40 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



that Congress heard its first warnings and the 

 needs of agriculture were first presented by 

 those who were awake to the situation. 



The decline in the farmers' dollar continued 

 through 1921 without abatement and the bottom 

 was not reached until December of that year, 

 when the first signs of improvement could be 

 noticed. It was in May, 1921, that the agricul- 

 tural group first began to study the situation 

 carefully, since even then there had been a 

 steady decline of a year and a half and it did not 

 require great foresight to see what was coming. 



This decline in agricultural prices was the 

 most violent drop ever experiemced, because 

 prices had risen to heights never before equaled 

 in our history, and within two years had dropped 

 to low levels seldom before experienced. This 

 was not a new economic event since historical 

 statistics show that there were similar declines 

 following previous wars, followed by periods of 

 slow recovery. Had this situation been recog- 

 nized by the government in sufficient time, there 

 is no question that the blow could have been 

 softened, thousands of bankruptcies avoided and 

 untold suffering stayed. 



But we learn only by experience and it seems 

 that each generation must undergo its own bar- 



