The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-05-27
FARM BLOC DECLINES

lief that the influence of the farm bloc in
Washington is waning Apparently this be-
lief is we'll founded, for measures of farm
way to the floor of either house at the pres
emit session: whereas, In previous sessions
such measures have held the center of the
stage. Yet there is nothing surprising about
this decline in the farm bloc prestige. Any
sort of cult may catch the imagination of
its devotees and exercise a strong influence
for while, but without any grounding in
some fundamental truth it eventually dwin-
dies and fades away.
1t has been the case with the farm bloc.
Although it professed to be about to do
great things for the farmer, the lamentable
fact is that the net result of its legislation
is nothing. 1t has affected the condition of
the farmer not at all, either for better or
for worse. 1t has occupied much congress
sional attention and perhaps to- that extent
has interfered with other necessary legisla-
ton. The emergency tariff, the extension
of the authority of the war finance corpora
ton, the various nostrums for granting the
farmer more credit, and all similar measures
have resulted in mere marking of time
The passage of these bills may be likened
to a series of congressional ca1isthenic drills
1t has kept congress in legislative trim per
haps. but it has sawed no wood.
The trouble has been that those who have
undertaken to prescribe for the agricultural
ills of the country have failed to diagnose
those ills; The diagnosis has been on theo-
retical and not on actual conditions If the
disease had been what the trainers of bills
thought it was, the cure might have worked.
All measures have been more or less directed
towards obtaining easier credit for farmers.
In other words, the tendency has been to
run the farmer more and more into debt.
Just why this is grouped under the title of
relief is something that is beyond the COM
prehension Of the farmers WHO already have
all the debts they want The farmers have
always been able to obtain all the credit they
needed whenever they had legitimate title
to credit. But many of the farm measures
have apparently sought to compel the ex-
tension of credit where ordinary banking
principles regarded such extension as un-
wise and unsafe.
The real relief for the farmer lies in quite
another direction, as those who properly
understand the question and who are really
conversant with the farmers problems have
long pointed out. That relief, in a word,
consists in operating his business so that it
will earn him reasonable profit. The des-
perate economic plight in which the farmer
occasionally finds himself plunged is due
TO the fact that, for reasons beyond his in
dividual ability to control, he is obliged to
sell his product for less than it costs to
raise it. The simplest mind can perceive
that no degree of credit is going to help that
situation. On the contrary, the more money
the farmer spends under such conditions the
more hopelessly will he become involved.
But if those reasons are beyond his indi-
vidual ability to control, they are not be-
yond his collective ability to control. The
farmer can associate himself with. other
farmers in cooperative alliances and correct
his economic ailments. Farm co-operatives
promote the orderly marketing Of crops to
the best advantage at the best price. In
stead of being forced to dump his crop on
the market at whatever price is offered, the
farmer who markets through the cooperative
perceives himself the master and not the
football of the marketing game. If he needs
cash before the marketing is completed, he
can receive an advance on his own collat
eral, knowing that he will also have the
advantage Of whatever price increase later
occurs. In other words, the farmer now
enjoys the profit that formerly went to those
financially able to take advantage of the
farmers financial extremity.
The condition of the farmer has materially
bettered during the past three years, but it
has been through the agencies of the de-
partments of agriculture of state and national
governments working in harmony along
proved principles of business management.
The special measures sponsored by the farm
bloc and designed to yield the farmer emer-
gency funds have not helped him. The farm
bloc, along with other blocs, deserves to fall
back into the oblivion whence they were not
invited to come