Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-28
TEXT OF GOV. SMITHS SPEECH
REPLYING TO FARM CRITICS

get the benefit of the tariff. What re-
mains of the McNary- Haugen bill is a
mere matter of method, and I do not
limit myself to the exact mechanics
and method embodied in that bill.
Here is a clean-cut issue which the
farmers and the voters of this country
must decide. It remains but to work
out the details by which this principle
shall be put into effect, and / have
pledged myself to name non-partisan
commission of farm leaders and STU
dents of the problem to work out these
details I shall make that appoint
ment, if am elected-not when take
the oath of Office as President, but i'm
mediately after election; and l pledge
to the farmers and to the people Of
this country that no stone will be left
unturned 10 give immediate and ade-
quate farm relief, by legislation carry
! ing into practice the definite principle
for which my party and stand.
Says Hoover Has No Plans.
The Republican party candidate in
his speeches to date have developed no
| constructive plan, and I note by the
| papers that he does not intend to make
another speech in the campaign until
the 9Th of October, and the same papers
say that the one following that will be
on the 10th of october.
am not in a position to say whether
or not the chairman of the Republican
national committee speaks for the
party, speaks for himself or speaks for
the candidate when he says in criticism
of my speech on farm relief delivered
at Omaha Il quote from him):
HE enunciated principle which he
says he finds in the McNary- Haugen
bill, but which is not the principle over
which the battle has been fought for
the last four years"
The Republican chairman displays a
lack of knowledge of the whole Situa-
ton when he attempts to faSten two
principles on the plan set forth in the
so-called McNary-H augen bill. He con-
fuses the machinery for making the
principle effective with the principle it
self.
Quotes Jardine Speech.
The Secretary of Agriculture, Mr..
Jardine, made speech about by pro-
gram at Riverhead, N. Y, on the 21st.
He said:
Your governor is in the West to
solve the wheat problem, and I hope
he will do so. I've been trying to do it
for seven years and haven't entirely
succeeded. Yet, in spite of that, for
several years we've managed to get you
pretty good price for wheat and po-
tatoes. I am certain that we will dur
ing the next four years if given the OPP
portunity"
He added:
IF you will cut down the acreage of
potatoes, then can help you get to-
gether and plant less and get better
price. Always keep in mind the de-
mand. The wheat crop is having the
same trouble-too many acres
Now there are three points in this
speech of Secretary Jardine's:
First. He is entirely right when he
says that he has not succeeded in solv-
ing the wheat problem. Neither has
anybody else in his party.
Second. I do not think there Is a
farmer in this country who will agree
with his statements that he has man.
aged to get for the farmer a pretty
good price for the wheat. He is the
only man I ever knew who would call
price below the cost of production
a pretty good price.
Scores Hoover Stand.
Third. He continues to hold out the
old plan which was advocated by Mr..
Hoover of cutting down acreage. He
continues to advocate this despite the
report of the Bureau of Agricultural
Economics of his own department
which stated that it was substantially
impossible to control the output of
wheat by reduction in acreage. Mr..
Hoover took a similar position back in
1924 when he wrote that surplus crops
could only be corrected by prices low
enough to make production unprofit-
able"
Substantially they both stand for
the astounding proposition that the
way TO help the farmer is to beat him
GOWN and drive more men from the
farms IN addition to the 100000 who
have already been compelled to leave
them.
Senator Charles P. nye of North
DAKOTA declares. for one method of
making effective the principle of i'm
posing the cost of surplus control on
the commodity benefited-namely. the
so-cailed equalization fee-and then
makes the remarkable statement that
the people are forced to choose the
more definite and available plan Mr..
Hoover has outlined.
Says Hoover Opposed Fee Plan.
1T is well known that MIR. Hoover. as
adviser to the President, declared in no
uncertain terms not only against the
method known as the equalization fee
LOT control OF the eXportable surplus
with the cost fastened on the commodity
benehted, but against the whole prin-
clple OF assessing the cost to handle the
surplus back on the crop benefited.
Senator Nye says that Mr.. Hoover
mas definite and available plan. What
Is IL? IL has SO far not been disclosed
by the candidate.
In his speech of acceptance he said
that the tariff was the foundation of
farm relief. That dispute. The tariff
is help, but everybody familiar with
the subject, including Senator Nye.
knows that the tariff standing by itself
will not bring relief. He urges CO.
operatives. There is no argument about
that, they are helpful; but standing by
themselves, without machinery by law
Tor making them operate effectively,
they will not solve the problem.
He speaks of voluntary sterilization
corporations. He knows, and Senator
Nye knows, that they, too, are ineffect-
ual. This is apparent from the words
OF Senator Nye himself, who says:
Il am still partial to the plan (mean-
ing the machinery of the McNary- Haul
gen bid as the best foundation upon
which to build a broad and lasting agri-
cultural program"
Criticism Is Answered.
The criticism of my Omaha speech
made by the Republican national chair
man and Senator Nye is met and demol-
tShed by the statement made by Senator
Norris of Nebraska, the chairman of the
committee on agriculture of the United
States Senate and one of the foremost
students of this problem in the United
States today. He said:
Men who believe in the theory of the
McNary- Haugen bill should be satisfied
with the Omaha speech of Gov Smith.
Gov. Smith proposes TO take care of the
surplus and charge the cost to the pro-
Queer. That is the real object of the
McNary- Haugen bill. He properly re-