Farm Bureau Knocks Out Brannan Plan 



Organized Agriculture 



Wants Farm Plan 



With Fewer 



Controls 



FARM Bureau is on the job at 

 Washington. As the result of 

 Farm Bureau action, the U. S. 

 House of Representatives turned 

 down a trial run of the Brannan 

 plan by a thumping vote of 239 to 170. 

 State and national Farm Bureau repre- 

 sentatives made it clear to the legisla- 

 tors that organized agriculture favored 

 a farm program with less government 

 control than offered in the Brannan 

 plan. 



The vote in the House showed that 

 the majority of representatives from the 

 rural districts did not favor the Brannan 

 plan. The plan had more friends among 

 representatives from the city areas. 



Only one Illinois downstate Congress- 

 man voted against the Farm Bureau 

 position on this issue and he was from 

 East St. Louis. Recorded vote of Il- 

 linois Congressmen on the trial run of 

 the Brannan plan is worthy of the mem- 

 bers' study. 



As the Record goes to press, the na- 

 tion's farm program is being debated in 

 Senate committee hearings. 



Charles B. Shuman, president of the 

 Illinois Agricultural Association, testi- 

 fying before the Senate subcommittee 

 on the farm program, said "we know 

 of practically no feeling on the part of 

 farmers of Illinois in favor of the ideas 

 incorporated in the Brannan plan." 



Referring to the Brannan proposal, 

 Hassil E. Schenck, president of the In- 

 diana Farm Bureau, told the committee: 

 if you are going to give the farmer a 

 good price and the consumer cheap 

 food, you are going to have to regiment 

 every business engaged in the handling 

 of that food from the time it leaves the 

 farmer's hands until it reaches the ulti- 

 mate consumer. . ." 



The Farm Bureau favors improve- 

 ment of farm program legislation al- 

 ready on the books. 



Farm Bureau opposes the Brannan 



plan because it feels that the cost of the 

 program would be staggering and farm- 

 ers would have to depend upon ap- 

 propriations from Congress in order to 

 get a fair price for agricultural products. 



Price goals of the plan are so high 

 that they will lead to continuous and 

 rigid controls over production and mar- 

 keting. 



Farm Bureau also opposes the Bran- 

 nan plan because it throws out the idea 

 of parity. Organized agriculture fought 

 for many years to achieve this goal of 

 fair exchange in the market place. Par- 

 ity has come to be accepted by, non- 

 agricultural groups as a fair measuring 

 stick for farm prices. It does not seem 

 logical to abandon it in favor of an un- 

 tried system. 



Farm Bureau does favor modernizing 

 the parity formula, but does not favor 

 changing its basic principle of fair ex- 

 change value between the products of 

 the farm and industry. 



Farm Bureau also is outspoken in its 

 disapproval of the "unusual procedure 

 employed in creating the Brannan plan 

 and presenting it to the public which 

 has had the effect of throwing the farm 

 problem into the partisan political 

 arena, a situation which we deplore 

 and condemn. ... In the future as in 

 the past, sound farm legislation will 

 depend on the best efforts of both polit- 

 ical parties." 



Votes Supporting 

 Farm Bureau Position 



Against Brannan Plan 



Votes In Opposition 



To Farm Bureau Position 



For Brannan Plan 



SEPTEMBER, 1949 



