FUTURE OF THE FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT 261 



to find itself in opposition to the great body of consumers. 

 If farm bureaus, for example, should attempt to use their 

 combined power to fix prices or to control the food supply, 

 they would then be dealt with by the government with 

 force. They would be regulated and controlled in the 

 public interest. Is this the end to be desired, or is it better 

 to cooperate? 



Few farmers' organizations have succeeded in becoming 

 really national in scope, in fact, there is no truly national 

 farmers' organization at the present time. No group of 

 farmers ever had before it such an opportunity to become 

 really and truly national, based as it is on county units 

 with a common plan and program and cooperating with 

 the government, as that now before the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. And no farmers' organization ever 

 before had a greater opportunity for service in county, 

 state and nation. 



The farm bureau movement has been organized so rapidly 

 and under such pressure from farmers themselves, once 

 they grasped its possibilities, that there has been too great 

 seeking for immediate results for the permanent good of 

 the movement. There is a consequent tendency to short- 

 sightedness and failure to look ahead to the more perma- 

 nent conditions, circumstances and results. This danger 

 must be avoided. Already temporary economic conditions 

 and the emergency needs of farmers have led the Ameri- 

 can Farm Bureau Federation into political activities which 

 are taking it farther and farther afield from the original 

 purposes of the farm bureaus. A current news letter of an 

 observing "Washington newspaper correspondent (Mark 

 Sullivan) thus describes the present situation : 



"Practically the single purpose of the farm bloc in Congress 

 and also of the American Farm Bureau Federation of which the 

 farm bloc in Congress is merely the political agent, is better busi- 



