420 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



wheat acreage would have to be eliminated in order to offset the 2 per cent 

 increase in winter wheat. 56 Spring wheat spokesmen insisted that they 

 contributed neither to the surplus nor to the export trade, but that the 

 winter wheat area did. 57 



These protests hardly stopped the Farm Board with its acreage-reduc- 

 tion program. At the end of March a group of economists left Washington 

 for the agricultural Northwest to explain to the farmers there how much 

 better off they would be if they devoted some land to flax, barley, rye, 

 oats, alfalfa, and sweet clover. 58 



Protests against reduction came from other quarters, too. The Nation 

 was hardly enthralled by this latest proposal of the Board. It remarked 

 that "As a farm reliever Mr. Legge is an incomparable machinery manu- 

 facturer," and suggested that Uncle Sam could well afford "to pay him 

 an enormous salary to go back and work for International Harvester 

 Company while we get any one of a hundred educated economists to run 

 the Farm Board at say $10,000." It added that, "What big business men 

 like Mr. Legge [who know nothing about economics and history] cannot 

 get into their heads is that you cannot control production and prices 

 among millions of farmers all over the world in the same way as among 

 a half-dozen big machinery manufacturers." 5 



By midsummer the Farm Board was involved in a fight over acreage 

 reduction that was as "hot as a July wheat-field in Kansas." In July wheat 

 prices broke below the ninety-cent mark on the Chicago market, which 

 simply added to the already confused state of affairs. There were some 

 60,000,000 bushels of wheat on hand; a new crop was coming on the 

 market; the purchasing power of the farmers was low enough as things 

 were; the Board was being challenged on all sides by conservatives and 

 radicals alike; the Democrats were making political capital out of Repub- 

 lican misfortunes ; and congressmen and senators were coming up for re- 

 election. This created a pretty set of problems. 60 



More drama was lent to the campaign when Legge and Hyde toured 



56. Pioneer Press, January 16, 1930. 



57. Literary Digest, CIV (February 22, 1930), p. 17. 



58. Pioneer Press, April 3, 1930; "The Battle of the Wheat," Literary Digest, CVT 

 (July 26, 1930), pp. 7-8. 



59. The Nation, CXXX (March 26, 1930), p. 351. 



60. Literary Digest, CVI (July 26, 1930), pp. 7-8. 



