Page Eighteen 



THE I. A. A. RECORD 



September, 1932 



Farmers Unorganized 



Haven't Got a Chance 



Handful of Rich Southern Cotton 

 Shippers Block Legislation 



Through the efforts of lobbyists 

 working for the 600 members of the 

 old line southern cotton shippers, 

 legislation of undoubted benefit to 

 two million southern cotton farm- 

 ers was defeated shortly before ad- 



Jpurnment of Congress, M. S. Win- 



•^r, secretary of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation, charged in an 

 address at the Louisiana Agricul- 

 tural College recently. Winder 

 stated that while the private cot- 

 ton shippers number approximately 

 600, in reality the situation was 

 handled on behalf of 68 men who 

 control the bulk of the business 



' done by the shipping associations. 

 "In other words," said Mr. Win- 

 der, "sixty-eight men were able to 

 impress their will on the nation in 



; a matter adversely affecting 2,000,- 

 000 farmers. It happened because 

 the 2,000,000 were not organized to 

 defend their own rights." 



Directing his remarks largely 

 to a discussion of the sources and 



• results of the vicious propaganda 



:■■. campaign aimed to destroy the Ag- 



ricultural Marketing Act, Mr. Win- 



{ der declared it is easy to under- 

 stand why those who deal in agri- 

 cultural commodities are so desper- 

 ately opposed to the co-operative 

 marketing movement. 

 "Not for years," he said, "have 

 ~ our farmers been able to secure a 

 price that would pay for cost of 

 production of their wheat and cot- 

 ton and yet these traders on the 

 commodity exchanges have been 



5 making rich profits from their deals 

 in our farm products." 



Cash to Canada 



In Chicago, he said, one promi- 

 : nent operator on the Chicago Board 

 of Trade has been reported re- 

 cently as having endowed sums 

 ranging above $1,000,000 on each of 

 his brothers and sisters, all of 

 whom are Canadian citizens. 



"The strange thing about it," 

 said Mr. Winder, "is that this man 

 himself is a Canadian by birth, 

 who came to this country when a 

 boy and made his money by deals 

 in wheat. And yet, lately he has 

 been one of the principal critics of 

 the Agricultural Marketing Act and 

 the Federal Farm Board, the agency 

 designed to help the farmers retain 

 some of those millions the grain 

 traders have taken from them." 



In the middle west, Mr. Winder 

 ■ charged, the head and front of the 

 attack on the co-operative move- 

 ment is an organization calling it- 

 ■i self the Federation of American 

 \ Business. 



"If you read their statement of 



x;; 



policy," he said, "it sounds so con- 

 structive that anyone could sub- 

 scribe it. Actually, however, the 

 Federation of American Business 

 has concentrated its efforts almost 

 entirely on a campaign of misrepre- 

 sentation to discredit the Agricul- 

 tural Marketing Act and deal a 

 fatal blow to co-operative market- 

 ing. That is easy to understand 

 since the board of directors of the 

 organization is composed almost en- 

 tirely of representatives of the self- 

 ish speculative groups who operate 

 on the grain, live stock and prod- 

 uce exchanges. 



The Old Game 



"The most unfortunate feature 

 of the whole attack," he continued, 

 "is the fact that these enemy 

 groups do not attack us by them- 

 selves alone. Instead they make use 

 of the great army of unorganized 

 farmers to carry on the attack for 

 them. Farmers who are under obli- 

 gations to the old line market op- 

 erators are lined up at the Shan- 

 non investigation hearings to 

 testify as farmers against the Mar- 

 keting Act and the activities of the 

 co-operatives. 



"Farmers must remember that 

 the real purpose of the attacks on 

 the Farm Board is the ultimate de- 

 struction of the farm co-operative 

 associations, whose success threat- 

 ens the hold the old line operators 

 have on the distribution of agri- 

 cultural commodities." 



