160 Singing Valleys 



Nobody knew what to do about it. The export trade in pork 

 had fallen off badly, due to Denmark's raising hogs for the 

 British market and the efforts of all the European countries to 

 re-establish their farmers. Germany returned as a customer for 

 lard and boomed this market for us in 1923. But there, too, 

 the effort was being made to raise lard at home. A few years 

 later the tariff on foreign lard was raised from $1 per hundred 

 pounds to $17. This cut off the market in Germany. Mexico, 

 another good customer for lard, began to talk tariffs. 



Where was American corn going to go, if not into hogs? 

 And if into hogs, then who was going to buy them? The entire 

 agrarian scheme of the country was broken down. It was as 

 stalled as the power cultivator standing in Farmer Walt Jay- 

 cox's shed. He kicked the front wheel disgustedly. 



"Look at the durn thing. It's as bad as Lonny Brewer won't 

 work lessen you fill it plumb full of firewater. Only Lonny'll 

 drink corn likker. This contraption has got to have gasoline. 

 And it hasn't given me a spadeful of manure since I got it." 



The farm situation was waiting for Calvin Coolidge when 

 he walked into the White House after Harding's death. But 

 the ex-Governor of Massachusetts, who said "the man who 

 builds a factory builds a temple," frankly considered the manu- 

 facturers of the country of greater value to its development 

 than the farmers. It was the old story all over again; industrial- 

 ized New England against the agrarian midwest. 



Once again the fight was on between the white milled loaves 

 and the strong yellow bread of the frontier. 



Congressmen from the corn belt stormed Congress for relief 

 for their constituents. The result was the McNary-Haugen Bill 

 which the House passed, and the President vetoed. A second 

 time the House passed it, and again the man from Massachu- 

 setts used his power to say "No." Farm relief was shelved for 

 the time being. And farm prices sank lower. 



As though to force the farm crisis on the country, the weather 

 now took a hand. There were three years of drought and con- 



