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Packers Pay $100,000,000 



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Administrator Chester C. Davis Speaks To Northern 



linois Farmers at LaSalle 



THE best evidence that the corn-hog 

 program has gone far toward restor- 

 ing farm buying power in the corn 

 belt is that during the eight months, 

 Jan. 1 to Sept. 1, 1934, meat packers 

 |)aid 1100,000,000 more for 12 per cent 

 less hogs processed in federal inspected 

 plants than they paid during the same 

 eight months of 1933. 



This striking evidence of the effective- 

 ness of the crop adjustment program was 

 disclosed by Chester C. Davis, adminis- 

 trator of the Agricultural Adjustment 

 Act, in an address to nearly 1,000 farm- 

 ers in the LaSalle-Peru high school au- 

 ditorium Saturday, Oct. 13. 



During the first eight months of 1933 

 when there was no corn-hog program, 

 federal inspected plants processed 7,490,- 

 000,000 pounds of live hogs which cost 

 the packers $286,000,000, Mr. Davis said. 



During the first eight months of 1934 

 with the corit-hog program underway, 

 the same packers processed 6,588,000,000 

 pounds of hogs — 12 per cent less than 

 the year before — ^which cost them $386,- 

 000,000, including the processing tax. In 

 other words 12 per cent less hogs cost 

 the packers 35 per cent more. 



The Processing Tax 



**The processing tax is being paid to 

 co-operating corn-hog farmers and not 

 to the man who in every co-operative 

 effort in the past has taken a free ride 

 and even dragged his heels," said Mr. 

 Davis. 



Constrasting the rise in returns to the 

 hog farmer compared with the situation 

 in beef cattle, Mr. Davis pointed out that 

 packers paid only 25 per cent more 

 money for 16 per cent more cattle 

 slaughtered in the first eight months of 

 1934 compared with payments made in 

 the same period of 1933. "And cattle 

 men have benefited by the hog control 

 program," he said. 



In January, 1933, Administrator Davis 

 said the average price of hogs on the 

 farm was $2.68 per cwt. A survey made 

 then indicated a four per cent increase 

 in the number of spring pigs and an in- 

 crease in the number of sows to be bred 

 for fall litters. Approximately 6,200,000 

 pigs and 200,000 sows soon to farrow 

 were marketed under the control pro- 

 gram in the fall of 1933. Most of the 

 meat went into non-competitive unem- 

 ployment relief channels. ' ' 



"Let's not forget," said Mr. Davis, 



NOVEMBER, 1934'' ' Xi^:'>-^'-;^-B'^^^ 



"that this was all made possible by the 

 processing tax. In addition the govern- 

 ment bought 1,400,000 hogs on the open 

 market for unemployment relief when 

 the processing tax went on. On October 

 6 this year the average cost of hogs to 

 the packers was $8.13 per cwt. in con- 

 trast to about $1 the same time a year 

 ago. 



"I believe farmers will be smart enough 

 to keep this control program in their 

 hands next year, the year after, and 

 thereafter so long as it is needed." 



Speaking of corn loans Mr. Davis said: 

 "Earl Smith was the first one to come 

 down to Washington and talk to us about 

 the corn loan program. This loan, which 

 immediately raised the price of corn and 

 made it possible for farmers to secure 

 the benefit of subsequent price advances 

 would not have been possible were it not 

 for the acreage reduction program. 



Can't Stabilize Without 



"The Federal Farm Board made a real 

 contribution to the agricultural experi- 

 ence of this country," he continued. "It 

 provided definite proof that you can't 

 buy up farm commodities and stabilize 

 prices without production control. Com 

 loans and cotton loans are part and par- 

 cel of a production control program. 

 President Roosevelt has advised us that 

 these loans will not be made unless farm- 

 ers support acreage control." 



Responding to questions from the floor, 

 Mr. Davis stated that the Administra- 

 tion was aware of the individual 

 inequities in carrying out the corn-hog 

 program. If farmers finally decide to 

 continue crop adjustment, as seems like- 

 ly, the Administration hopes to iron out 

 these inequities. "It is my observation," 

 he said, "that whenever you get into a 

 state where there is a strong, intelligent- 

 ly directed farm organization these crop 

 adjustment programs have been success- 

 fully carried out. 



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Next Year's Plan 



If there is a program next year, there 

 will probably be little or no control exer- 

 cised over the contracted acres, and some 

 relaxation of rules governing the use of 

 'idle' ground. The 1935 plan undoubt- 

 edly will provide for benefit payments 

 on both hogs and corn. 



-"On October 6, U. S. treasury state- 

 ments showed that collections from pro- 

 cessing taxes totaled $505,000,000 while 



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VV;- ■ \ . 



CUTTING '£M LOOSE 



payments to farmers totaled $406,399,- 

 000. In other words, collections were 

 approximately $100,000,000 ahead of 

 payments. We are sending out between 

 $4,000,000 and $5,000,000 daily," Davis 

 said, "and by January 1 somewhere be- 

 tween $250,000,000 and $280,000,000 will 

 have been paid to co-operating corn and 

 hog farmers." 



In introducing Mr. Davis, President 

 Earl C. Smith briefly reviewed the long 

 continued effort of organized farmers 

 following the war to secure surplus con- 

 trol legislation, and told of Mr. Davis' 

 association with this movement as early 

 as 1922. 



Clifford V. Gregory, editor of Prairie 

 Farmer, effectively answered charges of 

 opponents that farmers were being 

 "regimented" and deprived of their 

 ''liberty." Before the AAA program was 

 launched to raise farm prices, he said, 

 farmers were rapidly being "regimented" 

 off their farms and the "liberty" they 

 enjoyed was to go north, south, east or 

 west after being set out in the road. Some 

 of our defenders of the constitution, he 

 said, seem to forget that its framers 

 started it this way "In order to form a 

 more perfect union, ESTABLISH JUS- 

 TICE, etc." 



E. E. Stevenson, president of the La- 

 Salle County Farm Bureau, presided. 



The five 1934 Illinois candidates recom- 

 mended for the "American Farmer" de- 

 gree in the Future Farmers of America 

 are: Milbourn DeMunn, Capron; James 

 Dunseth, Waverly; Beryl Rutledge, 

 Farmer City; Edwin Bates, Carlinville; 

 and Clarence Akin, Bridgeport. The 7th 

 annual meeting was held at the American 

 Royal, Kansas City, Oct. 20-26., 



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