NEW DEAL: LATER STAGES 5 2 9 



In speaking before the same audience, M. L. Wilson said, "The really 

 important problem is to discover a market for exports rather than to 

 keep out imports. Among our largest markets for wheat during the pres- 

 ent season have been The Netherlands, Belgium, and Sweden, with all 

 of which we have concluded reciprocal trade agreements." ' 



John Vesecky, of Salina, Kansas, president of the national Farmers' 

 Union, endorsed the principle of reciprocal trade, which he hoped would 

 "gradually lower the trade barriers which are now blocking international 

 rivers of commerce . . . , but in so doing care must be exercised to safe- 

 guard the farmer's interest." At the same time, he advised that we "all 

 rid ourselves of the idea that our own special patent medicine is a cure- 

 all for all our farm problems." 73 



E. A. O'Neal, of the American Farm Bureau Federation, urged the 

 negotiation of pacts if they sought to provide new markets for American 

 farm products and at the same time reduce "our excessive industrial tar- 

 iffs." However, he voiced opposition to any action that would have the 

 effect of lowering prices below parity price levels. 74 Allan Kline, vice-presi- 

 dent of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, said that "a gradual lowering 

 of tariffs undertaken in a studied way with the welfare of the whole 

 people in mind and carefully administered would be an asset should 

 and will be an advantage." 75 



Louis J. Taber, the master of the national Grange, was not so sure that 

 the trade agreements were doing for the farmers all that their spokesmen 

 claimed for them. Why should labor and business be allowed to profit 

 "at the expense of agriculture?" "We have a tariff policy, not because 

 of agriculture, but because of industry. For more than a century, the 

 farmer has paid tariff costs with little or no direct benefits. Now when 

 industry wants to trade machinery, supplies, scrap iron, or printing presses 

 for farm products to some other agricultural nation the farmer does 

 have a right to complain. The government has not been fair to the pro- 

 ducer of export crops during all these years." 76 



72. Chicago Tribune, February 19, 1938. 



73. Milwaukee Journal, February 20, 1938. 



74. New Yorf( Times, March 16, 1938. 



75. Ibid., March 21, 1938; Kline was elected president of the Farm Bureau in 

 1947. 



76. Chicago Tribune, February 19, 1938. 



