I. A. A. RECORD— June, 1933 



Organized Farmers 

 Win Long Battle 



President Roosevelt Signs Bill Containing Principles Farm 

 Bureau Fought For Since 1921 



ANEW deal for agriculture, 

 victory after a 12 year fight 

 marked by broken political 

 promises, the selfish opposition of 

 vested interests, two presidential 

 vetoes of effective farm legislation, 

 and finally a half-way measure, was 

 realized by the signing of the Emer- 

 gency Farm Act at the White House. 

 This is a victory for organized farm- 

 ers, a victory for the Farm Bureau 

 which vigorously led the fight at 

 Washington and kept the issue in the 

 forefront during the most trying 

 period in the history of American ag- 

 riculture. 



The seventy-third Congress and the 

 President have finally given not only 

 American farmers but the nation a 

 law with teeth in it granting ample 

 authority to the administration to re- 

 store the buying power of farmers 

 and thereby the prosperity of the 

 country. 



Now only aggressive administration 

 of the Act, and the co-operation of 

 farmers, handlers, and processors of 

 farm commodities are needed to make 

 it work. 



Weeks before the passage of the 

 Act, the well known views of Frank- 

 lin D. Roosevelt, and his strategic 

 moves to restore confidence in banks 

 and stop exporting and hoarding of 

 gold, began routing the depression 

 and sending prices upward. 



Miracles have been happening at 

 Washington. How different from the 

 dark days of the nineteen-twenties 

 when organized farmers were thwart- 

 ed time after time in the fight for 

 a reasonable share of the prosperity 

 that finally swept business and in- 

 dustry into a whirlpool of profiteer- 

 ing and speculation never before 

 equaled in the history of civilization. 



The Farm Bureau movement 

 launched its fight following post-war 

 deflation which hit agriculture the 

 hardest. It battled to wipe out the 

 disparity between farm prices and 

 non-agricultural prices. In this state, 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 simultaneously waged war against 



high assessed valuations which did 

 not reflect the terrific decline in farm 

 land values until the I. A. A. de- 

 manded and secured substantial re- 

 ductions. 



The Farm Bureau gathered facts 

 and evidence to show that agriculture 

 was being discriminated against, that 

 farmers were compelled to buy in a 

 protected market, pay prices fixed by 

 a high protective tariff, although 

 their staple crops, both that consumed 

 at home and that portion marketed 

 abroad, sold at the low world price. 



Industrial prices and prosperity 

 rose rapidly beginning in 1922 and 

 1923 but the farmer lagged behind 

 because of the indifference of suc- 

 cessive administrations and their re- 

 fusal to strike at the heart of the 

 problem, farm surpluses. 



The fight for the McNary-Haugen 

 bill, twice vetoed, ended in the pas- 

 sage of the Agricultural Marketing 

 Act which was supported by industrial 

 and business groups including han- 

 dlers of farm products. Farmers asked 

 for something more effective, and 

 although skeptical of the value of the 

 measure in raising prices, recognized 

 it as better than nothing, and co-op- 

 erated whole-heartedly in the laudable 

 policy of government support to 

 farmer-owned and farmer-controlled 

 marketing agencies. 



The Farm Bureau continued its 

 fight into the 1932 political conven- 

 tions on a non-partisan basis, and 

 when Governor Roosevelt took a clear 

 and definite stand in favor of effective 

 legislation to give farmers a square 

 deal, they voted overwhelmingly for 

 him for President. 



Without effective organization, it is 

 extremely doubtful if farmers would 

 have received any real consideration 

 at the hands of government. The out- 

 standing contribution organized 

 farmers made was to educate not only 

 law makers, but also influential busi- 

 ness and industrial leaders about ag- 

 riculture and the merits of their de- 

 mands for consideration. 



Events of the past few years have 



A Victory For Organ- 

 ization 



The signing of the Emergency 

 Farm Bill by President Roose- 

 velt is the victorious culmina- 

 tion of a 12 year fight of the 

 Farm Bureau for effective legis- 

 lation to wipe out the discrep- 

 ancy betiteen farm and non-ag- 

 ricultural prices. The Illinois 

 Agricultural Association took 

 an -active and prominent part in 

 this struggle. Previous admin- 

 istrations said co-operative mar- 

 keting is all you need. Farmers 

 said we want eo-operative mar- 

 keting support but more than 

 that is necessary. We must have 

 equal privilege legislation, an 

 American price for farm prod- 

 ucts, effective measures to help 

 us dispose of or eliminate sur- 

 pluses that depress our markets. 



President Roosevelt's bill 

 paves the way for a new deal 

 for the farmer. Vigorous ad- 

 ministration of the measures 

 permitted under this act will re- 

 store farmers' buying power 

 and some of the comforts of life 

 for farm families. The contin- 

 uous hammering away of OR- 

 GANIZATION fighting for a 

 worthy and righteous cause 

 made all this possible. — Editor. 



eloquently testified to the soundness 

 of the farmers' position. Had the 

 McNary-Haugen bill been enacted and 

 put into operation, many believe the 

 more extreme measures of the pres- 

 ent day would not be necessary. 



Had national prosperity of the 

 boom years been more evenly dis- 

 tributed and the agricultural popula- 

 tion given its fair share, certainly the 

 extreme decline of the past few years 

 would not have gone so far. Millions 

 of dollars were loaned abroad much 

 of which came back through pur- 

 chases of American industrial prod- 

 ucts to further stimulate the un- 

 healthy spiral of inflation. 



Had farmers been able to store up 

 cash reserves and liquidate debts in 

 the post-war period they might have 

 cushioned the fall of industrial ac- 

 tivity with all its attending evils. 



Now farmers must continue t^eir 

 organized vigilance so they may offer 

 the administration complete co-opera- 

 tion in putting into action wise meas- 

 ures to restore parity prices for agri- 

 culture and with that ultimate return 

 of prosperity to the nation. 



