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JULY, 1932 



THE I. A. A. ftJq 



KEYNOTE ADDRESS TELLS 



RESTORED FARM HUCE LEVa IS 

 KEY TO RETURN OF PROSPERfTY 



Dedication Day Speakers Emphasize Need For Militant 

 Organization of Farmers To Insure Square Deal 



A restored f ami price level is the one thing that will turn the 

 tide of constant and continuous deflation and unemployment back 

 to industrial employment and prosperity. With agriculture out 

 of the market for the products of American factories, with nearly 

 50 per cent of the American people directly dependent upon farm 

 Income for a livelihood, there is little hope for better times in this 

 nation until that basic industry gets a reasonable return for its 

 labor and investment. 



This was the thought driven home by scores of speakers in 

 nearly every Illinois county on the farmers Dedication Day pro- 

 grams July 4th. : . " ■ -« ; V :-f: 

 Comparing the farmers battle of 1932 for freedom from eco- 

 nomic oppression with the battle of the farmers of 1776 for free- 

 dom from political oppression, the address set forth the issues 

 at stake, and the solution offered by organized farmers to present 

 economic problems. 



The text of the speech carefully 

 prepared for the occasion and read 

 by many of the Dedication Day 

 speakers follows: 



The first Fourth of July was a 

 day of Decision — one of Declara- 

 tion — and likewise one of Dedica- 

 tion. On yonder side of this his- 

 torical guide-post of freedom the 

 altars of sacrifice had been builded, 

 at Lexington, at Concord, at Bun- 

 ker Hill. Of such, history has pro- 

 duced no parallel. It was at Con- 

 cord Bridge — 

 "The embattled farmers stood, 



and 

 Fired the shot heard 'round 



the world." 

 For days the spokesmen for the 

 colonists had debated the proposi- 

 tion — "RESOLVED, that these 

 United Colonies are, and of right 

 ought to be free and independent 

 states." Finally the day of decision 

 arrived. It is this day we celebrate. 

 After the decision to act, came 

 its declaration, a notice to all the 

 . world — ^The Declaration of Inde- 

 '~: pendence. 



At the head of the army in New 

 York, upon orders of Washington, 

 the Immortal Document was read. 

 ■ The wildest enthusiasm was cre- 

 - ated. One gilded statue of the 

 tyrant king alone, yielded in the 

 melting pot forty thousand bullets. 

 Upon that day through that decis- 

 ion and through the declaration of 

 that decision, the moral fibre of the 

 colonists was revivified and the 

 heart of that people was tempered 

 &^niK u!ie vaiiey Forges thai were 

 yet to come. Yes, my friends, that 

 first day was one of Determination. 



Day of Dedication 



We also celebrate this day as a 

 DAY OF DEDICATION. Seven long 

 and weary years record the sacri- 

 fices inspired by that Day of Dedi- 

 cation. Few, if any, at the begin- 

 ning of that period, save by faith, 

 could envision the final triumph at 

 Yorktown. By citizen and soldier 

 alike there on that day, commit- 

 ment to the great cause was made. 



This day, therefore, my friends, 

 is and will always be our outstand- 

 ing national holiday. 



At Runnymede the charter of 

 Anglo-Saxon liberties was wrested 

 from an unwilling King. That hour 

 was momentous. Bastile Day mark- 

 ed the passing of the fallacy of the 

 doctrine of the divine right of kings, 

 a doctrine used to shackle brave 

 hearts and to restrain the impulses 

 of free hearts. 



On the first Fourth of July, there 

 was published the grandest, the 

 bravest, and most profound docu- 

 ment ever signed by the repre- 

 sentatives of a free people. It was a 

 Declaration of War against the 

 most powerful Nation in the world 

 —a Declaration of War by a few 

 patriots, without organization, 

 without military forces, without ap- 

 parent strength, without wealth,— 

 a Declaration against the greatest 

 power of the Seven Seas — and at a 

 time when her yessels of war were 

 hovering along the Atlantic coast 

 ready to pounce upon defenseless 

 towns, to ravage and destroy. The 

 principal cities were in substantial 

 possession of the enemy. Thousands 

 of British soldiers were upon our 

 soil; and yet, notwithstanding these 

 fearful odds, the stout-hearted 

 fathers of the American Revolution 

 made Declaration that they were a 

 . free and independent people. 



