The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-12-21
LEGISLATION AT WASHINGTON

Farmers are going to hold their
congressional representatives to strict
accountability" said Gray Silver,
Washington representative of the Am
erican Farm Bureau Federation. before
the annual meeting of the American
Farm Bureau federation here last
week while r~e-counting the numerous
measures which have been passed at
the request Of the farmers throughout
the federation. Mr.. Silver told the
farmers how many of the measures,
which have been passed since the Ag-
ricultural Bloc was formed in the
Washington office of the Federation,
had been before Congress for five, ten
or fifteen years.
Before the Agricultural Bloc was
formed, for many years not a single
agricultural measure had been passed.
1t is very frequently the custom for
two men in the House or three men
in the Senate to determine whether a
bill was ever to be heard on the floor"
continued Mr.. Silver. The co-opera-
tive marketing bill, n of the earliest
to be passed by the Bloc, saved the
farmers eighty times the membership
dues of the American Farm Bureau
federation in 1921. The passage Of
the act regulating future trading on
the grain exchanges has saved the
farmers from the repetition of the man
ipulation of the spread in prices
through manipulating between here
and abroad which took place during
the time when the grain control bill
was declared to be unconstitutional
and when it was ~re-enacted. During
this time the market was so manipu-
lated that there was an increase in
the spread of grain prices between this
country and abroad of tifty-six cents
per bushel.
An adequate credit system is just
as necessary for proper cooperative
marketing as is an adequate ware
house system" continued Mr.. Silver.
we now have two kinds Of credit,
short and long, and what is lacking is
an intermediate credit running from
six months to three years. When we
have adequate credit and sufficient
warehouse facilities, combined with
proper functiOning marketing Organi-
cations, the farmers will be in a posi-
ton to market their twelve-months'
supply of food as the cOnsumptive de-
p1onHS rnnnirn Thny will have the
opportunity to say upon what basis
the commodities will move out of the
warehouses and also the price for
which it will sell. We must get a fair
exchange but we are not asking the
Government to fix prices.
THE purchasing power of farm
products, | believe, is now as low as it
has ever been and agriculture must
be lifted out of its present position in
reference to other industries. City
jewellers do not appreciate that the
produce sold off the farms is what
builds the cities. II is the difference
between what the farmer gets for his
product and what the consumer pays
tlldI JULIUS tlllto. liz a llltl - Nv"
getting only about one-third OF the
consumers dollar. When cooperative
marketing is built up as it should be,
the proportion of the consumers dol
lar going to the producer will be much
greater"
Mr.. Silver pointed out that the leg
islation which has been passed has
been in the interest of all people.
THE last census showed that 3S per
CEN of our population was on the
farms" stated Mr.. Silver, and When
you consider the urban population
found in towns Of $500 inhabitants.
more than one-half OF the entire peo-
pie, Of the United States are directly
interested in agriculture. You cannot
do a special favor for a majority of
the people. You Gannot expect a small
minority group to fight for you"