The Washington herald., 1920-10-29
FARMERS TOLD
TO HOLD CROPS
FOR FAIR PRICE
Growers at Conference
Here Charge Treasury
Plot to Hurt Market.
LABOR COMBINE URGED
Hostility Of Rural Interests
To Secretary Houston
Boldly Expressed.
LABOR COMBINE URGED

Representatives of farming in
terests from all sections of the
country, assembled here under the
auspices of the National Board of
Farm Organizations, will recon-
mend that farmers withhold prod
ucts from market until they are
able to secure a price that will
compensate them for the cost of
production. it was learned yester-
i day.
The decision rests with the "com-
mittee on the next step" appointed
yesterday following failure of the
farmers to secure additional credits
through either the Federal Reserve
Board or the Treasury Department.
In an address to the national
board yesterday Frank Morrison,
secretary of the American Fedora
tion of Labor. declared that labor
and the organized agricultural in
terests must join hands to resist d
tide of reaction that is sweeping
the land"
Scores Reserve hoard.
Some method must be found. Mr..
Morrison said. to enable the farm
ers to hold their crops in times of
depressed prices, by the extension
of government credits. He scored
the Federal Reserve Board for re-
fusing to extend such aid.
Mr.. Morrison expressed belief that
'profiteering capitalists" are at
tempting to play the farmers
| "a o. hn 10
their personal profit He urged a
common political program for both
farmers and laborers and united
resistance TO "monopolistic control
of industry"
An important part of the pro-
gram as outlined at yesterdays
conference will be to pool the finan-
! cial resources of the farmers and
laborers. The Farmer-Labor party,
and Nonpartisan League, it was
suggested, are best fitted to look
after the political interests of the
farmers and other working men.
Charges Plot Against Farmers.
At the afternoon session DIR. W.
Spiliman, for sixteen years chief
tof the Bureau of Farm MANAGE
ment, Department of Agriculture,
declared that Secretary Houston
and w. P. G. Harding, governor of
the Federal Reserve Board, were
| deliberately undertaking to de-
press the price of farm products :"
In this" he added, they are
| guilty Of malfeasance in office and
| Congress should take steps to i'm
peach them. That would not ac-
compiish what We want. but 1t
| would he a wholesome example. The
| Federal Reserve Board is deliber-
ately manipulating credit, whereas
its function is supposed to be the
reverse"
| Fred Brenckman, secretary of the
! Pennsylvania State Grange. urged
that the meeting should not adjourn
until it had expressed its hostility
to Mr.. Houston.
Says Proof Is Clear.
| "As Secretary of Agriculture and
as Secretary of the Treasury, he has
shown conclusively that he is not
in sympathy with u.s." said BrApck-
man. What would labor do II it
had a Secretary of Labor like that?'
Russell Bower. Washington rep
resentative of the National Board,
commended Comptroller of the Cur
! r4ncy John Shelton williams for
which, it is charged, Wall Street
bankers fix call loan interest rates
for the country.
Country banks could not be
blamed he said. for sending their
money to the cities to reap higher
interest rates than they can get
from the farmers.
The cotton situation in the South
was pictured as tragic by Martin
Amorous, millionaire. planter OF
Cobb County, Ga.
The price has been depressed to
25 cents a pound" he said, land
in some sections half of 1t is being
destroyed by the boil weevil. Twenty
cents a pound will not pay for the
mule teams and the fertilizer. The
tgrowers are facing starvation. They
must get 40 cents if they are to
pay their debts and obtain credit
for the next crop"
Foreign Market Proposed.
Eugene L. Meyer. former director
of the War Finance Corporation
tonight told delegates to the Ma.
tional Board of Farm Organizations
that a revival of that organization
would solve all their troubles in the
shipment and sale of their product:
abroad.
"The Corporation already has suf'
fcient funds on deposit in the treas
ury to finance the undertaking,
said Mr. Meyer. ut could find g
ready market for all your grain ant
cotton in Europe without increas,
in cost to the consumers at home.
|