Declaration Was Beginning 



The glory of the nation begins 

 with that declaration. Yet, insep- 

 arable from that Declaration of 



Independence are the outlines of 

 the honest face and features of that 

 determined leader, well called the 

 Father of his Country. Washington 

 and Independence became synony- 

 mous. But, to measure the mean- 

 ing of either the word Independ- 

 ence or the man, George Washing- 

 ton, in this remote day is well nigh 

 Impossible. We are too far from the 

 need of that day to know aught but 

 its cooled pages of history. 



Two hundred years later, as we 

 celebrate the bicentennial of George 

 Washington's birth, we find it diffi- 

 cult to relive the days that con- 

 tributed that great heart to a giant 

 cause, and difficult to know his real 

 grreatness. 



New causes and new despairs! 

 confront us. Our dire need today 

 tends to hide with its immediate 

 oppression the history of far greater 

 oppressions and the manner in 

 which they were lifted by staunch 

 men of great heart. 



Simple would be America's prob- 

 lems today, could we command the 

 organized belief in the seed for 

 united action that made the en- 

 durance of a Valley P\)rge possible. 

 Today's cause calls not for sword 

 and gun, but stem moving in or- 

 ganized unison of the millions of 

 agricultural people dedicated to the 

 solution of their problems through 

 the following of leadership bom of 

 that cause. 



5« Tloat 

 Ccur.ty's 

 Evei 



Apiculture Denied Seat 



nee the deflation of' 1921— for 

 over ten years organized agriculture 

 has been making a fight for eco- 

 nomic equality. All other lines of 

 industry and labor have had the 

 support and kindly consideration of 

 Government. Agriculture has not 

 been given a seat at the family 

 table. 



Since the collapse in 1929, the 

 situation has become exceedingly 

 more aggravated, until at the pres- 

 ent time it is acute. A year ago the 

 farm price index was 91 — today it 

 is 56. On the first of last Decem- 

 ber, it had fallen to 71. By the first 

 of this last February, it dropped to 

 60. On the first of April, 59, and it 

 is still receding. 



Organized agriculture has con- 

 sistently insisted that action on the 

 part of the Federal Government 

 was necessary along three or four 

 lines to start a restoration by giving 

 the basic industry a fair and equal 

 chance. After the most careful 

 consideration by outstanding and 

 eminent students of the question, 

 your national organization proposed 

 what we call "The Honest Dollar 

 Bill,"— a bill, which if adopted by 

 Congress, would establish a funda- 

 mentally sound monetary policy for 

 the Nation. This measure, in part, 

 proposes that all the powers now 

 possessed by the Federal Reserve 

 System be directed to two ends: 

 first, to restore the purchasing 

 power of the dollar to the average 

 for the period 1921 to 1929; and 

 second, to stabilize the purchasing 

 power of the dollar as nearly as 

 practical at that level. 



Our big banks are bulging with 

 money. We have more gold than 

 any other nation on the face of 

 the globe. Our natural resources are 

 enormous. Our factories are the 

 most efficient in the world. Yet, the 

 farmers are faced with ruin and 

 ten million unemployed walk the 

 streets in search of work. 



What May Happen 



Eminent economists warn us that 

 the worst has not yet been reached, 

 unless something is done to check 

 the deflation. As the Right Honor- 



able wlnston Churchill said in an 

 address on the world economic cri- 

 sis: "The hideous processes of de- 

 flation have but to go on to isolate 

 the nations and reduce them to the 

 barbarian and to the bartering of 

 the dark ages." Unless something is 

 done to dieck the forces of de- 

 flation, they tell us that labor, city 

 real estate, and all property values 

 must inevitably come down to the 

 level of commodity prices. This 

 means that the wages of union 

 labor will have to be cut in half; 

 doctors and nurses, 25 to 50 per cent 

 less than they now receive; salaries 

 of school teachers and professors 

 from 25 to 40 per cent, dollar cap- 

 italization of industrial companies 

 from 60 to 65 ner cent less, and i> 

 on all along the lines, from the 

 least to greatest. That is the dis- 



mal picture of what will happen if 

 the rest of this country is brought 

 down to a level with agriculture. 



This also means further whole- 

 sale bankruptcies and liquidation 

 on an unparalleled scale because of 

 our high debt level. In 1929, our 

 total debts, both public and private, 

 in the United States totalled 203 

 billion dollars, or 56 per cent of our 

 national wealth of 388 billion dol- 

 lars, according to estimates of War- 

 ren and Pearson of Cornell Uni- 

 versity. Today they tell us, the na- 

 tional wealth has shrunk until it 

 is worth scarcely half that amount. 

