Chapter XVI 



THE NEW DEAL FARM PROGRAM 



IS BORN 



IT WAS a foregone conclusion that the change in the national admin- 

 istration in 1933 would bring about sharp changes in the farm pro- 

 gram. The Federal Farm Board conceded the need for this in its final 

 report when it said that more drastic and far-reaching measures were 

 needed. The farm strike also helped to dramatize the situation and to 

 emphasize the desperate measures that some were willing to apply. Once 

 the inadequacies of the Farm Board program had been demonstrated, 

 the Farm Bureau renewed its campaign for the equalization fee; the 

 Grange stepped up its demands for the export debenture plan ; and the na- 

 tional Farmers' Union, under the leadership of John Simpson, sponsored 

 a price-fixing scheme that aimed to guarantee the farmers their "cost 

 of production." This revealed divisions in the ranks of the organized 

 farm groups which prompted spokesmen for the incoming administra- 

 tion to inject themselves into the scene and bring about some semblance 

 of unity. The result was the adoption of the A.A.A., a socio-economic ex- 

 periment of far greater dimensions than anything that the Farm Board 

 had dreamed of, and one in which the farmers of the western Middle 

 West were to play a conspicuous role. 



The domestic allotment plan that emerged as a rival farm-relief meas- 

 ure during the last year of the Hoover administration furnished a sub- 

 stantial base on which the New Deal farm-policy shapers were to build. 



