[American Agriculturist, March 17,1923 
The 67th Congress and the Farmer 
A Review of Legislation Efforts to Aid Agriculture to Come Back 
T he Sixty-seventh Congress broke all 
records. It took four sessions, occu¬ 
pying more time than any other Con¬ 
gress in American history. More 
than 15,000 bills were introduced and sev¬ 
eral hundred passed. 
As one reviews its activities it becomes 
apparent that farmers had more requests 
granted than any other group. They won 
many victories. Their efforts were fre¬ 
quently successful, both in the enactment of 
legislation and in killing bills antagonistic 
to their interests. 
There were two reasons for this unusual 
congressional sensitiveness to farm opinion. 
The economic depression which was in full 
swing at the beginning of the Harding 
Administration forced the condition of the 
farmer upon political leaders. 
Like the ghost of Banquo, it in¬ 
sisted upon coming into the meet¬ 
ing. As long as the condition of 
the farmer was unalleviated, 
Western congressmen from the 
agricultural districts showed a 
marked lack of enthusiasm over 
passing any other type of bills. 
The second reason is not hard 
to find. For several years the 
influence of farm organizations 
at the capital has been growing. 
Farmers have been learning to 
work together for national legis¬ 
lation. They have followed in the 
footsteps of organized business 
■\Vhich years ago saw the wisdom 
Of establishing offices with com¬ 
petent representatives and infor¬ 
mation-gathering experts to 
watch the Congress, lobby for 
their own measures, lobby against 
most everything else, and plead 
with the executive departments 
in matters involving policies or 
decisions. 
Farmers began this modern 
method of legislative action when the United 
States entered the war. In 1917 a group of 
the old-line farm organizations and some of 
the commodity cooperatives formed the Na¬ 
tional Board of Farm Organizations. This 
agency did much valuable work and has con¬ 
tinued as an important force in the life of 
me capital. A few months later the National 
grange created a Washington office, and its 
representative has been active throughout 
the years. In 1920 the American Farm 
Bureau Federation opened a Washington 
office with a staff that devotes itself to the 
daily study of farm problems and fights for 
agricultural legislation. A more radical 
group, known as the Farmers’ National 
Council, and representing the idea of effu¬ 
sion between farmers and labor, has also 
been at the capital for many years. Other 
farm organizations and live-stock associa¬ 
tions from time to time maintained offices 
at the capital. 
Several Organizations Represent the Farmer 
One might think that the presence of sev¬ 
eral farm organization representatives would 
result in a duplication of effort, in conflicts, 
in needless expense. But the reverse is true 
in actual practice. The sum total of the 
farm staffs at Washington numbers less than 
any of the well-organized industries, like the 
American Manufacturers’ Association, the 
National Canners’ Association, or the Ameri¬ 
can Association of Railway Executives. It 
requires almost the entire attention of one 
man to forward the interests of a single bill 
if he does his job efficiently, and with a num¬ 
ber^ of measures pending that effected the 
agricultural interest, the Washington repre- 
By CHARLES W. HOLMAN 
sentatives learned to work together and to 
coordinate in some measure their efforts to 
prevent duplication and still take care of all 
the bills. It was a division of labor, so to 
speak. And so, instead of confusion and 
irritation, farmers have benefited from a 
cumulation of effort. 
strength Not Appreciated at First 
When the first farm office was established 
the congressmen really new very little about 
farm organizations, their relative strength, 
their policies, and particularly the accuracy 
of their statements. Friendships had to be 
formed, alliances made. It was also neces¬ 
sary to educate the congressmen to the fact 
that farm organizations are evolving a pro¬ 
gram of legislation based upon a sound na¬ 
tional agricultural policy. 
In time the combined efforts of farm- 
organization representatives produced some 
results. In both Houses were found groups 
of agriculturally-minded statesmen, but they 
were a lonely lot. But when they found that 
the organized farmers stood ready to back 
their efforts, these men got together into 
informal organizations which the press 
promptly dubbed “farm blocs.” They were 
not, however, farm blocs in the sense that 
the men elected were farmers, for most of 
them were lawyers and bore to their farmer 
constituents only a friendly relationship. 
These blocs were savagely attacked by the 
representatives of nonagricultural interests. 
They were enthusiastically defended by the 
farm organizations, and the publicity given 
them tended to cement their members into 
something resembling solidarity. 
But the legislative record would not have 
been so satisfactory if the farm organiza¬ 
tions had depended solely upon the so-called 
farm blocs for the enactment of certain types 
of legislation depends upon the utilization 
of modern methods of publicity and upon a 
coordination of effort which reaches back to 
the rural community itself. In other words, 
a machinery of expression had to be set up 
in connection with almost every bill. This 
machinery operated so that senators and 
representatives heard not only the views of 
the farm spokesmen, but the wishes of their 
constituents even from the remoter hamlets 
of the nation. 
