 sop to the farmer. . . ," 18 



The Senate hearings brought forth other interesting views. Some sena- 

 tors were still thinking in terms of an export debenture; others were 

 skeptical over having the Board try to raise or fix agricultural prices by 

 buying and holding staples off the market. Legge himself indicated that 

 the Board would resort to buying and removing crops from the market 

 and not confine itself strictly to the building up of cooperatives, while 

 others believed that the Board program would be ineffective unless ac- 

 companied with a program to control production. 17 



First among the producers to receive the attention of the Farm Board 

 were the grain growers. When it assembled for its first meeting on July 

 26 and 27, there were about four thousand local grain cooperatives, eight 

 wheat pools, and twelve cooperative terminal agencies in operation. In 

 attendance there were fifty-two delegates representing thirty-five associa- 

 tions, including the Farm Bureau, the Farmers' Union, the Grange, and 



15. "Washington Notes," New Republic, LXI (December 25, 1929), p. 140. 



16. "The Farm Board Faces the Future," Business Wee\ (October 19, 1929), 



PP- 3-4- 



17. Ibid. 



