The Sauk Centre herald., 1928-10-25
]. F. Reed and Others Misrepresenting
Hoovers Position on Price of Wheat
Minneapolis Tribune)

signed the presidency of the Min
nesota Farm Bureau federation to
enter into the more or less discred-
liable arena of politics, filled his
first engagement at GAINESVILLE,
Thursday night. His speech was
largely made up of attacks on Her
bert Hoover. 1t is these attacks
which we propose to discuss. We
have Reeds speech as furnished to
the Associated Press and we have
the full text of the Hoover speech
from which Reed made his quota
tions.
The Tribune asserts fatty and
without any qualification that Reed
falsified Herbert Hoover's speech
to an extent that would have tried
the morals of a bootlegger. He did
this by the common and disreput-
able trick of omission. Not only
this but Reed even changed the
punctuation to suit his mendacious
purpose. He was not above leav-
ing off parts of sentences and
thereby distorted their meaning.
In his GAINESVILLE speech Reed
said.
"Elaborating on his own part in
the selection of a committee to
bring about this end (reduction of
the price of wheat) Hoover said
in New York, April 30:
We determined to stabilize
the price of wheat. -. The
President, upon my recon-
mendation, assembled COM
mission of II men, of whom
six were farmers, and gave to
them the duty of determining
a fair price for wheat.
In this paragraph Reed has fall
sified the record to degree that
would involve perjury in a count
of law. Reed has done this by de-
iberately cutting sentences in two,
in order to give them an utterly
false meaning.
In an address before the Grain
Trade Of the United States (not
farmers) in New York on April 80,
1918, over 10 years ago, Mr.. Hoo
Yer said:
In making determination
of stable price, of such wide
Importance to so many mil
lions of people, l did not con-
slider that any one mans
judgment should be final,
therefore, the President, upon
my recommendation, assem-
bled a commission of II men,
of whom six were farmers,
and gave to them the duty of
determining a fair price for
wheat in this national emer-
gency.
Reed cuts the first sentence of
his Hoover quotation in two. He
quotes Hoover as saying:
We determined to stabilize
the price of wheat.
What Hoover actually did say as
a matter of record, and Reed knew
it, was:
We determined to stabilize
the price of whetat--in order -
that we should eliminate all
speculation either by farmer,
distributor, miller or baker.
Why did the altruistic and pub
lic spirited Reed cut this sentence
in two; why did he leave out Gin
order that we should eliminate all
speculation by either farmer, dis
tributor, miller, or baker,? Is
there any excuse in common, every
day honesty for such deception?
But this is only the beginning of
Reeds Misrepresentation He goes
on in the next sentence quoting
Hoover:
The President, upon my re-
commendation, assembled
commission of II men, of
whom six were farmers, and
gave to them the duty of de-
termining fair price for
wheat.
Between these two sentences
which Reed attributes to Hoover
there is an entire paragraph and a
part of sentence is omitted.
Here is what Hoover actually
said, as a matter of record, all of
which Reed knew.
In making determination
of stable price, of such wide
Importance to so MANY mil
lions of people did not con-
slider that any one mans
judgment should be final,
therefore, the President, up
on my recommendation, as
sembled commission of II
men, of whom six were farm
ers, and gave to them the duty
Of determining a fair price
for wheat in this national
emergency.
Reed, in his Misrepresentation de-
liberately struck out 80 words in
the beginning of this sentence and
four words at the end. We sub
NIT that this, to any fair minded
person, is simply forgery.
But in order to do this Job of
distortion Reed jumped an entire
paragraph Of Hoover's speech,
which we quote. In this para
graph Hoover said:
In determining the steps of
stabilization our first consid-
GRAFTON must be the position
of the farmer, for even if we
were devoid of sense of JUS
tice our own interest for fu-
ture production required that
we look ahead to the next
year beyond.
After noting the talents for fall
sification already displayed by
Reed it would be nonsensical to
expect that he would be sincere