is an established fart that the level of 

 values placed upon new wealth produced 

 annually has a direct and effective in- 

 fluence in determining total national in- 

 come. Under normal conditions and pe- 

 riods of relatively fair income, farmers 

 constitute the largest purchasers of the 

 produrts of mills and fartories. With 

 such an interdependency, how can any- 

 one doubt the wisdom of establishing and 

 maintaining national policies that are nec- 

 essary to maintain the price levels of farm 

 commodities and the income of farm 

 people on a basis of fair relationships 

 with industry and labor? 



How can anyone deny interest in pol- 

 icies necessary to assure the placing of 

 reasonable values upon the new wealth 

 produced by agriculture, in the light of 

 the established relationship of the value 

 placed upon our annually produced new 

 wealth, to total national income? With 

 farmers constituting the largest outlet for 

 the produrts of mills and factories, how 

 can any stockholders or worker in a fac- 

 tory fail to recognize his interest in a 

 prosperous agriculture? 



Need High National Income 



If this nation is to meet its obliga- 

 tions adequately, we must maintain in 

 America a very substantial national in- 

 come. Only from such a large national 

 income can we find the reservoir for 

 maintaining the type of a tax structure 

 necessary for the orderly retirement of 

 national obligations. Only by meeting 

 these obligations can the solvency of the 

 nation be assured, national integrity pre- 

 served, or can we, as a nation, avoid 

 chaos and some type of dictatorship. 

 Such a large national income can only be 

 maintained through large scale produc- 

 tion in both agriculture and other indus- 

 try, and, as everyone knows, large scale 

 business artivity is essential for mass em- 

 ployment. Such large scale produrtion 

 can only be maintained through the adop- 

 tion and the maintenance of policies nec- 

 essary to assure the interchange of agri- 

 cultural and other industrial commodities 

 on a basis of fair exchange value. Thus 

 is witnessed the inescapable inter-rela- 

 tionship of interest between jobs for the 

 people at good wages, reasonable returns 

 to the investors in business and business 

 management, and a restored and prosper- 

 ous agriculture. 



Stresses Interdependence of Groups 



Notwithstanding these relationships, 

 we still have those who seek ways and 

 means of securing or protecting unfair 

 and selfish interests. We still have those 

 who want high wages and cheap food. 

 They point to the increase in farm prices 

 since 1939, but fail to recognize that in 

 1939, farm prices were the lowest in 



twenty-five years, except for the depths 

 of the depression. They fail to recog- 

 nize that from the increase of seventy- 

 .seven and one-tenth billion dollars in 

 national income in 1943 over 1939, farm- 

 ers, who constitute approximately twenty- 

 five percent of the population, received 

 only eight billion dollars, or only ten 

 percent of this increase in national in- 

 come. 



Importance of Stable Agriculture 



We have those who still place major 

 emphasis upon high hourly wages, but 

 who give little attention to the impor- 

 tance of large scale employment at reg- 

 ular monthly wages and substantial year- 

 ly incomes. We still have those in 

 industry who hold tenaciously to per unit 

 profits instead of recognizing the greater 

 value of net annual returns from larger 

 scale produrtion. It was the failure to 

 recognize the inter-relationship of a 

 prosperous agriculture, large scale busi- 

 ness activity, and mass employment fol- 

 lowing the last war that sowed the seeds 

 of the late depression. We must avoid 

 a repetition of these experiences. To do 

 otherwise, is to court disaster. 



Many well meaning people seem to 

 think that present day savings of farmers 

 will constitute an adequate reser\'oir of 

 purchasing power throughout the period 

 of readjustment. Those who subscribe 

 to that theory do not understand nor are 

 they acquainted with the financial think- 

 ing of farmers. It is my well considered 

 belief that unless farmers can be as- 

 sured of the soundness and effectiveness 

 of policies necessary to sustain agricul- 

 tural prices and income in the days ahead, 

 that purchases of the products of other 

 industry will be confined to farmers' im- 

 mediate needs. However, with the as- 

 surance of sustained agricultural prices 

 and income, farmers' demands for the 

 products of industry will reach a volume 

 that will surprise the nation. One has 

 only to witness the conditions and the 

 limitations on the farms of America to 

 recognize the vastness of a market for 

 the produrts of industry that will be re- 

 quired to meet the pent-up needs of 

 farmers and other rural people. It has 

 been said that only one-tenth of one per- 

 cent of the farm homes of America now 

 have modern conveniences. It is the 

 rural women of America who are bearing 

 and raising relatively a preponderance of 

 our children. It is in the farm homes of 

 America that women are called upon for 

 much greater daily toil than in other 

 walks of life. Can anyone successfully 

 deny that the women of rural America 

 are entitled to every modern home con- 

 venience enjoyed by a substantial portion 

 of the women of our cities ? 



Farmers, of course, recognize the im- 



portance of mass employment at sub- 

 stantial wages as essential to provide the 

 farmers with their best market, but we 

 also recognize there is a limit to the ca- 

 pacity of the human stomach. But at 

 least for many years, there is prartically 

 no limit, except the limitation of purchas- 

 ing power, on the volume of manufac- 

 tured commodities farmers will require 

 and will purchase for the improvement 

 of farms and farm homes, if given the 

 opportunity. 



Control of Surpluses Necessary 



How can agriculture be sustained at 

 prosperous levels and avoid the experi- 

 ences of earlier years, when the records 

 show so clearly that in years of large 

 produrtion, the total value of farm com- 

 modities was much less than in years of 

 more limited production? I believe the 

 answer is much more simple than many 

 seem to think. To me, the agricultural 

 problem can be divided into two parts. 

 First, the problems connected with the 

 proper and effertive control of surplus re- 

 serves of basic soil crops, and secondly, 

 the problems of providing and maintain- 

 ing policies known to be necessary for the 

 stabilization of the prices of commodities 

 produced from such basic soil crops. 

 Dealing with the first — no one has yet 

 invented any scheme to control elements 

 of weather and growing conditions that 

 largely determine the annual volume of 

 produrtion of basic soil crops, such as 

 corn, wheat, rice, cotton and tobacco. 

 National protertion and welfare requires 

 the produrtion and the carry over of large 

 surplus reserves of such basic soil crops. 



Reserves Protect National Interests 



Everyone knows that when supplies 

 are greatly in excess of current demand, 

 price levels break and values are sub- 

 stantially lowered. If we are to stabilize 

 values, it becomes immediately apparent 

 that policies must be maintained for the 

 proper and effective control of such sur- 

 plus reserves so as to remove their bear- 

 ish effect upon current prices. Certain it 

 is that if such surplus reserves are pro- 

 duced, for the protection of the con- 

 sumer and the national interest, it be- 

 comes a national responsibility to adopt 

 and to maintain policies essential for the 

 effective segregation of these surpluses 

 and their control in a manner necessary 

 to remove their otherwise disastrous in- 

 fluence upon current price levels and 

 values. As a backlog intended only to 

 make sure that surplus reserve volume 

 does not get out of bounds, we must at 

 all times maintain policies necessary for 

 the intelligent adjustment of supplies at 

 the point of produrtion. 



Some people call this regimentation. 



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