AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



a chief who is definitely progressive, entirely sympathetic toward agricul- 

 ture, and completely determined to use every means at his command to 

 restore farm buying power." This, he believed, was no small factor, be- 

 cause it was incumbent upon the New Deal to "make up for twelve years 

 of lost time" to take marginal lands out of production, to reduce the 

 output in the principal crops, and to lower tariffs over a period of one, 

 two, or three years. He felt that agriculture had a fighting chance because 

 the White House was in the hands of the farmers' allies. He granted that 

 his new assignment was going to be a trying one, but said that "... I 

 go down to Washington with real hope that something worth while can 

 be done at once." 35 



Meanwhile there had descended on Washington "farm leaders repre- 

 senting every shade of opinion, every commodity, and every locality." 

 Also there came "the forces of opposition the grain dealers, the meat 

 packers, the millers, the cotton converters, and the hundreds of business 

 elements affected by farm legislation." 36 What objections there were to 

 relief proposals were likely to be overlooked, for the time being at least, 

 because of the need to do something for the farmers before the spring 

 crops were planted. 37 



Judging from the preliminary efforts, statements, and the established 

 views of the administration leaders, one required little insight to figure 

 out in advance the nature of the new farm act. In graphic fashion, Wal- 

 laces' Farmer said of the proposed new bill: 



... It has more power than the old Goldsborough bill, the McNary-Haugen 

 bill and all the land bank acts put together. As soon as the bill passes, three big 

 horses will be ready to work for the farmer. 



The first horse is the section of the bill that provides for increasing farm 

 buying power by paying farmers to reduce production to effective demand. 



The second horse is the section that cuts interest rates on many farm mort- 

 gages and makes possible the scaling down of the principal on many more. 



The third horse, led out last week amid farm cheers, is inflation. 38 



It was a foregone conclusion that inflationary measures were going to 



35. Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead, LVIII (March 4, 1933), p. 5. 



36. Business WeeJ^ (March 22, 1933), p. 13. 



37. "Idle Acres," ibid. (March 29, 1933), p. 3. 



38. Wallaces' Farmer and Iowa Homestead, LVIII (April 29, 1933), p. 3. 



