The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1928-05-29
The Farm Issue
/Ck n..1 -


Disappointing as it is of agricultural hopes,
the veto message of President Coolidge at least
serves the end Of sharply defining the farm
issue. The ultimate purpose of the McNary-
Haugen bill is to place the prices the farmer
receives for his crops on the same high level
as those of the things he buys Prices of farm
lcrops on the one hand and those of industry
are out of line. The farmer buys dear and sells
cheap, and the fault lies with protective sys-
tenn of paternalstic laws which do not work out
for agriculture with the same effect as for
manufacturing. The farmers have been de-
manding that their system of prices be raised
to the general level. President Coolidge says
in his veto message that he opposes legislation
calculated to have that effect. The disagree
ment is fundamental
Objections to the McNary- Haugen bill, which
have caused its dismissal, therefore, do not run
against its method of proceeding. President
COolidge's disapproval runs in last analysis
against the very purpose of the bill and would
come down upon any scheme Of legislation that
aimed at the same thing.
The President frankly admits in his message
that his plan for making loans to co-operatives
would not solve the so-called problem of the
surplus. 1t is the fact that America grows an
|export surplus of it's staple crops which pre-
vents the tariff from working for the farmer
as it does for the ndustrialist. Control of this
situation had no place in President Cooldiges
own plan Of lending money to co-operatives.
1.-The object of my proposal" says President
Coolidge, lis to aid in adjusting production to
demand, to afford farmers greater bargain
ing power, to handle SURPRISES due to seasonal
and other causes beyond the control of pro-
ducers when unaided by strong business organ
izations, to minimize price fluctuations and to
reduce the margin between the price paid by
the consumer and the price received by the
producer" All this he intended to accomplish
by encouraging the cooperative movement
through government loans. He opposes the
McNary- Haugen bill because, as he puts it,
1.-THE real objective is to raise domestic prices
to artificially high levels by governmental price
fixing and to dump the surplus abroad"
It is apparent that from the opponents of the
farmer has come no genuine alternative to the
McNary- Haugen bill, nothing on which compro-
mise could be based. There are no concessions
which the farmers can make now or could have
made at any time in the past that would have
avoided the veto, except at the price Of surren-
dering all idea Of getting the justice agricul-
ture demands Vague promises about coopera-
tive marketing or diversification will not
satisfy rural discomfort. What the farmers
want is place of equality in the American
economic system.
The veto precipitates political issue of the
first magnitude. The question is whether agri-
culture is to get equality or whether it shall be
compelled to labor on under the present funda-
mentally unfavorable conditions, man made and
governmentaly sanctioned. The farm prob
lem having been reduced to fundamental dis
agreement, accordingly must now b projected
into the field of politics for solution.