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18 



Agricultural Trade 



Agreements To Wallace 



President Roosevelt Makes De- 

 cision After Conference With 

 Farm Bureau Leader and 

 Dairy Co-operatives 



I. A. A, Record — August, 1933 



IT WAS President Edward A. O'- 

 Neal and the influence of the 

 Farm Bureau that moved Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt to turn over the ad- 

 ministration of the fluid milk trade 

 agreement to the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture rather than to the Recovery 

 Administration, Don Geyer, secretary 

 of the Pure Milk Association, reported 

 in a telephone conversation to C. V. 

 Gregory, editor of Prairie Farmer, re- 

 cently. 



This information was disclosed by 

 Mr. Gregory in a brief talk to the 

 board of directors of the I. A. A. in 

 Chicago July 14. 



"I remember when the I. A. A. was 

 organized down at Peoria in 1919," 

 said Gregory, "that one of the things 

 we hoped for was an organization big 

 enough and strong enough so it could 

 go down to Washington and tell the 

 President of the United States what 

 farmers wanted. That seemed like a 

 big order at the time, yet that thing 

 has actually happened. This incident 

 illustrates why farmers need a strong 

 organization ready to speak for them 

 at all times." 



■' '- Sought Approval 



For more than two months dairy 

 groups including the Pure Milk As- 

 sociation and Chicago milk dealers had 

 sought approval of a trade agreement 

 to stabilize the market at Chicago so 

 as to give dairy farmers a reason- 

 able price for fluid milk, stop cut- 

 throat competition of milk peddlers 

 and bootleggers, and at the same time 

 give consumers a pure, safe supply of 

 pasteurized milk at a fair price. 



Little progress was made due to a 

 difference of opinion as to which 

 group. National Industrial Recovery, 

 or Agricultural Adjustment Adminis- 

 tration under Secretary Wallace 

 should pass on and administer the ag- 

 ricultural trade agreements. 



The Industrial Recovery Act gives 

 no authority to the administrator, 

 General Hugh Johnson, to approve 

 price agreements. On the other hand 

 the Emergency Farm Act does give 

 such authority to the Secretary of Ag- 

 riculture. The dairy organizations in- 

 sisted that Secretary Wallace admin- 

 ister the milk trade agreement where- 

 as the Industrial Recovery Adminis- 

 tration believed it should have juris- 

 diction. 



In the meantime, milk dealers at 



1 



JUDGING HORSES AT FLOYD GUTSHBL,I/S FARM NEAR ELMWOOD, PEORIA 



COUJVTY. 



Forty-t^vo 4-H Club members competed In the Peoria county 4-H Club contest 

 on July 7. Four classeii of liveMtock, horHe«, cattle, boss, and Mheep were judged 

 by the Club members. 



The team from Flmwood, composed of Carroll Taylor, Paul Thompson, and 

 Manford Harding, will represent the county In the state 4-H Club contest at . 

 Urbana August 1. 



Chicago were losing business as a re- 

 sult of general price cutting by so- 

 called "independent" dairies and raw 

 milk peddlers. The dealers threatened 

 to cut the price to the consumer from 

 10 to 9 cents and pass the reduction 

 on to the producer by lowering the 

 base price from $1.75 per cwt. to $1.45. 



Farmers threatened to strike unless 

 the trade agreement was approved by 

 Washington and an increase obtained 

 to help restore their buying power and 

 debt-paying ability. 



After considerable delay the dairy 

 organizations called on President 

 O'Neal and asked him to accompany 

 them to the White House. This was 

 done" and the President announced that 

 the Secretary of Agriculture would be 

 authorized to administer agricultural 

 trade agreements under the Emer- 

 gency Farm Act. 



The importance of this decision may 

 not be apparent to many, but it means 

 that full authority hereafter will be 

 given to the Agricultural Adjustment 

 Administration to establish fair prices 

 for farm products through trade 

 agreements with dealers and proces- 

 sors. The decision established a prec- 

 edent of far-reaching importance to 

 farmers in the price-raising program. 



Evaporated Milk Agreement 



The proposed trade agreement of- 

 fered by evaporated milk companies 

 struck a snag when fluid milk co- 

 operatives recently filed objections on 

 the ground that the agreement did not 

 properly recognize the interests of 

 producers. 



B. F. Beach, manager of the Michi- 

 gan Milk Producers Association, said 



the agreement was not fair because 

 "the farmers have no voice in fixing 

 the price stated in the agreement." 



W. T. Nardin of St. Louis, repre- 

 senting the milk condenseries, said the 

 proposed agreement was a step to- 

 ward assuring dairymen a larger re- 

 turn for their product. He added that 

 less than 10 per cent of the farmers 

 supplying milk to condenseries are 

 members of organizations. 



"The organizations represented by 

 the men who are antagonistic to this 

 agreement are working against the in- 

 terests of the ev&porated milk in- 

 dustries and farmers whose fresh milk 

 we purchase," Nardin said. 



The agreement proposes, a schedule 

 of prices to be paid producers varying 

 by regions and based on current mar- 

 ket prices for butter and in some cases 

 cheese and other dairy products. It al- 

 so proposes a schedule of wholesale 

 prices both maximum and minimum. 



Milk producer representatives assert 

 that the price schedule is not high 

 enough to give farmers a satisfactory 

 return for their product; moreover 

 that the price fixed by the con- 

 denseries in the agreement would be a 

 bar to farmers in fluid milk districts 

 obtaining a satisfactory price from 

 distributors. 



Meanwhile a committee of butter 

 producers and distributors has been 

 appointed to draw up a trade agree- 

 ment for this industry. The close re- 

 lationship of all branches of the dairy 

 industry to each other makes it im- 

 perative that each co-operate with the 

 other in advancing prices all along the 

 line. 



