I. A. A. RECORD— June, 1933 



* r 



Nobody Wants 



Our Surplus 



Farm Products 



Therefore We've Got To Cut Acreage and Reduce 



Production Or Else — 



FRANKLY admitting the diffi- 

 culties the administration of the 

 new farm bill faces, Secretary 

 of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, in 

 an address on May 10 told the Bos- 

 ton Grain and Flour Exchange that 

 the measure could succeed only if 

 farmers, processors, and consumers 

 operated under the measure in a new 

 spirit of interdependence. 

 ':i-: The most difficult operation will be 

 that of reducing farm acreage, the 

 Secretary said. "Yet, as you survey 

 the world situation," he added, "and 

 appreciate the prospective demand 

 from abroad for our surpluses, I chal- 

 lenge you to discover any alternative 

 course we might take." 



Huge export surpluses would not 

 have bothered us so much before the 

 World War, Mr. Wallace explained, 

 because then we were a debtor nation, 

 and it was possible to move things 

 abroad onto the European market. 

 But today, he continued, we are a 

 creditor nation; other nations want to 

 sell to us, rather than buy from us; 

 and there is no immediate prospect of a 

 substantial foreign demand for our 

 surplus farm products. 



Like An Ostrich 



"How I wish I could drive that 

 thing home to all the people of the 

 United States," the Secretary ex- 

 claimed. "We have hidden our heads 

 in the sand for the last 12 years, re- 

 fusing to face that fact. It was con- 

 cealed from us by loaning vast sums 

 of money abroad, $500,000,000 to 

 $1,000,000,000 a year from 1921 up to 

 1929. Now we have stopped loaning 

 that money abroad, but we have still 

 refused to face in any definite manner 

 the implications of what it means to 

 be a creditor nation. ; V 



"I am not accusing any particular 

 group. The farmers do not understand 

 it; the business men do not under- 



stand it. We have not learned to act 

 as a creditor nation should. What we 

 really have to do is to change the 

 whole psychology of the people of the 

 United States. 



"There is abroad in the land today 

 the feeling that we do not need to face 

 this fundamental fact of a surplus 

 acreage, that inflation is going to 

 keep us from facing it. We do not need 

 to face it, so it is said, because foreign 

 markets are going to be restored by 

 reciprocal tariff agreements. We do 

 not need to face it, it is said, because 

 under the agreement section of the 

 new Farm Bill, it is possible to enter 

 into agreements to smooth out those 

 things that have caused so much 

 trouble. 



Reciprocal Tariffs Not Enough 



"I am hoping that we will be 

 benefited by the right kind of money 

 control. I am hoping that we will re- 

 store a very substantial volume of 

 foreign purchasing power by ap- 

 propriate reciprocal tariff ag:reements 

 and wisely administering the trade 

 agreements section of the farm bill. 

 However, as I examine each of those 

 three sources of hope and try to 

 measure them, I feel that there is not 

 enough to turn the trick. 



"I do hope that as hard-headed 

 business men, you will not allow your- 

 selves to fall into that contagion which 

 so easily clouds our judgment. We 

 have undoubtedly such an insuffi- 

 ciency of stocks of many kinds that a 

 very real upturn was in the cards, 

 and while we utilize that to the full 

 and keep it going, I trust in the back- 

 ground of our minds we will prepare 

 to take appropriate steps to build a 

 firm foundation to continue it. 



Hope In Trade Agreements 



"There is an unusual amount of in- 

 terest in the trade agreements section 



IS 



:':0f the farm bill, I find, among the 

 cotton spinners of both New England 

 and the South. Apparently destruc- 

 tive competition has been almost as 

 remorseless in the cotton textile in- 

 dustry as in agriculture. Under this 

 bill it is possible to discipline that re- 

 calcitrant minority which has pre- 

 vented the entire cotton industry from 

 doing some of the things it has long 

 needed to do. By the terms of the 

 new bill it will be one of the re- 

 sponsibilities of the Department of 

 Agriculture to help the affected in- 

 dustries observe a code of ethics which 

 all believe to be sound, while at the 

 same time the rights of the consumer 

 are adequately protected. It is to be 

 hoped that this can be done in the 

 spirit of cooperation, rather than in 

 the spirit of compulsion." 



linois Farmers May 



Borrow Up To $5000 



Paul Bestor of St. Louis has been 

 selected Farm Loan Commissioner in 

 the new Federal Farm Credit Ad- 

 ministration headed by Henry Mor- 

 genthau, Jr. 



C. W. Carson of Amarillo, Texas 

 has been chosen as assistant and will 

 have charge of the direct loan pro- 

 visions of the new Farm Mortgage 

 Act. Details of the plan for adminis- 

 tering the $200,000,000 made available 

 ' to the Farm Loan Commissioner 

 through the R. F. C. under the Act 

 are now being worked out. This money 

 will be lent to farmers through 12 

 offices located in the Federal Land 

 Bank regions. Security required will 

 be first and second mortgages upon 

 real and personal property. Loans are 

 to be made up to 75 per cent of ap- 

 praised value of property offered as 

 security. 



The Act provides that individual 

 farmers may borrow as much as 

 $5,000 at an interest rate not to ex- 

 ceed five per cent annually. Borrowers 

 may use the money for the following 

 purposes: to repay indebtedness, se- 

 cured or unsecured, of the farmer; to 

 provide working capital for farm op- 

 erations, and to provide funds to en- 

 able any farmer to redeem or pur- 

 chase farm property owned by him 

 prior to foreclosure which has been 

 foreclosed at any time after July 1, 

 1931. 



Ernest J. Bodman, Federal Land 

 Bank, St. Louis, Mo., has been desig- 

 nated as agent of the Farm Loan 

 Commissioner in charge of such loans 

 for Arkansas, Illinois, and Missouri. 



