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The American Agricultural Situation By Sen. Lynn J. Frazier, of North Dakota the farm problem delivered by the Speech senator frotn North Dakota adio station WRC. Friday, April 1 2, at Washington, on senior ; D. C., and broadcast on over r The people of the United States, greetings: The senate and house committees on agri cutlure have been holding hearings for two weeks. Among those who testified have officials and representatives of vari ous farm organizations, farmers, college professors, economists, business men, poli ticians and other individuals with some pet theory for agricultural relief or assistance. All agreed that there was a serious farm problem and practically all agreed that something should be done in the way of leg islation, but as to what congress should or could do about it, their opinions varied from a technically theoretical plan for govern ment controlled farm co-operatives, with regulatory authority to readjust the whole plan of agriculture on a scientific basis, to the statement that the fanners were hope lessly broke and bankrupt and that the soon they realized it the better, for then they could move to the cities and join the already large army of the unemployed. VALUABLE INFORMATION RESULTS All in all, however, the hearings brought out much valuable information and many helpful suggestions for farm legislation. The general opinion seemed to be that con gress should enact a measure providing for the creation of a federal farm board with wide latitude of authority and with an ade quate appropriation to assist co-operatives in organization and to finance them that they may carry out an orderly marketing' [program and thus eliminate some of the un necessary expense and tend to stabilize their lown market ; also, that there should be l&ome readjustment of the tariff. I Much interest was manifested in state ments that President Hoover had made dur ftng the recent campaign, and many drew Hie conclusion that the enormous vote that ■r. Hoover got was necessarily an over whelming endorsement of his views on the ■arm question. Of course there were many ■ssues entered into the last campaign, but ■here is no doubt that the result was a di rect indication of the voters' confidence in Mr. Hoover. IVGRICULTURE BANKRUPT I The condition of agriculture is most de li) orable. If the condition of any other beat industry were half as bad, congress Mould have come to its relief long ago. One b the sad criticisms of our American people It Î 16 * 1 ' Interest in great national ■roblems that are vital to the welfare of »r nation. I trust that I may say some Wy which will help arouse interest and crea te public sentiment in favor of ag ■cultural legislation. B^'iculture employs more than three ies as many people as any other industry. Ticulture bas an investment of more been er Somebody mag hand it to gou on a silver platter—and he mag not. Once in a blue moon someone is on the receiving end — but, sometimes he who asks for bread receives—a stone. peaking of rann Relief n IIHIIMIIMII ■I •(•••••••••a •iMtMnmmui pie old saying, that the gods help him who helps himself, sometimes P y m this modem world of brotherly love. Henry Ford did not ask Lfutomotive Relief" but installed machines that REDUCED I h will be a fine thing if Hoover does provide it, but the surest and pest way is to "Hooverize" on COST OF PRODUCTION. Company IS NOT in the market with "cheap machinery. It is THE QUALITY LINE, that will give you BETTER SERVICE for MORE YEARS at LESS EXPENSE. THESE ARE THE REQUIREMENTS THAT YOU MUST DEMAND — THAT YOUR EQUIPMENT MUST HAVE—OF YOU DESIRE SUCCESS. yy The Massey-Harris Company invite you to really make a study of production cost problems. Not only the FIRST COST of your equipment, but also the OPERATING COSTTS in the field, and—last but not the least—the REPLACEMENT COST OF EQUIPMENT. Sometime the "cheaper" tool is the costlier tool. 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Plentywood Machine Shop Local Distributors AMPLE power PlowiB * 1 Combining, 1 LONGER ECONOMY than any other Tractor. Grad e M . 