 Thus our debts now are equal to the 

 value of our property. 



Furthermore, our dollar has be- 

 come so dear in exchange for the 

 currencies of other countries, and 

 we have acquired so much of the 

 world's store of gold at the expense 

 of the stocks of other countries, 

 that other nations cannot buy our 

 products. How can we trade with 

 other countries of the world when 

 they have no gold. Our export trade 

 has fallen off 54 per cent in value 

 and 35 per cent in volume since 

 1929. Unless our dollar is restored 

 to a fair value, we will have to en- 

 act higher tariffs to protect us 

 against the imparts of commodities 

 from countries with depreciated 

 currencies. Already numerous in- 

 dustries are clamoring for such pro- 

 tection and various bills are pend- 

 ing in Congress to bring this about. 



Need An Honest Dollar 



To avoid this terrifying prospect, 

 we must have an honest dollar. A 

 dollar which purchases 64 cents 

 worth one year and $1.52 worth an- 

 other year is dishonest. A dollar 

 which makes the debtor today pay 

 back $202 for each $100 borrowed in 

 1929 is dishonest. The price level 

 must be restored until the dollar is 

 worth the same amount as it was 

 when our debts were contracted. 



All the relief measures thus far 



passed by the Congress have been 



drawn in the interest of the cred- 



, itor class. Millions of -'.ebtors are 



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McLean County Service Trucks In Parade 



sacrificed on the a i tar of 

 the benefit of thostj contr( 

 financial structure of tht 

 The debtor and creditoi 

 mutual relationshi]). If yo 

 one you destroy bo h, ultii 

 This grasping group of 

 is unwilling to restore the 

 ing power of the dollar to 

 level where the debte '< 

 tracted. They want the 

 stay dear and con/^oditi 

 The little group T inte 

 bankers who gair4e in 

 tional securities \tA c 

 want our dollar ft be wo 

 in exchange for f'^elgn c 

 And so they are h rified 

 propose to make <%r doll 



more. V 



But the masses '©f pe 

 farmers and othe^ prod 

 commodities, and the 

 people who depenc, upon 

 duction of commo<\ties, \ 

 lars cheap and coi^modil 

 Laboring people in the < 

 find employment at 

 wages when the fa.torips 

 prices for their product 

 money is plentiful an 

 everybody makes moi,ey a 

 body is happy. Who*, wel 

 be paramount in thiii coi 

 masses of our citizeniihip 

 clique of international bai 

 gamble in international ci 



Something Must Be 



Something must bt do 

 store the farm price level 

 ity with other grou js, 

 must provide for getting 

 farm surpluses which no 

 in our domestic markets, 

 our farmers of the ben( 

 the tariff on these pro 

 forcing domestic prices dc 

 level of the world prices. 



What Congress sh3uk 

 for the relief of agritulti 

 it adjourns is an emCfgei 

 ure to get rid of the Ligh 

 of farm products which 

 cumulated. There are 

 abroad for these pro<iuci 

 could be sold on liberal en 

 but the cooperatives an 

 traders are not flnan-iaj 

 supply such terms, anc( so 

 goes hungry for our s»irp 



Organized agriculture 

 asking for months that 

 authorize the allocation 

 ever funds are necessi^rji 

 Reconstruction Finance 

 tion to finance the e3:pc 

 pluses of wheat, cotton 

 wool, mohair, and other 

 ducts, and to distriliut 

 wheat to the destitute £ 

 ployed in such a maniiej 

 adversely affect the dc.m 



ket. 

 Organized agriculture , 



nized and has repeatei 

 that the raise in the PrU 

 major agricultural crops 

 essential to bring Am^r 

 the present depression, 

 and practical measure 

 duced in Congress by 

 Rainey of niinois, to j 

 this purpose. The entire 

 Illinois delegation aggr-js 

 ported it. Its provisionjj 

 as follows: 'v ;, 

 Digest of Emergency \ 

 Bill 



TEMPORARY EMERCn 

 —This BUI is a temp')] 

 measure for a one ye 

 pending such time as Cq 

 develop, enact, and pia 

 operation, a permanent 

 agricultural relief. 



PAYMENTS TO FAii\ 

 Bill provides for immeci 

 payments to the farmc, 

 portion of his productlo, 

 and cotton and hogs lo, 



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