When the Harding Administration began 
its work with the calling of a special session 
on March 4, 1921, a few important farm 
measures had been hanging over for several 
years and a number of pressing problems 
faced the legislators. President Wilson had 
just vetoed the bill reviving the War Finance 
Corporation, and the Congress had passed it 
over his veto. He had also vetoed the special 
Agricultural Emergency Tariff Bill, and pass¬ 
ing this bill was one of the first definite acts 
of the new Congress. 
Then followed in rapid succession the fol¬ 
lowing bills: 
1. The Packers’ and Stockyards Control 
Act, setting up a special administration to 
supervise stockyards, meat-packing plants, 
and live-stock commission firms. 
2. The Grain Exchange Control Act, pro¬ 
hibiting tax on certain types of grain specu¬ 
lative trading. This act was 
promptly contested by the Grain 
Exchange and a suit through the 
courts, and they succeeded in get¬ 
ting a part of the act declared 
unconstitutional. The authors of 
the' act immediately introduced 
another bill for the purpose of 
curing the legal defects, and this 
bill was passed very speedily. 
Farmers Authorized to Coopei’ate 
3. The Capper - Volstead Co¬ 
operative Act. This act author¬ 
ized agricultural associations, cor¬ 
porate or otherwise, to form 
under the laws of their respec¬ 
tive States. It placed them un¬ 
der the initial jurisdiction of the 
Secretary of Agriculture, whose 
duty it is to hear complaints when 
cooperators are charged with en¬ 
hancing prices. Should the sec¬ 
retary find that the evidence justi¬ 
fies complaints, he is authorized 
to proceed to prosecute under the 
terms of the Sherman Anti-Trust 
Act. This law has been declared 
the “great charter” of cooperative liberty 
in America. 
4. Two amendments to the Federal Farm 
Loan Act. While the Farm Loan Act was in 
litigation Senator Curtis of Kansas intro¬ 
duced a bill which provided for an advance 
to the Federal Land Banks of $50,000,000, 
to be used by them as a revolving fund for 
loans on land mortgages under the act. The 
House cut this amount in half and the Senate 
accepted the amendment. Another bill au¬ 
thorized member banks of the Federal Farm 
Loan System temporarily to sell their bonds 
at 51/^ per cent instead of 5 per cent, provided 
these banks did not charge farm loan borrow¬ 
ers an interest rate higher than 6 per cent. 
5. The Federal Highway Act. By this law 
the Federal Government elaborated its policy 
of assistance to States in the building of good 
roads. It created a dual system known re¬ 
spectively as interstate and intercounty high¬ 
ways, three-sevenths of the money to be ex¬ 
pended is on the interstate system and four- 
sevenths on the intercounty system. The 
thought behind the present act is that Federal 
aid shall automatically continue until 7 per 
cent of all complete highway projects in each 
State shall have received Federal aid. 
6. Permanent Tariff Bill. Agricultural 
products received a general and higher pro¬ 
tection in the permanent tariff act than ever 
before in history. Wool and dairy producers 
benefited especially from the act. 
Dairymen Get Bills Through 
7. Butter Standards Bill. Congress in its 
closing days passed a bill defining and es¬ 
tablishing standards for butter. This bill 
(Cmitinued on page 251) 
The 67th Congress 
P ROBABLY never before in history, certainly not in many years, 
has agriculture and its problems had the discussion and the con¬ 
sideration in Congress that it received in the session just closed. As 
Mr. Holman so well points out in the article on this page, considera¬ 
tion of farming came first, because it was needed and second, because 
the farmers of America are organized as never before to bring their 
needs to the attention of the Government and the public. 
A careful reading of this article will impress one with the large 
amount of legislation which was passed of vital importance to agri¬ 
culture. There was for instance the Filled-Milk law, which farm 
organizations worked so hard and so long for, which will mean mil¬ 
lions to the dairyman and much to the health of the general public. 
There was the credit legislation for farmers passed during closing- 
hours, and again there is the Capper-Volstead Act, putting the seal 
of Government approval upon cooperative enterprise. 
In spite of the great importance of these laws and the many others 
of almost equal importance, we cannot but again call the attention 
of our people to the fact that in general, evils cannot be legislated 
out of existence. Good laws will help and Congress has done about 
all that it could, but after all the real solution of the farmers’ many 
and difficult problems lies with the farmers themselves.—The Editors. 
