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million dollars to buy still more food with. So there was thirty million 

 dollars in all. 



That money isn't all spent yet, but the very day that they began to spend 

 it, the prices of corn and wheat began to go up. The price of oats did not 

 go up for some time because they did not buy any oats. Since then prices 

 have gone up still farther. I do not mean to say that these purchases for 

 Russia have been the only bull factors. 



There is another important factor that isn't often mentioned. While 

 I was in Washington last spring and summer, trying to get some legislation 

 that would enable us to get rid of some of our surplus crops abroad on credit, 

 Mr. Eugene Meyer, head of the War Finance Corporation bitterly opposed 

 the plan, insisting that Europe did not need more food than it was then 

 buying for cash. I at once went or sent a representative to every Embassy 

 and Legation in Washington to get full and accurate details as to just how 

 much food and other farm products they needed from America. I presented 

 this data to the Agricultural Committee of the Senate and it proved convinc- 

 ing to them as is shown by the fact that they reported unanimously in favor 

 of the bill. A little later we .had a unanimous vote of the United States 

 Senate in favor of the bill. A little later we got a two to one vote in the 

 House, in Committee of the Whole, in favor of the bill. 



However, that did not prevent Mr. Meyer and Mr. McFadden, chairman 

 of the House Committee on Currency and Banking, from assassinating the 

 bill just before the recess. There was no time to get another vote on it and 

 so the export credit feature of the bill was killed. The only thing that the 

 bill contained after that was the domestic credit feature, which was good as 

 far as it went. That feature enabled the War Finance Corporations to loan 

 money to banks or middlemen or to farmers' organizations. 



MARKETS, NOT CREDIT ALOXE NEEDED. 



I said at that time, and I think farmers will agree with me, that it 

 wasn't credit the farmer needed primarily, but markets. I said, "We are 

 not paupers, we don't need to be on anybody's charity list. All we want 

 is a chance to sell the products of our toil and soil, not for a profit, but for 

 something near cost." 



Last fall we did not get one-third of the production cost. I sold corn 

 last October in Iowa for twenty-five cents a bushel. It cost me more than 

 seventy-five cents to grow it. There was a time in February when I could 

 have sold corn for September delivery for seventy-four cents a bushel in 

 Chicago, which in Central Illinois would have netted me about sixty-four 

 cents a bushel, and in Iowa about fifty-four cents a bushel. But as I had 

 credit I hung on to the corn and later sold it for about half that much. 

 My situation reminded me of the stranger who went to the prayer meeting. 

 Everybody was called on to tell "what the Lord done for them," and all re- 

 sponded but the stranger, who never spoke publicly because he stuttered 

 and had a hair-lip. Finally the parson said, "Brother, everybody has spoken 

 but you. Won't you tell us what the Lord has done for you? He was very 

 much embarrassed, but quaking and blushing, finally rose to his feet and 

 stammered, "He d-d-dam near ruined me." 



That is what credit did for me and for a host of other farmers last year. 

 I lost several thousand dollars by having credit. It was a good thing how- 

 ever that I continued to have credit last fall, as a consequence I sold very 

 little corn in Iowa for twenty-five cents. I have been holding most of our 

 corn and now I can get about two-thirds of the cost of production for it in- 

 stead of one-third at present prices. I am still losing money, but I am not 

 losing it as fast as I did last fall. 



After this controversy in Washington, Mr. Wallace sent two men abroad 

 to study the European situation and find out what quantity of our surplus 

 farm products Europe could use. Their report of course would show 

 whether Mr. Meyer or I was right. These men went all over Europe and 

 came back about a month ago. Their figures showed that the estimates I 

 had made were too small rather than too large. They gave the number of 



