Page Eighteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



March y 19)2 



of the legislation they received, was to increase 

 •gricultural income. Yet I noticed that Secre- 

 tary Hyde recently said that either the equali- 

 zation fee or the debenture would raise prices, 

 and that higher prices secured in this way 

 would increase production. I submit that if 

 production is increased, as he surmises, it is 

 the price itself which will be the reason for it 

 and not the method of raising the price, such 

 as the equalization fee or the debenture. If he 

 means that the farmer should not have a higher 

 price he should say so. 



Mellon*s Comment 



Secretary Mellon was more honest in voicing 

 his objection to the equalization fee, when he 

 said that it would raise the price of farm prod- 

 ucts in the United States above prices prevail- 

 ing in other countries, and that the American 

 manufacturer would be at a disadvantage as 

 compared with European competitors in seeking 

 foreign business. Of course, that is just what 

 the tariff, does on industrial products, but it is 

 a point of view honestly entertained by many 

 industrialists. 



Among the administration remedies proposed, 

 some of tl"em very recently, are: (a) cut down 

 production; (b) plow up every third row of 

 cotton; (c) kill every tenth cow; (d) more and 

 better golf courses. It should be borne in mind 

 that acreage is only one factor in production; 

 75 per cent of the variation in yield of crops 

 from year to year is beyond human control, 

 being due to weather, pests, drought, flood and 

 similar causes. It is hard to understand why 

 the recommendation should be made of plowing 

 up every third row of cotton. Why not advo- 

 cate letting it stand in the field and not pick- 

 ing it? This suggestion would at least have the 

 merit of saving the labor of plowing. If tVe 

 recommendation "kill every tenth cow" were 

 not so serious it would strike some of us as 

 very funny, because it was only very recently 

 that loaning corporations were being formed for 

 the purpose of putting more farmers into the 

 dairy business, even when attention was called 

 to the possible effect of breaking down this 

 industry through the over-stimulation of pro- 

 duction in the manner which was undertaken. 

 The recommendation for more and better golf 

 courses will meet with the approval of our 

 enthusiastic golfers, of course, but it cannot be 

 regarded seriously as a measure of farm relief. 



Corporation Farming 



Corporation farming is discussed in many 

 quarters as a way out of the present trouble. 

 I think that while this method may in a few 

 instances, under certain conditions, prove suc- 

 cessful, in general the whole idea is wrong. 

 I say this because of the social as well as the 

 economic conditions surrounding the farm. The 

 farm is a home and farming is a business. Cor- 

 poration farming suggests the payment of wages, 

 and I believe that farming has been possible at 

 all only on account of the unpaid labor of the 

 women and children on the farm. I think that 

 this factor alone will prevent any great growth 

 of corporation farming. The social aspects are 

 being recognized in many states where legis- 

 lation already has been passed or is under con- 

 sideration for restricting this enterprise. 



The Real Trouble 



The real trouble with the farmer is traceable 

 to our governmental policies since the war and 

 the indifference of the last three national ad- 

 ministrations to agriculture. Our policy for 

 the expansion of foreign trade in industrial 

 products was a mistaken one. We have been 

 trying to maintain our war-time industrial fa- 

 cilities at a capacity above peace-time demands. 

 We have loaned abroad more money than repre- 

 sented by our entire war debt. We have put 

 the facilities of our gigantic Department of 

 Commerce behind the movement to expand for- 

 eign trade just as though we were a debtor 

 nation, as we were before the war, instead of 

 a creditor nation, as we emerged from the war. 



We have had half the gold supply of the world, 

 so that foreign nations could not pay us in gold; 

 and we prevented their paying us in goods and 

 services by our tariffs, although at the same 

 time wc have insisted upon the payment of war 

 debts. We have gone even further; to the ex- 

 tent that we have captured foreign markets we 

 have interfered with the normal relations of 

 other countries between themselves. 



10 Per Cent Foreign .< J 



Ninety per cent of our commerce is domestic. 

 Ten per cent is foreign. Half of the 10 per cent 

 is industrial and half agricultural. If we re- 

 stricted agricultural production to the demand 

 of domestic markets, as we have been urged to 

 do by our recent administrations, the interest 

 ot the Middle West and South in exports would 

 be hardly more than a fraction of 1 per cent 

 of their commerce; and yet, as a result of the 

 policy which has been followed, we have seri- 

 ously impaired our home market, constituting 

 the 90 per cent of our trade. It has been dem- 

 ontratcd, I think, that such statesmanship is 

 not in the best interest of America. 



Evidence of what higher farm prices might 

 do may be gathered from the immediate re- 

 sponse in securities markets and commodity mar- 

 kets from the recent advances in farm prices. 

 Farmer have not been in a position to buy their 

 normal requirements since the war, and I pre- 

 dict that if it were possible to restore their 

 normal poition, and by that I mean only the 

 pre-war exchange value of their product with 

 the products of industry, shortly we should see 

 such a revival of buying and paying as we have 

 not seen in many a year. 



