124 ,THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



basic to all other industries, with a greater capi- 

 tal value, was not asking to dictate Federal 

 policies when it asked to be represented by one 

 man on a board of seven. 



Not all of the press, however, was unsym- 

 pathetic or lacking in discernment. Some of the 

 newspapers whose editorial writers had given 

 more attention to studying the agricultural 

 situation were frank to point out the facts as 

 they saw them. The Washington Herald 

 said : 



"In turning to a fair examination of what the Bloc has 

 done with its power, it must be said that so far as these 

 measures are concerned, which they initiated or advocated, 

 little can be said in the nature of criticism even by those 

 who are mostly disposed to deplore the underlying princi- 

 ple of group action in politics. . . . One of the most strik- 

 ing events in the present CongTess was frequently but er- 

 roneously attributed to the leadership of the Faim Bloc, 

 that was the forcing of the retention of high sur-taxes on 

 large incomes." 



The New York Commercial said : 



"If the so-called Farmers^ Bloc can develop legislation 

 that will reach the fundamentals it will have not only the 

 sympathy but the support of the entire country. ... If on 

 specific problems they will devote themselves to the develop- 

 ment of better marketing facilities . . . they would be get- 

 ting down to the root of their own troubles and those of 

 the nation at large." 



