The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-03-03
PRESIDENT COOLIDGE EX-
PLAINS HIS VETO

he set forth that the bill instead of
aiding the farmer would injur him;
instead of decreasing surplus it would
tend to operate to increase surplus;
that it imposed on the farmers as a
whole fees, taxes and expenses for the
benefit "of the men who grow cotton,
rice, tobacco, swine or wheat and
nothing else" The President dis
cussed in passing that the bill would
also impose hardships on the consum-
ers and in addition he submitted an
opinion by the Attorney General that
the measure was unconstitutional.
His veto in the main was based on the
fact that instead of aiding it would
injure the American farmer and
would encourage the farmer to grow
protected crops and thus abandon the
theory of diversified farming which
is regarded as the real future for
American agricultural life. The most
general comment on the message was
to the effect that it was veto for
the interests of the farmer.
The Presidents veto reads in part
as follows:
"No one can deny that the price Of
many farm products have been out CT
line with the general price level for
several years. Reasonable and con-
4 structive legislation to that end would
be justified. The difficulty with this
measure is that it is not framed to
aid the farmers"
"The measure discriminates def
nitely against products which make up
what has been considered program
of safe farming. The bill upholds as
ideas of American farming the men
who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine
tobacco, wheat and nothing else. 1t
signals out a few products chiefly
sectional and proposes to raise the
prices regardless-that thousands of
other farmers would be directly pen
allied The producers of beef cattle,
sheep, dairy products, poultry prod
ucts, potatoes, hay, fruit, vegetables,
oats, barley, rye, fax are ignored. 1t
is bill for certain groups of farmers
in certain sections of the country"
"The measure provides for the pay
ment by the Federal board Of all
losses, costs, and charges Of packers,
millers, cotton spinners, or other pro-
cessories who are operating under
contract with the board. 1t contem-
plates that the packers may be COM
missioned by the Government to buy
hogs enough to create near scarcity
in this country, slaughter the hogs,
sell the pork products abroad at a
loss, and have the losses, costs, and
charges made good out of the pockets
Of farm taxpayers"
at seems almost incredible that the
producers of hogs, corn, wheat, rice,
tobacco and cotton should be offered
scheme of legislative relief in which
the only persons who are guaranteed
a profit are the exporters, packers,
millers, cotton spinners, and other
professors"
"Clearly this legislation involves
governmental fixing of prices. 1t
gives the proposed Federal board al
most unlimited authority to fix prices
on the designated commodities.
o1;oa+iO,, 10 tho hill
that it would not benefit the farmer"
"Under the stimulus of high prices,
the cotton acreages increased by H.
100000 acres in the last five years.
Under the proposed plan, as prices
are driven up irresistibly by the arti-
fetal demand created by the purchas-
es of the board, the millions of farm
ers will do just what anyone else
would do under the circumstances,
plant and grow all they can in order
to take full advantage of a situation
which they fear is only temporary"
"Higher prices will make de-
creased consumption. From 1917 to
1925 the per capita consumption OF
pork increased from So pounds to
86.3 pounds, but in the following year,
when the price Of beef rose by $3.50
a hundred and the price of beef rose
only 40 cents a hundred, the per CAPT
ia consumption of pork fell off almost
9 pounds. 1t is not inconceivable that
the consumers would rebel at an arbi-
trarily high price and deliberately re-
duce their consumption of that par
ticular product"
"a Board of twelve men are
granted almost unlimited control and
cannot only fix the price which the
producers of five commodities shall
receive, but can also fix the price
which the consumers of the country
shall pay for these commodities.
There can be no appeal from the
arbitrary decisions of these men"
After discussing the practical diff
culties in creating board of this sort
which can function in a satisfactory
way, the President says, "the bill
will not provide practical method
of controlling the Agricultural sur