THE ECONOMIC PROTEST 219 



protection to the associations. The Standard Mar- 

 keting Law prepared by Aaron Sapiro of California 

 was designed to meet fully all the legal requirements 

 and to give effectiveness to the sales policies of the 

 commodity associations. Texas was the first state 

 to pass this law, and since that time (1921) thirty- 

 five states have enacted a statute similar to that of 

 Texas. This is in itself a remarkable achievement. 

 It indicates the widespread influence exerted by 

 farmers in behalf of their own economic interests. 

 It is a tribute to the gifted author of the original 

 law that this act has been attacked repeatedly in 

 the courts since 1921 and its validity has been 

 uniformly upheld. 



Interest in cooperative marketing has been re- 

 flected in a mass of legislation that has been pro- 

 posed recently by Congress to aid in the solution 

 of the farmer's economic problems. Much of this 

 proposed legislation is economically unwise, un- 

 sound in policy, and unnecessary as an aid to more 

 efficient and successful commodity marketing. On 

 the whole, it has been inspired by good intentions 

 and supported by those who sincerely desire to im- 

 prove the economic status of the farm population. 



A brief summary of three of the bills proposed in 

 the sixty-eighth Congress will indicate the trend of 

 this proposed legislation. 



The McNary-Haugen bill was intended as an 

 emergency measure to relieve the distress of the 

 wheat farmers in 1923. This bill proposed to 