While spokesmen for the enemies 

 of the farmers charge that since 

 creation of the Farm Board, the 

 prices ol* all agricultural com- 

 modities have declined, they care- 

 fully avoid all reference to the fact 

 that most other articles of com- 

 merce have gone down even farther 

 than the farm products, Mr. Win- 

 der pointed out. 



"It is true," he said, "that the 

 price of wheat has dropped from 

 the high average cash price for all 

 grades and classes, of $1.34 in 1929 

 to its present price between 50 and 

 60 cents, a drop of more than 50 

 per cent in three years. It is true 

 that the 1929 high for middling 

 spot cotton in 1929 was 19.33 cents 

 and the current price is now 66 per 

 cent below that figure or around 

 six cents. It is true that steers have 

 declined 56 per cent in the three 

 year period. But if the enemies of 

 co-operative effort were honest 

 they would also tell you that a 

 study of market prices for fifty 

 leading industrial stock show a 

 drop of 85 per cent in value for 

 the same period. They would tell 

 you that twenty leading rail stocks 

 suffered a drop in value of 91.4 per 

 cent since 1929. They would tell you 

 that the copper and brass group de- 

 clined 79.45 per cent, that the drop 

 in General Motors values was 69.90 

 per cent; that U. S. Steel has been 

 worth only 54.50 per cent of its 



1929 value, and that the New York 

 city banks suffered a shrinkage in 

 value of 71.29 per cent." 



Will Keep The Act 

 Mr. Winder declared that every 

 member of the Farm Bureau and 

 every organized farm group in the 

 land must join in a demand that 

 the Agricultural Marketing Act be 

 retained on the statute books for 

 the benefit of American agriculture. 

 "If any change is made," he said, 

 "let it be strengthened and im- 

 proved so that it can more effec- 

 tively do the work it is designed to 

 do. To do that we farmers must, 

 regardless of our political affilia- 

 tions, immediately set about it to 

 counteract the destructive propa- 

 ganda of the special interests. We 

 must convey to every candidate for 

 Congress and to both presidential 

 candidates our demand that the 

 Marketing Act be retained. Other- 

 wise, if Congress, aroused by the 

 selfish insincere clamor against the 

 Act, should repeal it, the co-op- 

 erative marketing movement would 

 be set back ten years." 



Mr. Winder declared emphati- 

 cally that the Farm Bureau organi- 

 zation is in favor of reductions in 

 the cost of government on an im- 

 partial basis without discrimination 

 against agriculture. 



FARMER'S NATIONAL HAS 

 GOOD YEAR 



(Continued from page 7) 



"Had farmers followed the ad- 

 vice long offered by business leaders 

 to 'put business practices into farm- 

 ing' they would have done as busi- 

 ness has done in closing plants, 

 discharging men and resisting price 

 declines," Mr. Gregory said, "This 

 would have kept food prices high. 

 Charitable organizations then could 

 not have bought enough food to 

 feed the hungry, and the depres- 

 sion would have ended long since 

 either by application of effective 

 remedies . or by the revolt of the 

 hungry. On the other hand, had 

 business followed the example of 

 agriculture, producing normally and 

 selling its product for what it 

 would bring, adjustment would 

 have been completed sooner and 

 the depression could not have lasted 

 three years." 



All of the directors of the Farm- 

 ers National were re-elected with 

 three exceptions: Carl J. Martin of 

 Lansing, Michigan, was chosen to 

 succeed L. J. Taber of Ohio; A. R. 

 Shumway of Milton, Oregon suc- 

 ceeded F. J. Wilmer; and Wm. A. 

 Schuldberg of Preston, Idaho, suc- 

 ceeded Jess W. Wade. D. L. O'Con- 

 nor of St. Paul, Minn., became a 

 member of the executive com- 

 mittee. C. E. Huff of Salina, Kansas 

 was re-elected president; W. H. Set- 

 tle, Indianapolis, Indiana, first vice- 

 president; and C. B. Stewardj-Lin- 

 coln. Neb., secretary. 