7 Becaus ® of Modern Engineering; High ^JtfMatenal; "Certified" Workmanship. for Spring Cultivation and Seeding; _ and Cultivation; and Fall Harvest Plentywood Montana Y 55 than twice as much as any other industry. The money value of farm productions is more than twice as much as that of any other industry and the farm products are of vastly more importance than all others, as they constitute the food and other es sential products necessary for the very life of our people. It must be conceded that the production of food products is most im portant, yet, in recent generations, agricul ture has not been on anything like a parity with other industries, and, since 1920, farm conditions have gone from bad to worse. The deflation started by action of the federal reserve board has resulted, up to the present time, in a reduction or loss farm values and farm products of over 40 billions of dollars. The actual aggregate loss es sustained by farmers have amounted to six and one-half billions in a single year. The result is that agriculture as an in dustry is bankrupt. Millions of farmers have lost their homes, their land and other prop erty through mortgage foreclosures, and other millions are hanging on through len iency of their creditors. on MILLIONS OF FARMERS LEAVE LAND According to government figures, 2,155, 000 farm people left the larms in 1928, and in 1927 over 1,900,000. Of course there are always some people going back to the farms from the cities, and the birth rate is higher than the death rate, so the figures given do not represent the decrease in farm popu lation. But it is mighty significant that the farm people have been leaving their homes at the rate of about two millions per year. Some of this number retired voluntarily but the great bulk of them left the farms be cause they could not make ends meet—be cause they were starved out. They went to the already overcrowded cities to compete with labor at any work they could get to do. SPECIAL SESSION JUSTIFIED There are several contributing causes that have helped to bring agriculture to its present condition: lack of co-operation by the government, deflation of credits, unfair markets, lack of organization, unfair tariff, high freight rates, high taxes and general high cost of operation. Agriculture is of enough importance in this nation of ours and its present condition is such as to justi fy the president in calling congress in spe cial session, and congress must do its part by meeting the situation fairly and square ly?. FARMERS ONLY ASK SQUARE DEAL If agriculture is to be put on a parity with business interests, congress must do one of two things: either take away the existing special privilege legislation for the business interests,or give the farmers a proportion ate share of special legislation. The first proposition seems to be impossible at this time, so it is up fô congress to legislation which will tend to givp the farm ers a square deal. The same spirjit of co-op eration should be shown to agriculture has been shown to other industries. The federal reserve banking act was passed by congress which practically turned over the credit of the nation to the banking board for the interests of the big banks. The federal reserve board was undoubtedly responsible for the beginning of the 1920 deflation. The farm land bank and inter mediate credit bank laws should be amend ed to enable them to finance agricultural operations through national credit at a low rate of interest. This would prevent unfair and unjust deflation. enact the as FARMERS UNORGANIZED The farmers' marketing situation has been compared to six million factories with out any selling agency. The farmers organized and are compelled to sell their products on an organized market at prices manipulated and fixed by organized busi ness interests. No industry can possibly succeed when they are compelled to do bus iness that way.. CONGRESS SHOULD ASSIST COOPERATIVES The fanners are no exception to the rule. Congress should, by all means, pass legisla tion to assist co-operative organizations. The federal farm board should be given au thority to stabilize farm markets even to the extent of fixing a minimum price staple products, if necessary, such price to be based on average cost of production and a fair profit. The farm board should be au thorized to buy or build warehouses and cold storage plants in order to facilitate fair and orderly marketing. WHEAT GRADES UNFAIR The present government grades of wheat are not fair to the prdoucer, but work to the decided benefit of the grain buyers and millers. Wheat should be graded on its val ue for flour and bread making but the gov ernment standards grade it on weight, col or, moisture and amount of so-called foreign material. These standards are the means of penalizing the farmer to the extent of mil lions of dollars each year. For i example, when there is smut in the farmer) he is paid a lower price, say ten cents per bushel. On a thousand bushel carload that amounts to $100. When the miller gets the wheat, almost all of the smut can (be blown out, and any that is left is taken out by the washing and scouring process "pliât the wheat is submitted to in all up-to-date mîïïs before grinding it into flour. This is only an incident where Ithe agri cultural department which costs the tax are un on s' wheat, payers annually $155,559,990 and supposed ly for the benefit of agriculture, makes the farmers the "goat." The secretary of agri culture has the power under the United States grain standards act to change these