Milford chronicle., 1928-05-11
HERB. HOOVER SAVED
FARMER IN 1919

How Herbert Hoover saved the
American farmer from bankruptcy
in 1919, and aVerted perhaps the
most acute panic in financial his
tory" is told for the first time in
the Nav 18th issue of the Saturday
evening Post, which prints this STIR
rino narrative as an advance chap
fer from the memoirs of George Barr
Ralxer" Mr.. Baker was a naval
commander during the war, one OF
tbe advisory staff at the peace con-
ference and later personal aid to
Hoover in the Supreme Economic
Council.
Hoover, says Mr.. Baker, fought al
most single-handed this world battle
To save the American farmer. He had
aurayed against him the combined
forces of all the allied European
governments, and he compelled them
to surrender.
81 doubt if at this time, nine years
later, even Mr.. Hoover could tell at
all clearly how it was all done ana
kent out of the papers," says MT
Baker. "To him, and to all those
close to him in the Paris othce Oh
tba1 American Food Administrator
thdse&pening weeks of the 1rst year
of neaee. 1919, were a nightmare
mThere on the evening OF the lasC
dav of 1918. Mr.. Hoover recelyeu
two formal cOmmunlcatlons' 4L
slightest public intimation OF tne
contents would have produceu Ill
America an immediate and catastro-
nbic collapse of our whole agrlcul-
tural structure, and perhaps the
most acute panic in our financial
history. s.o,,
london stating that a stupendous
total of American pork products
which the Allies had ordered Tor
January, and which was on the way
to them, was now no longer neeoeu
and would not be received.
s'The second communication came
from the Allied Blockade Council,
and said that the shipment OF Amer
ican food cargoes to northern neu-
trails. for their own use and for re-
export to starving Germany, Would
not be allowed; that the blockade
must continue intact. This was III
direct contradiction to the armlstlce
agreement with Germany and IN dl-
rect reversal of a decision of the
same Supreme Council nine days be
fore. And again, several hundred
Thousand tons of food had been or
dered upon allied assurances, had
been disnatched to the American
seaboard, had been loaded into YES
sells and was on the way.
'sWith Europes major after-War
markets abruptly closed to u.s. the
secret was kept With American
food cargoes repudiated, blockaded,
allowed to pile up unused, word OF
this did not reach our packers
banks and farmers in time or with
sufficient authenticity to cut OF
credits, stop exports, crash the mar
ket.
''With this critical condition con-
tinuing for weeks and months, the
secret was still kept, and that inter-
minable procession Of food SHIP
ments still kept moving to Europe.
"Finally, under the bold thrusts
that distinguish modern American
business strategy, and with the in
tricate mental swordplay which dis
tinguishes Old World diplomacy, the
barriers against American products
were broken down and our entire |
American surplus marketed at war
time prices.
"I was there; I saw it all. I saw
Hoover, thwarted from all sides by |
the hatreds engendered by war,
wearied almost beyond human en-
durance, fight on. I saw him fight, |
saw him suffer, saw him fnally-and |
at the very brink of ruin-victori-
GUS"
Mr.. Baker describes the events
which led up to the post-armist1ce
surplus of farm products in Amerl-
ca, and the agricultural chaos which
thereupon threatened to ruin the
American farmer. He recalls Mr..
pre-armistice. promises to
the farmers, and the fight which he
put I'D in 1919 to make those prom
ises come true.
Long before the armistice, he says,
Hoover foresaw peace and began to
plan his peacetime change of tactics,
which would make the transition a
possible one to American industry
and agriculture. But then came the
crisis, at the beginning of 1919,
when France was determined that
every German must be- starved into
the knowledge that he was vanquish-
ed.
Hoover sat grimly at his desk in
Paris" explains Mr.. Baker, trying
10 secure reinstatement of the for
mer program He cabled back to
America: Europe will need every ! /,
pound of pork products we can ex-
port. AS soon as the initial chaos
If the sudden change from war to
can be overcome there
will be an over-demand. I regard
maintenance of the $3.50 hog and
he disposal of this situation as the
,reatest work we have ever under I
AIKEN, and I hope everybody puts his
Jack into it. :.
"Next day, the Allied Council for 2
naIly accepted the plan Hoover had .
ffered, and raised-as to pork-the I
blockade against northern neutrals."
That was the beginning of Hoov- N
RS successful fight to save Ameri- l.
an agriculture. It was only be-
inning, and Hoover had many a.
tormy weeks before the "great fat
ght" was finally won. Marshall d
och continued to protest vigorously e.
gainst Hoover's appeal for relaxa- VI
on Of the blockade, urging that
strict maintenance of the blockade a
emains the best and most rapid >
leans for obtaining respect for the 81