THE FARM LAND 65 



FARMERS AND CROP CONTROL 



To find a market for surplus agricultural products, several 

 schemes were proposed. The best known of these was the 

 McNary-Haugen Bill, which was finally vetoed twice by Presi 

 dent Coolidge, once in 1927 and again in 1928. The essential 

 purpose of this bill was to fix the domestic price at a high 

 figure which would yield enough profit so that the farmers 

 could afford to sell the surplus abroad at the lower prices for 

 eign countries were willing to pay. 60 



When President Hoover came into office, the country was 

 still going through an industrial boom. But the farm problem 

 grew worse. Mr. Hoover's solution of the farm problem was 

 the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929. This act rejected the 

 idea of price-fixing and subsidies to farmers, 61 for the idea of 

 limiting surpluses. This idea of limiting surpluses was later to 

 become the keystone of a more drastic agricultural law. The 

 important thing about Mr. Hoover's method of limiting sur 

 pluses was that they were to be reduced by a voluntary agree 

 ment among the farmers. Another feature of the act was the 

 stabilising corporations. These were agencies set up by the gov 

 ernment to buy agricultural surpluses with government money 

 and either sell these surpluses abroad or keep them in storage 

 until the price reached the high figure originally paid for the 

 produce. Thus the Grain Stabilisation Corporation bought 

 330,000,000 bushels of wheat at 20 to 30 cents a bushel more 

 than it would bring on the world market. 62 As soon as the 

 Grain Stabilisation Corporation stopped buying grain, how 

 ever, the domestic price fell to 57 cents a bushel, the lowest 

 price since 1896. 63 The Corporation was left with a huge 

 wheat surplus on its hands and no way to get rid of it, and the 



60 Ibid., pp. 645-646. 



61 Ibid., p. 648. 



62 Ibid., p. 649. 



63 Loc. tit. 