grades. GIVE FARMERS A TARIFF, TOO The present traiff law has been a great benefit to the manufacturers and perhaps some benefit to agriculture but statistics were given at the agricultural committee hearing to show that since the present tar iff law has been in force that the United States has imported an average of $600, 000,000 more of farm products than we have exported and that it would take 45 million acres of farm land to produce the imported farm products that could just as well be produced in the United States if proper tar iff were placed upon them to make it prof itable to produce them here. Congress must give agriculture its proportionate share of protection under the tariff. The farmer's cost of production is out of all proportion to the price he receives and the price he receives for his products is out of all pro portion to the price he pays for everything he buys. This situation is unfair and eco nomically sound. SHOULD CREATE FARM BOARD Congress created the interstate jvierce commission and by the provisions of the bill in the interest of railroads the rates are fixed to give them a fair profit. The producers of food products are just important as the railroad companies, and congress should in all fairness create a farm board with power to do for agriculture what the interstate commerce commission does for the railroads. Freight rates and taxes must be adjusted to accord with pric es of farm products, or the prices of farm products must be adjusted in accordance with freight rates and taxes. FIX PRICE OF WHEAT AND COTTON Much has been said about the surplus of farm prdoucts, especially as to wheat and cotton, and that the surplus that is sold in the world market sets the price for the wheat and cotton sold for home consump tion. In my opinion, the federal farm board should have power to determine average cost of production of staple farm products —take wheat for example—and should pay that price, plus a small percentage of profit to the producer for his proportionate share of the product for domestic consumption. If it were found that only 75 per cent of our total wheat produced in a given year was needed for home consumption, let the board pay the determined price for 75 per cent of eachjiroducer's wheat, and hold the balance or 25 per cent in government warehouses and advance to the farmer 80 per cent of com as the world price on the warehouse receipt. When the surplus was finally sold by the board, the holder of the warehouse receipt would be paid the balance of the payment less the necessary expense. Thus, if the surplus sold far below cost of production, it would tend to automatically regulate the amount of production. I am firmly of the opinion that a system of mar keting along this line could be worked out that would put agriculture on a paying bas is. All the farmer wants is a square deal —cost of production and a little profit. FARMER GETS ONE-THIRD OF CONSUMER'S DOLLAR Some people will naturally ask what about the cost to the consumer. Under our pres ent system, according to the best obtain able figures, the producer now receives nine billions of dollars for his farm products and the consumer pays 30 billions for them. Of course much of this is legitimate expense, but, in my opinion, with proper distribution the margin between the price the producer receives and price the consumer pays can at least be cut in two. It is estimated that the annual net loss to the farmers of the nation is 6 1-2 billion dollars and to put him on a paying basis he must receive 61-2 billions more than he now gets. I believe that can be done by proper distribution and handling and not raise the ultimate price to the consumer. During the last few months, wheat prices have fluctuated from approximately $2 per bushel to $1 per bushel and the price of a pound loaf of white bread has held consis tently at 9c ; and a pound loaf of whole wheat bread which contains the cheaper parts of the wheat that do not go into the white flour, has sold consistently at 11 cents per loaf. Many other similar examples can be cited. FARMERS SINKING INTO DEBT The farm situation, under present condi tions, is far from hopeful. For the past 8 years the farmer has been going deeper and deeper in debt or has lost out entirely. It is not a pleasant prospect to look forward to; it is a mighty poor argument to put up to the farm boys and girls to get them to stay on the farms, to say if you are good boys and girls and get up early and work late and stay by the farm long enough, you will go broke and lose house and home. Yet that is exactly the existing condition. NEED CALL FOR HELP The basic industry of our great nation needs assistance to save it from utter down fall. An emergency exists. Will you do your part? Public sentiment is essential. Do your bit to help get worth-while farm legislation. i