The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1929-06-27
TAX EXEMPTION IS
URGED SFARM AID
Ex-Gov. Louden Urges Radi-
cal Reforms in Milwaukee
Address Tuesday
URGE FARM INVENTORY
Would Pay Bounty on Acre
Held From Cultivation to
Reduce Surplus

milwaukee, June Z0-A new dCIl-
tude of the people toward agricul-
ture and frank recognition of the
agricultural situation are needed
more than any one piece of legis-
lation to secure economic justice to
the farmer, former Governor Frank
o. Lowden, of Illinois told the thir-
teenth annual convention of the
Kiwanis International here today.
With attainment of these ends
the speaker said, ways to restore
the proper balance between agri-
culture and industry will present
themselves.
One way in which the ills of ag-
riculture may be remedied, Mr..
Lowden said, is to change the pres
ent method of taxation. The farm
er is being done a great injustice,
he asserted, my the existing meth
DDS, inasmuch as intangible prop
erty escapes direct taxation while
farm land, always tangible prop
erty, is made to bear the greatest
burden of the cost of government.
Another remedy suggested by Mr..
Lowden is one being used to advan-
tage in England.
Depletion of soils is going on at
a dangerous rate, and when farm
SURPRISES are driving the price of
farm products below the cost of
production we are adding to those
SURPRISES by robbing the SOIL" said
Mr.. Lowden. "The state and fed
eral governments could ala the
farmer in this by exemptins all
lands from taxation which are de-
voted to some legume or by pay
ing a reasonable bounty to the
owners of the lands while they
keep them out of cultivation" he
suggested.
1.-THE United States government"
Mr.. Lowden explained, NOW re-
ceives in customs duties from $780,
100000 to $3.50, 100000 year IN the
of farm products. The
total area in cultivation in the
United States amounts to 3e5, DaO,-
600 acres. If 20 per cent of this
acreage were to go into legup,es
and bounty of So an acre wer e
paid by the federal government
upon every acre withdrawn from
cultivation, it would cost the gov
erment less than $3.50, 10000 or
considerably less than it now re-
ceives through it's customs Offices
in the interest of agriculture"
The former governor outlined
the contrast between city and rural
life and warned of the impossible
ity of maintaining much longer the
double standard jef living in the
United States. .sags.
While the country school has rap
idly lost it's old vitality and it's inn
portance in the life of the people,
the city school has constantly i'm
proved, he said. Due largely to
improved machinery the population
of the rural school district has de-
clined so rapidly that in Iowa alone
500 schools were closed. The
speaker declared that this in SUBJ
stance was an integral part of the
farm problem and that it should
not be overlooked in seeking a rem
edy for the ills of agriculture.
Mr.. Lowden urged that am '.inven-
tory be made Of the nations ag-
riculturaf resources. IF this had
been done half a century ago, he
said, I'VE would not now be humil-
lated to find huge devasted areas
In the Great Lakes region upon
which the forests are entirely de-
stroyed, lands that have reverted
to the states, or which have been
sold to the deluded farmers only to
be abandoned when. their owners
had been starved out.
Until such a survey is made .ev-
cry step win be taken in the dark
and agriculture must remain cha
otto" he said.