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Davis Puts Opponents 



Of AAA On the Spot 



Controlling Production Is Exactly 



How Others Maintain 



Prices, He Says 



CHESTEB DAVIS 



IN the best speech he has made since 

 becoming administrator of the Ad- 

 justment Act, Chester C. Davis put 

 critics of the crop control program on 

 the spot in a masterful discussion and 

 review of 10 years efforts to solve the 



farm problem, on 

 Farm Organization 

 Day at the World's 

 Fair, Chicago, Aug. 

 13. 



Taking a shot at 

 the partisan-dictated 

 editorial policies of 

 certain mid - west 

 newspapers, partic- 

 ularly the Chicago' 

 Tribune and Chicago 

 News, Davis pointed 

 ; out how they had 

 criticized both the equalization fee plan 

 and later the Farm Board program be- 

 cause "they provided no means of pro- 

 duction control." -. : 



"Today the farmers are cooperating to 

 that very end," the AAA chief declared, 

 "and doing a good job of it. The pro- 

 ducers of the major crops are orgslnized 

 as they never were before. You would 

 think, wouldn't you, that these critics 

 would welcome the present program as 

 right down their alley? But no, they 

 don't like the way the farmers are doing 

 it, and the way the program is being 

 financed. Maybe in time a program can 

 be evolved to suit them." 



> • \ Would Go Bankrupt^ :;./^^ 



If a manufacturer continued to make 

 and sell goods, forcing the price Ibwer 

 and lower below his production costs, he 

 would soon be bankrupt, Davis declared, 

 in defending the adjustment program. 

 "So he aims to produce what he has or 

 can get orders for, at a price that brings 

 him out whole. Society approves that 

 practice and calls it good business for 

 the manufacturers. Strangely enough 

 when the farmers organize to do that 

 very thing some perfectly well-inten- 

 tioned and high-minded folks call it sin- 

 ful." ■'•.•■■■•r::.:.-:-.^-,;.-.'. ■'•-.•■.... ■> 



The speaker gave many illustrations 

 showing how organized business and la- 

 bor controls output to maintain prices. 



"I think the farmer will not be fooled, 

 nor stampeded by individuals who are 

 irritated by what is being done and who 

 hope, by the mere repetition of terrify- 

 ing words, to frighten them into retreat," 

 he said. "The farmer's business makes 

 him a planner. It is my conviction that 

 he is ready to do his part in a long-time 



program of adjusted production and im- 

 proved marketing that leads toward a 

 sounder and more profitable industry for 

 himself and. his children. ' : 



:■•;■•-■■.•::-:■•■■.■-■'■' Unfair to Farmer ■■V:::k'y-:\-'y:^\ 



"It is unfair to ask farmers to play 

 the economic game under one set of rules 

 while industry and labor play under an-; 

 other. The drought is a circumstance 

 which must be given due weight in map- 

 ping continued adjustment operations. 

 But we have no reason to believe that 

 lands of the United States have per- 

 manently lost their productivity. If 

 farmers again sow without restraint and 

 reap fully where they sow, they will re- 

 enter the cycle of unsaleable supplies and 

 low prices from which they now promise 

 to emerge." 



Davis asserted that the purchasing 

 power of producers of the seven basic 

 commodities originally named in the Act 

 has been increased 70 per cent (includ- 

 ing benefit payments received or com- 

 ing) after allowing for the higher prices 

 of the things they buy. The purchasing 

 power of all farmers has been increased 

 26 per cent by the various forces work- 

 ing for recovery, he said. 



Apparently lott on Chicago newgp&pers was Mr. 

 Davis's mdite explanation of the economio foroet 

 which created the farm problem and the itept that 

 have been taken and why, to aoWe it. Farmera gen- 

 erally know that there ii more intellirenoe and 

 expert knowledf • in the acrienltnral department at 

 Washington today jthaa perhapa at any time in 

 history .—Editor. 



"Work or Don't Eat" is M • 

 v A. F. B. F. Policy on Relief 



; Expressing the belief that every de- 

 serving citizen should have an ample 

 supply of food, clothing and shelter, but 

 condemning "what appears to be a fast- 

 developing dole system encouraged and 

 demanded by communistic influences," 

 directors of the American Farm Bureau 

 Federation on August 10 passed a res- 

 olution urging state and federal govern- 

 ments immediately to make radical 

 changes in present unemployment relief 

 policies. •...:.•■:•... ...-.v. -x. .,••.:.::. ^•.■■•/^:v• ... .v. .••^; 



9> 



*'We believe a proper slogan would be, 

 said the resolution . 



"All who work eat 

 All who are unable to work eat 

 ; All unemployed who refuse to 

 work at comparatively reason- 

 able wages on emergency proj- 

 ects provided by government — 

 don't eat.'*; 

 The Farm Bureau leaders are of the 

 opinion that so-called temporary unem- 

 ployment relief is fast becoming a 

 permanent system and unless curtailed 

 will destroy American ideals and the 

 self-respect of millions of citizens. 

 "American farmers believe in and sup- 

 port reasonable wages for all workers 

 but condemn a system of government 



Corn Loan Borrowers 



Profit By Price Upturn 



Figured at 30c Advance In Price, 

 Program Makes $20,000,000 

 - For Illinois Farmers 



.Thousands of Illinois farmers took ad- 

 vantage of the upturn in the price of 

 corn during July and early August to 

 dispose of their sealed corn and pay off 

 their federal loans. ^ . ^ 



■ The Whiteside County Farm Bureau 

 reports that on August 8, 48 farmers 

 paid back their loans when the local price 

 reached 67 cents. This was the high day 

 up to that time. The previous high rec- 

 ord was three weeks earlier when 41 

 farmers sold their corn when the market 

 .was 55 cents. :.•.•.•■ •^./•.■.••.•: .^.; "••.••••-■ -^ 



• Of nearly 75 million bushels sealed in 

 Illinois nearly 25 per cent of the loans 

 to 36,606 borrowers had been paid back 

 by Aug. 13. Based on mid-August prices 

 farmers gained an average of 30 to 40 

 cents per bushel more than they would 

 have secured had not the federal gov- 

 ernment at the urgent request of or- 

 ganized farmers led by the I. A. A. 

 started the loan program at 45c per 

 bushel. Thus farmers rather than specu- 

 lators have reaped the benefit of ad- 

 vancing prices. 



This gain figured at only 30c per bu. 

 applied to all the corn sealed in Illinois 

 means that farmers profited to the ex- 

 tent of around $20,000,000.00. Applied to 

 unsealed as well as sealed com carried 

 over by farmers, it means a much higher 

 gain than that estimated above. 



Farmers Benefit By V 



AAA Milk Licenses 



Figures for 23 milk sales areas under 

 federal licenses showed an average in- 

 crease in returns to producers on CJlass 

 I milk, of 52 cents per cwt. for June 

 and July 1934, as compared with the 

 low mark reached by depression prices 



in May 1933. ' '' •'"V: V^-V^^ ^ '^■" 



In the Quad Cities area around Rock 



Island and Davenport, producers in May 

 1933 received 38 per cent of the 1927-'29 

 Class I price. Under the milk license, 

 secured with the help of the Quality 

 Milk Producers and the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association, producers there last 

 month enjoyed a price on Class I milk 

 which is 69 per cent of 1927.'29 level. 

 These figures do not include increases in 

 Class II and Class III prices which also 

 prevail on many markets under federal 

 licenses. 



unemployment relief or charity that en- 

 courages idleness and indifference to 

 emergency employment at comparatively 

 lower wages." i ; v > 



'At 



SEPTEMBER, 1934 



17 



