NEW DEAL: FIRST PHASES 



The governors wish the federal government immediately to license all handlers 

 and processors of agricultural products to pay fair exchange value, a price which 

 on the average is 70 per cent above that now prevailing. To enforce the imme- 

 diate adoption of such a price, in view of the inability of the city consumers to 

 take present quantities of farm products at such a price, the governors advo- 

 cated compulsory control of marketing so that each farmer would have a definite 

 quota to sell each month, thus backing up on the farm the products which 

 could not be sold at fair exchange values. 24 



The governors, it was said, wanted to put over "a program which amounts 

 substantially to the licensing of every plowed field and marketing by a 

 ticket punch system of all grain and livestock." 



The administration felt that if the farmers of the western Middle West 

 were willing to accept a type of regimentation that was under the com- 

 bined leadership of the federal and state governments, there was no cer- 

 tainty that the proposal would be acceptable in states such as Ohio, Penn- 

 sylvania, and New York, where large quantities of food were also pro- 

 duced and where the large city population would make it very difficult 

 to deliver the cooperation that was needed to make such a plan successful. 

 Then there was the question of whether the eastern and southern farmers 

 would be willing to submit to the regimentation proposed by the five 

 governors, who were anxious to extend the plan to other crops. 



Frankly, the administration was worried over these demands, but it was 

 of the opinion that the flow of cash into the corn and hog belt would quiet 

 down the farmers. "There has been no opportunity as yet to send out 

 checks to the corn and wheat regions of the west and northwest. The 

 wheat checks are now beginning to move and the corn-hog benefit checks 

 will begin to flow out into the country about January. Corn loan money 

 will become available within a few weeks. . . ." 2 



Once the federal administration had rejected the demand of the gov- 

 ernors for "cost of production," the leaders of the Farm Holiday Associa- 

 tion ordered a major offensive. About that time the administration advised 

 that Secretary of Agriculture Wallace make a "peace-making" tour in 

 behalf of the N.R.A. and the A.A.A. 26 On November n, 1933, Wallace 

 spoke in Des Moines, Iowa. There he admitted that farm prices had 



24. Ibid., November 5, 1933. 



25. Ibid. 



26. Ibid,, November 6, 1933. 



