The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-03-23

porters of the farmers cause are call
ed upon to answer every day. Since
his retirement as chairman of the War
Industries Board, Mr.. Baruch has Civ
en- his time and though to the pressing
commercial and financial questions
and Mr.. Baruch answers follow:
High-Handed?
Haven't the farmers been a little
high-handed in their recent demands
and tactics? m.
This is the first time that the far
mers have been organized like other
pursuits so that their voice is potent
in the house of Congress. The move
ment is but an emphatic expression of
the dire necessities of q third OF our
population, producing at least a third
of our national wealth and creating
half of our commerce and a determin-
ed effort to modernize themselves on
an equal footing with other business
If Legislators friendly to the
farmers had not united in this social
ed agricultural bloc, how much atten-
ton do you think would have been
given to the desperate plight of agri-
culture? The formation Of h bloc
and its m~ilitancy are but an evidence
of it's necessity. Why not concern our
selves with the necessity rather than
with the manner of its expression"
Law2
Is there any law which keeps the
farmers from organizing themselves
into great and powerful corporations?
mo law of Congress Or of the state
legislatures-of course, not,-but a
law made by circumstances and con-
ditions.r Can you imagine six million
farmers, or any large number, form
ing themselves into a corporation and
exchanging their lands and personal
property for shares n it? 1t Is feas-
ible for the manufacturers to unite
corporateiy in a lawful manner,
whereas, for the farmer, it is not.
Our aim should be equality of COM
mercial opportunity in fact, not in
mere name. 1t appears that the far
mers can best devote their efforts n
to the benefit of the whole
country by corporations instead of by
corporations. Others are actually
and legally-together in corporations,
why not let the farmers get together
in corporations? Let's be fair"
CO-Operai;On7
Hasn't there already been a large
degree of agricultural cooperation?
Eyes, but not in major products;
only where the production of the COM
modify has been confined to a more
or less limited area. What is desired
is legislation that will unquestionably
permit the growers of grain, cotton,
tobacco, and like crops lawfully to
cooperate"
Monopoly?
III agricultural cooperative market
ing be affirmative1y legalized and thus
removed from the charge by any one
of the antitrust laws, will not the
great corporations now forming or
contemplated, in wheat, tobacco cot
ton and others, constitute a dangerous
monopolistic menace to the consumers
of farm products?
mot at all. They feel that they
are merely doing the economic thing
in promoting a measure of intelligent
and reasonable organization of agri-
cultural commerce. 1t would make for
elimination of any excessive and use
less middle tolls and the repression of
unnecessary speculation"
/. Benefit?
OF what benefit to the farmer is
orderly marketing If it does not re-
suit in his getting higher prices for
his products?
1.-THE orderly marketing of farm
products under intelligent direction
will mean better returns to the pro-
Queer but it will not necessarily in
volve increased prices to the consum-
ers. 1t will tend to do away with
the enormous spread between what
the farmer gets and what the con-
sumner pays. 1t will enable the man
u~facturer' OF agricultural products to
deal with his sales in the same ration
al modern way in which the manufac-
turers of steel, the producers OF cop
per, the makers of SHOES and of farm
implements, let us say, deal with their
goods"
BI0cf
Do you approve of the action OF
the farmers in forcing the formation
of the agricultural bloc in Congress?
Much of the criticism of the farm
bloc is theoretical nonsense, and !
fear, is sometimes for the purpose of
befogging the issue. In principle,
blocs may not be defensible, but in
what other way, l ask you, were the
farmers to make their needs known
and see that they got legislative ac-
tiong'
Most Important
What do you think is the most i'm
portant thing to be done Immediately
i'm aiding the farmer to get a better
and fairer share of what he produces
"Fully. restore his foreign markets
1t is significant that Mr.. Baruch Of
fers this remedy for the farmers ills
Just at the time when the President OF
the American Farm Bureau Federation
is making plans to take an investigat-
ing committee into Mexico to investi-
gate marketing conditions there and to
stimulate the sale Of agricultural pro-
ducts in Mexico.
NfE-F1fJ EVI.LHM fyH safIf fE