l : 



M 



Achieving Equality 



(Continued from page 14) 



toward others, some of which definite- 

 ly tend to close the spread and get 

 the farmer more money without cost- 

 ing the consumer another cent. 



Our temporary stabilization action 

 as to butter supported the market at 

 a time when the need to do so was 

 desperate. And for butter, as for 

 wheat, we have managed to pry open 

 a foreign outlet for a little of the 

 surplus, at least. We have disposed 

 of some butter to the War Depart- 

 ment for use in the Philippines. This 

 was done in competition with foreign 

 countries 



The corn and hog problem is the 

 biggest one in the whole farm picture, 

 and the program we are now putting 

 into action is the biggest we have 

 undertaken so far. Because of the 

 intricate inter-relations between com 

 and hogs, the thing is very complex 

 and difficult to settle. It is going to 

 take a lot of hard work, and some 

 painfully hard thinking, to put this 

 1350,000,000 program over, and to 

 make it stick for permanent good ef- 

 fect. It will mean a drastic cut in 

 production, few the time being, any- 

 way; and that is something nobody 

 likes. But I have no doubt at all that 

 the thinking farmers of the Com Belt 

 (and those, I should say, would mean 

 pretty nearly all surviving farmers 

 here) will go through with this corn- 

 hog program, triumphantly. 



We have no panaceas or cure-alls 

 to offer. To reduce corn acreage a 

 fifth, and farrowing a fourth, is a 

 difficult and trying job. But we have 

 some concrete evidence that it is a 

 sort of procedure which has worked 

 wonders in the other parts of the 

 country where it was first tried. And 

 hundreds of millions of dollars seeded 

 in directly at the grass roots in cash 

 adjustment payments, make the treat- 

 ment rather easy to take. With the 

 corn-hog production control program 

 I think should go a marketing agree- 

 ment with packers 



Before passing on to the final stage 

 of my remarks, I want to say a word 

 about the spirit with which the Na- 

 tion as a whole has accepted our pro- 

 gram. The surprising thing, to me, 

 is not that we have encountered op- 

 position; but that we have encoun- 

 tered so little. 



The country was ready to see this 

 thing done. Most criticisms levelled 

 against us have not been against our 

 plans, but against our pace. The com- 

 plaint was not against what we were 

 doing, but that we weren't doing it 

 fast enough. We at Washington have 



been just as much aware of this ap- 

 parent slowness as you have. We ac- 

 cept the responsibility. Our only 

 answer is that we have been working 

 just as hard and as fast as we could 

 in the circumstances. 



There has also been a limited 

 amount of opposition on the part of 

 city people who fear that adjustment 

 payments are a subsidy of one class 

 as against another. They have some- 

 what the same fears as to the NRA. 

 I think that is a short-sighted view 

 to take. The short excerpts from re- 

 ports that I have read you prove, I 

 think, that more money for farmers 

 to spend means more money circulat- 

 ing quickly in town. It is just as true 

 that great industrial activity and 

 larger city payrolls mean more 

 money for farmers. It is just as dis- 

 astrous to break the circuit of spend- 

 ing in cities as it is to break it off at 

 the edge of cities and try to keep the 

 farm families on another and inferior 

 income and standard of living. 



Chicago Farm Capital 



Here in the Middle West, which is 

 my home, the need of a continued 

 movement of trade between farm and 

 town should be, by this time, especial- 

 ly apparent. Chicago is the great 

 commissary of the naturally richest 

 expanse of farming country on earth. 

 The whole history of Chicago's 

 growth is the history of the growth 

 of the Mississippi Valley. When any- 

 thing stifles that growth, trade in 

 Chicago stagnates. When this great 

 Valley blossoms forth in prosperity 

 again, then and only then, will Chi- 

 cago be back in stride. 



Now for the final part of my talk: 

 about the profit system, and its de- 

 tractors. All through this land there 

 is constant discussion of the so-called 

 new functions of Government, of Gor- 

 emment plans for this or that, of 

 what the Government is going to do 

 next. What is Government? 



This is what has been going through 

 my mind. Our Government is not some 

 mysterious device handed down from 

 above or dug up from below. It is of 

 our own making. In setting up our 

 original Government our forefathers 

 followed the English guild system of 

 local self-sufficiency. As local gov- 

 ernments expanded and interests 

 crossed, overhead governments were 

 set up, resulting in county and State 

 governments. 



The Federal Government was sup- 

 posed to intervene only in such mat- 

 ters as could not be settled by the 

 States themselves. The foundation of 

 the whole structure from the first has 

 been a respect for private property 



I. A. A. RECORD— January, 1934 



rights, and the sacredness of con- 

 tracts, ■■r'-'-'^-.y ■:"^',;''r-.?;';:''V;;',.';'' ,",;.:':-r. 



The Profit System 



There is great apprehension in the 

 minds of many business men today ; 

 about the relations of government to ;. 

 business. There is grave concern over '<■ 

 the expressions of a few ultra-liberals 

 about the Government taking over ^ 

 private business. If you want my 

 opinion — personally, not officially, 

 mind you — I would say that this ap- 

 prehension is unwarranted. Unless it ; 

 hustles, the Government has more hay 

 down now than it will get up before 

 it rains. 



Legitimate profits have always been 

 regarded in this country as a proper 

 reward for individual initiative, in- 

 dustry, and thrift. I know of no sub- 

 stitute for such traits. I am in favor 

 of the profit system ; but I am in favor 

 of starting with the farmer. 



There is abroad in the land a propa- 

 ganda of more or less importance for 

 doing away with the profit system. 

 This means no more and no less than 

 doing away with the institutions un- 

 der which we have all grown up and 

 prospered more or less. I am against 

 the racketeers of high finance as 

 much as I am against the racketeers 

 in the underworld. But the remedy 

 lies not in destro3ring our institutions. 

 It lies in reaching these racketeers in :.: 

 high places under the laws of our 

 land. If these laws are Inadequate, 

 they should be revised and extended 

 so that no guilty man shall escape. I 

 am dead against the malpractices of 

 the so-called monopolies; I say "so- 

 called" to differentiate between "male- 

 factors of great wealth" and the mil- 

 lions of heads of business, large and 

 small, performing a useful service. 



Government owes no man a living. 

 But it is the duty of government to 

 intervene on behalf of any man who is 

 prevented from following his ordinary 

 lawful pursuits in an effort to support 

 himself and his family. That is why 

 I have said for a dozen years that it 

 is the duty of the National Govern- 

 ment to intervene on behalf of the 

 American farmer, for against the 

 farmer barriers have been set up, and 

 these barriers have resulted in mil- 

 lions of our worthiest people losing 

 their homes and their lands through 

 no fault of their own. 



Farm Strike Futile 



I do not criticize the farmers for 

 protesting at delays in relief from 

 such conditions. I have protested, 

 myself, as long as any man within the 

 reach of my voice. I do not protest 

 against the hot impatience of some 

 farm leaders. I do protest against 



., (Continued on page 18) 





^ 



" ♦ 



•-r. i(K* 



