M Offers Program at Senate Hearing 



Vice President Morris asks for Credit Control, Curbs on Monopolistic 

 Practices, Debt Reduction, and Postponement of Public Building Programs 



Following is a statement made by lAA 

 Vice President Floyd E. Morris before 

 the sub-committee of the Committee on 

 Agriculture and Forestry of the U. S. 

 Senate. The sub-committee conducted 

 the hearings Oct. 20-21 at Peoria to get 

 farm opinion on a long-range national 

 program for agriculture. 



MR. Chairman and Members of the 

 Committee: My name is Floyd E. 

 Morris. I am a farmer and vice 

 president of the Illinois Agriail- 

 tural Association, which has a 

 membership of 146,000 farm 

 families in the state of Illinois. The Il- 

 linois Agricultural Association is the 

 Illinois state unit of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation. 



In representing the Illinois Agricul- 

 tural Association, I want to emphasize 

 that we have participated actively in the 

 formulation of the legislative programs 

 affecting agriculture as sponsored by our 

 national organization, the American 

 Farm Bureau Federation. 



We are presenting this statement in 

 support of and supplementary to the 

 statement presented to this committee 

 by the American Farm Bureau Federa- 

 tion. 



There are many phases of national 

 legislation affecting agriculture that are 

 of particular interest to farmers in Illi- 

 nois. This study was made by a com- 

 mittee made up of a farmer representa- 

 tive from each Congressional district in 

 the state. Several of the suggestions or- 

 iginating in this committee study are 

 included in this statement. 



NATIONAL POLICIES 



While agriculture does have some very 

 specific problems, in general the greatest 

 need for legislative action today is not 

 for special agricultural programs. 



We have abundant proof that much 

 of the distress in agriculture has been 

 due to the recurrent, extremely wide 

 fluctuations in the general price level. 

 Throughout the years, our organization 

 has ^peatedly taken action urging that 

 national legislation be designed to elimi- 

 /nate these extremely wide fluctuations in 



Floyd 



the price level of all commodities. 



By resolution in annual meeting, the 

 American Farm Bureau Federation and 

 the Illinois Agricultural Association 

 have made the following definite sug- 

 gestions in the interest of obtaining 

 greater stability in the price level: 



1. The control of many credit and 

 fiscal policies of the federal govern- 

 ment should be coordinated under one 

 authority. The purpose of this mone- 

 tary authority shoula be to regulate as 

 far as feasible by formula the purchas- 

 ing power of the dollar. This author- 

 ity should also have the responsibility 

 of making recommendations to the 

 Congress for action designMi to regu- 

 late and stabilize the value of money. 



2. Business activity can be encour- 

 aged by the control of monopolistic 

 practices in business and labor. We 

 urge that the federal government take 

 every possible action to prevent the de- 

 struction of competition by abuses com- 

 mon to monopolies. 



3. We urge that the federal govern- 

 ment restrict large programs of public 

 building to periods of declining price 

 levels. 



4. We urge that during periods of 

 high price levels, the federal govern- 

 ment take steps to reduce the national 

 debt by reducing expenditures and 

 maintaining taxes at a relatively high 

 level. 



FARM PROGRAMS 



Through the years there has been de- 

 veloped a natioiial policy for agriculture, 

 embodied in the existing legislation. Step 

 by step this national policy has been ^ 

 modified and improved. Further change*. a 

 and improvement are certainly needei I (^ 

 will discuss briefly some of these oeeded • 

 immediately. Other problems not covered 

 in this statement are being submitted to 

 our voting delegates at the forthcoming 

 annual meeting of the Association in 

 November. 



■A 

 PARITY FORMULA 



We recognize the need for revision 

 and modernization of the parity formula. 

 Following is a quotation from action 

 taken by the American Farm Bureau Fed- 

 eration which is supported by our or- 

 ganization : 



"We believe the parity principle, 

 which includes the fair exchange value 

 concept, has made and will continue to 

 make a valuable contribution to the 

 American economy. The American 

 Farm Bureau Federation will resist any 

 attempt to destroy the parity concept. In 

 previous resolutions we have recognized 

 the need for adjustments in certain com- 

 modities and have recommended that 

 steps be taken to develop a plan that 

 will give equitable treatment to livestock 

 products, dairy products, and any other 

 agricultural commodity that is not treated 

 fairly under the present parity formu- 

 la." 



SOIL CONSERVATION 



We are very strongly of the opinion 

 that the activities of the federal govern- 

 ment in the field of soil conservation 

 should be greatly accelerated and coordi- 

 nated under one agency. At the present 

 time soil conservation, research, educa- 

 tion and promotional work are being 

 carried on oy several agencies under the 

 Department of Agriculture. The re- 

 search work in soil conservation should 

 be assigned to the established State Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Stations. The edu- 

 cational ana promotional activities should 

 be transferred to and administered by Ate 



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