Amend the Act 



The Farm Marketing Act should be amended, 

 not repealed. It should be possible for farmers 

 effectively to control the marketing of their 

 own products, and that can only be accom- 

 plisl ed by the concerted action of all of the 

 producers of a particular commodity. Call the 

 mechanism for accomplishing it the equalization 

 fee or what you please, the principle is that the 

 cost should be spread over the commodity bene- 

 fited. The principle is not new. It is that the 

 beneficiary of an improvement should pay his 

 proportionate share of its cost. It is recognized 

 in every drainage or irrigation project, paving 

 project, or other improvement of this char- 

 acter. 



The corporation forrg of organization does 

 not lend itself to farmer co-operation, because 

 of the large number of producers of farm prod- 

 ucts scattered throughout the length and breadth 

 of the country. 



France, apparently, has found a way to im- 

 prove her agricultural situation, as is evidenced 

 by the prices of her wheat in the last three 

 crop years, for example: 



August 1-July 31, 1928-1929 — 



Low, December (1928) $1.56 



High, March (1929) 1.68 



August 1-July }1, 1929-1930 — 



February and May (1930) $1.31 



July (1930) 1.66 



August 1-July 31, 1930-1931— 



October (1930) $1.64 



June (1931) 1.91 



Contrast these figures with the prices and 

 fluctuations during this period in the United 

 States. This example is upon No. 2 hard winter 

 at Kansas City: 



July 1-June 30, 1928-1929— 



High, July (1928) $1.20 



Low, May (1929) 1.01 



July 1-June 30, 1929-1930— 



July (1929) $1.25 



June (1930) 89 



July 1-June 30, 1930-1931— 



July (1930) $0.80 



June (1931) 66 



Shift the Taxes 



Taxes on general property, particularly on 

 the home, both in town and country, should be 



Ray C. Doneghue Heads 



Farm Advisers in 1932 



R. C. DoneKhne 



Ray C. Doneghue, farm adviser of 

 McDonough county and 1932 president 

 of the Illinois State 

 Association of Farm 

 Advisers, attended 

 the first meeting of 

 the new I. A. A. 

 Board I of Directors 

 in Chicago Feb. 12. 

 He will represent the 

 farm advisers in these 

 meetings during 

 1932, succeeding B. 

 W. Tillman, farm 

 adviser of St. Clair 

 county, retiring pres- 

 ident of the Farm Advisers' Associa- 

 tion. Mr. Doneghue is one of the old- 

 est Illinois county advisers in point of 

 service. -■ •' ''• ■" ■ ■'''■'■■.' ''■' "'■.. - 



Other officers in the Association are 

 R. E. Apple, Clark county, vice-presi- 

 dent; V. J. Banter, Stephenson county, 

 secretary; L. E. McKinzie, Schuyler 

 county, treasurer; J. G. McCall, Jack- 

 son county; Alfred Tate, Scott county, 

 and C. E. Johnston, Iroquois county, 

 directors, 



shifted largely to other forms of taxation. I am 

 glad to say that this is under consideration in 

 many states. In fact, 44 of our 48 states either 

 have enacted state income taxes or had the tax 

 subject under consideration in the last sessions 

 of their legislatures. 



Lower interest rates on tl e home should be 

 made possible. 



I would have the home the cheapest thing 

 an American citizen could own, and I would 

 make it as secure as it is possible to make it 

 by law. I think that would be the greatest 

 security for our government from the invasion 

 of radical tendencies of any kind. 



Controlled Inflation. 



We should have a measure of cont-rolled in- 

 flation that debts may be paid with the same 

 size dollar with which they were incurred, as 

 far as that is possible. This subject is certain 

 to be one of wide discussion in the coming 

 months. 



Finally, and I do not mean to be partisan, 

 we should put the problems of America first 

 in the minds of all of our citizens, and we 

 should elect only such people to public office 

 as have an understanding of them and the 

 courage and the will to look after those unable 

 to look after themselves — that is what govern- 

 ment is for. 



President Hoover recently signed a 

 joint resolution appropriating $125,- 

 000,000 to increase the capitalization of 

 the Federal Land Banks. Of the 

 amount appropriated, $25,000,000 is to 

 be used to facilitate postponement of 

 mortgage installment payments of needy 

 farm borrowers. This appropriation 

 was sought by the American Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation and other farm organi- 

 zations. ■■ ■■ ; ' . ■ ^ '■■:■■■''-"■ ■;■•:■'■■',.;-.;.<;■.■''■■'■■■; 



March, 19 ] 



Honest 



Gregory Sl 

 Whel 



THE reall 

 prices, 

 of the farm 

 shortage of 

 cording to 

 Prairie Far 

 speakers at 

 meeting, Ro 

 Mr. Greg 

 money is aff 



C. V. Gres 



of any one 

 change to rel 

 demand, we 

 that the pun 

 will always 

 average com 



"It now t 

 ucts to pay 

 penses that 

 commodities 

 tories, put r 

 back to prod 

 modities on 

 purchasing 

 stored to soi 

 This may 

 Gregory, eii 

 bankruptcy 

 by the proc< 

 ment expen; 

 other fixed 

 present pri< 

 commodity 

 near what 

 would take 

 second migl 

 He point 

 eral Reserv 

 prices upwa 

 chases of g 

 rediscount 

 discount pc 

 not start 

 that the do 

 ther steps I 



