THE ECONOMIC PROTEST 227 



offered as loans to cooperative marketing groups. 

 The Robinson amendment proposed the establish- 

 ment of a 200 million dollar farm Export Corpora- 

 tion with authority to make loans "to any farmers, 

 ranchers, or planters acting separately or in coop- 

 ative associations" for the purpose of enabling 

 them to dispose of surplus crops. Both amendments 

 were defeated before the final vote was taken on 

 the original bill. The passage of the Cooperative 

 Marketing bill by the Senate ended the longest de- 

 bate and the most thorough consideration that Con- 

 gress has ever given to proposed farm legislation. 



Those who favored the equalization fee principle 

 of the McNary-Haugen bill were disappointed. It 

 is claimed that the net result of congressional action 

 was the creation of a division of cooperative market- 

 ing in the Department of Agriculture. The act only 

 gives legal sanction to the work of the Bureau of 

 Agricultural Economics, which has been encouraging 

 commodity marketing under executive order for 

 several years. This legislation, however, does insure 

 more adequate funds for this purpose, and this prob- 

 ably is the only benefit that can be derived from 

 this latest effort at farm relief. 



There seems to be some danger at the present tune 

 that agricultural enterprise will be caused to suffer 

 from too much rather than too little legislation. 

 This menace is greater in Congress than in the 

 several state legislatures. If another financial de- 



