THE POSITION or THE ArBF ON 



BASIC 

 AGRICULTURAL ' 

 POLICIES 



ON behalf of the American Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation, which represents 

 700,000 farm families, or about 

 three million farm people in forty- 

 three States and Puerto Rico in its 

 membership, we commend the action 

 of the Republican Committee on Agri- 

 culture in seeking the views of farm 

 organizations with respect to national 

 policies affecting agriculture. We re- 

 spectfully submit the following state- 

 ment and recommendations: 



I 



Preservation of Constitutional Govern- 

 ment 



We reaffirm our faith in the con- 

 stitutional, representative, democratic 

 form of government as the best for 

 the United States of America. Our na- 

 tion is blessed with a magnificent heri- 

 tage of freedom — freedom of speech, 

 freedom of worship, freedom of en- 

 terprise. The American way of life has 

 encouraged and rewarded the qualities 

 of initiative, enterprise, resourceful- 

 ness, frugality, hard work, and self- 

 denial, and has made America the land 

 of opportunity in the eyes of the en- 

 tire world. Under the American sys- 

 tem, we have attained average stan- 

 dards of living that are unmatched any- 

 where. 



We realize that during this period 

 of world conflict we must have greater 

 central direction of our war effort, but 

 we view with grave concern the con- 

 tinuing efforts being made, under the 

 guise of the war, to centralize greater 

 authority in the Executive branch of 

 the Government, and to permit fla- 

 grant abuse of administrative powers. 



Among these alarming trends are: 

 the delegation of excessive and unduly 

 sweeping legislative powers to the Ex- 

 ecutive branch ; usurpation of addi- 

 tional powers by Government officials 

 through strained interpretations of the 

 statutes; nullification of Congressional 

 enactments and policies by ad- 

 ministrative orders and regulations ; 

 proposals to confer upon the Execu- 

 tive sweeping authority to suspend 



Acts of Congress; vast volume of Ex- 

 ecutive orders, regulations, and direc- 

 tives; creation of vast new agencies, 

 clothing them with far-reaching pow- 

 ers over the lives, liberties, and daily 

 activities of citizens, and over agricul- 

 ture, industry, and business — by Ex- 

 ecutive order out of general war pow- 

 ers, without specific authorization by 

 Congress; propaganda by subversive 

 groups and others, obviously intended 

 to discredit Congress in the eyes of the 

 people and persuade them to yield to 

 further grants of dictatorial powers; 

 enormous "blank-check" appropriations 

 without sufficient control and account- 

 ing to the legislative branch; and al- 

 most unlimited authority to transfer 

 bureaus or to create entirely new bu- 

 reaus and clothe them with vast pow- 

 ers. 



We view these trends as a serious 

 threat to democracy and freedom in 

 this country. 



While our armed forces are fight- 

 ing for democracy on the battlefronts 

 of the world, all freedom-loving citi- 

 zens must be alert and active to pre- 

 serve our form of representative, con- 

 stitutional Government and save our 

 American system from being replaced 

 with some form of state socialism or 

 some other form of totalitarian govern- 

 ment. 



II 



Taxation and Fiscal Policies 



The rapidly soaring national debt is 

 a matter of profound concern to every 

 citizen. It is imperative that drastic 

 steps be taken to restore sound fiscal 

 policy, to reduce governmental expen-* 

 ditures wherever possible without crip- 

 pling the war effort, to eliminate use- 

 less bureaus and excessive employees, 

 to curtail extravagance and waste, and 

 thereby prevent a debt burden which 

 would endanger our democratic form 

 of government. We favor stricter con- 

 trol of governmental expenditures by 

 Congress and the adoption of tax poli- 

 cies which will help prevent inflation 

 and pay currently as large a part of the 



The following is a complete 

 statement presented by the Amer- 

 ican Farm Bureau Federation to 

 the Republican platform com- 

 mittee in April. It embodies the 

 fundamentals of the recommenda- 

 tions which will be made to the 

 official platform committees of 

 both the Republican and Demo- 

 cratic parties at their forthcoming 

 conventions. J 



war cost as is practicable. The tax bur- 

 den should be equitably distributed so 

 that all citizens will pay their fair share 

 of taxes based on ability to pay and 

 equality of sacrifice, and so as to derive 

 the maximum revenue without destroy- 

 ing individual initiative or crippling 

 free enterprise. 



Ill 

 Essential National Farm Policies 



It is imperative to provide a basic 

 argicultural program which will en- 

 able agriculture to maintain maximum 

 war-time production and to readjust 

 to peace-time requirements, to regain 

 and maintain its fair share of world 

 markets, to strengthen Jind improve 

 marketing machinery and outlets, to 

 preserve soil fertility, to maintain a 

 fair balance between farm prices, in- 

 dustrial prices, and wages, and to as- 

 sure farmers a fair share of the na- 

 tional income. 



We aggressively support the follow- 

 ing measures as the basic features of 

 such a program : 



1. Simplification and improvement 

 of machinery to enable farmers to 

 maintain substantial reserve supplies 

 of basic soil crops, and consistent with 

 such reserve supplies, to adjust annual 

 production in line with market de- 

 mand, so that prices of such commodi- 

 ties may be stabilized on a basis of 

 {Coniinued on page 20) 



I. A. A. RECORD 



TVil 

 PL 



ON MA-i 

 pany 

 plants 

 Orion in - 

 were forme 

 who have 

 past 13 yi 

 service coi 

 owners' tra 

 and their 

 assets. He 

 serving Far 

 marketer, g 

 turer, feed 



Quoting 

 their recent 

 County Fat 

 "Under the 

 the operati< 

 continued ii 

 they have 

 This will aj 

 and grain ] 

 plants may 

 mixed feed 

 their feedii 

 with the lei 

 ing this trar 

 Henry-Sta 

 becomes dis 

 in Henry o 

 tributing Bl 

 for the pas 

 Blue Seal 

 the regular 

 tein suppler 

 Henry-Sta 

 venture bec( 

 a new type 

 manufacturii 

 ice Compan 

 manufacturii 

 nois Farm 

 mix Service 1 

 tal purpose < 

 quality loca 

 same labora 

 turing super 

 mills. The 

 feeds have 



Here is the . 

 Osco, Henry 

 *>y the Hei 

 irom Wakey 



JUNE, 1944 



