The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-08-22
HOOVER BARES
farm AID PLAN
IN iowa SPEECH
Promises to Call Conference
to Draft Legislation;
Scores Fee.
BY PAUL r. MALLON
UNITED Press Staff Correspondent

place, Herbert Hoover announced
tonight he would call conference
of agricultural leaders to assist in
drafting legislation to carry out his
farm relief program if he is elected
President.
Outstanding farmers such as
Frank o. Lowden of Illinois, defeat
ed candidate for the Republican
nomination, will be invited to join
the conference, Hoover said in his
prepared speech delivered here in
surroundings shadowy with reminis-
Genes of the old swimming hole, the
Quaker meeting house now NOV
ing picture theater and the time
when he marched in the torch light
parade at Garfield's election.
Breaking the restraint Of his &C.
ceptance speech, the nominee
frankly talked to his townfolk
about his program for undermining
cheap transportation and for estab-
4. fishing a Federal Farm Board to
develop an efficient marketing syS-
TEN. He did not mention the third
point in his plan, tariff revision to
give the farmer equality with bust
ness.
SIapS Equalization Fee
But for the first time in his cam
paign, the nominee took a slap at
the equalization fee system en-
bodied in the McNary- Haugen bill.
He expressed qualification that
changes in the fundamental struc-
ture of this Government were not
necessary to give ample relief and
he pointed out his plan did not "in-
tend to put the Government into
business nor to substitute prices of
farm products and pay the losses
thereon either by the Federal Treas
Jury or by a tax on fee on the
farmer"
Analysing his proposal to develop
the Mississippi Valley water system
and promote an eastern outlet from
the Great Lakes to the Atlantic,
Hoover estimated the entire project
could be concluded in four years,
exactly the duration of a White
House term. If the st. Lawrence
project must be abandoned because
of international objections, alterna-
tive routes must be considered, he
said.
1.-THE necessarily large advance in
railway rates from the war initiate
against the economic setting Of this
whole interior section" he said.
''This, together with the completion
of the Panama Canal and the fact
that ocean rates have increased but
little since before the war, further
cdisturbs the whole economic rela-
tionship of the Midwest.
Fights Pre-War Rates
"It is as if a row of toll gates
had been placed around this whole
section of the country"
Arguing that the farmer pays the
freight on his products, Hoover
added:
1--WE cannot return to pre-war
rates without ruin to railways,
therefore I have long asserted that
the only real hope of reducing
charges upon bulk goods was
through the modernization OF our
great interior waterways.
"By modernization I mean in
creasing depths to a point where we
can handle 5000 or 10000 in a line
of barges pulled by a tug. This ad-
ministration has authorized the sys-
tematlc undertaking of this mod
ernization.
1--WE already have experience with
results, for with only the main river
from st. Louis to New Orleans
working properly, the rates for
transportation of bulk agricultural
products through that section is
near pre-war railway rates"
Urges Cooperating Marketing
The plan will not work disaster
to the railroads because their nor
NAL expansion will more than take
1 care of their loss in revenue from
this 10000 miles of river transpor-
tation, through twenty Midwest
: States, Hoover contended. His plan
for encouraging the development OF
efficient cooperative marketing, he
outlined as follows:
"a Federal Farm Board is to be
set up with the necessary powers
and resources to assist the industry
I to meet not alone the varied prob
/ lens of today, but those which may
arise IN the future, my fundamental
4 concept of agriculture is one con-
trolled by its own members, organ
lied to fight its own economic bat
( ties and to determine its own des-
TIMES.
s Nor do 1 speak of organization
: in the narrow sense of traditional
farm cooperation and polls, but in
he much wider sense of a sound
s marketing organization.
Spots School Teacher
z 1--WE propose with governmental
/. assistance and an initial advance OF
Z capital to enable the agricultural
industry to reach a stature of mod
ern business operations by which
Z the farmer will attain his impor-
lance and maintain his individu-
atty"
The nominee closed his speech as
! he had started it with human and
idealistic touch. At the outset he
3 remarked the presence in the audi
+ ence of Mrs. Curran, his school,
teacher. He talked about the swim
ming hole down in the creek with
! its mudbank slide. He pondereo
how Aunt Hannah, who once SAID
( in meeting that the house of Coo
would be turned into an abomina-
9 ton, would regard the fact that the
meeting house had been turned into
a movie theater.
He recollected that before he was
high enough to carry a torch he
..ao-nLnI 80, tt,n tOv.aio iioLf y1,.r