The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-02-25
Farm Board Chairman Is One
Federal JObhOIder Who Fears
No Man; Fighter to the Core
Alexander Legge Has One
Aim-HeIp the Farmers;
Political Pressure Has No
Effect on Him.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER
NEA Service Writer

ander Legge is that he is federal
jobholder who isn't afraid to tell
any one where to get off.
Such fearlessness in the chairman
of the federal farm board marks
him as a man apart in Washing
ION. He is immune from political
pressure, he isn't looking forward
to bigger and better job, he has
all the money he will ever need and
you just can't imagine any one of
whom he might ever stand in awe.
The two things which seem to
actuate Legge in the early stages
of the governments attempt to
put agriculture on a paying basis
are his sympathy for farmers and
his own obvious relish for doing a
difficult job we'll in his own way.
Some people consider Legge help
full, pleasant and sympathetic, while
others regard him as a hard-boiled
individual. It all depends on what
Legge thinks of them and their
propositions.
Faces Immense Task
He faces a tremendously big job,
but no one so far has suggested that
he isn't able, dynamic and efficient
his record proves that he IS all
those things.
There are a few men in Washing
ton whose appearance anywhere
causes many strangers to ask:
Who's that?" Legge is one of them.
He's big, lanky Scotchman with
rather large head, more than six
feet tall and weighing about 200
pounds. His face is clean-shaven
and red.
Sometimes it wears the most
baleful look that has been seen here
since the retirement of Senator Jim
Reed of Missouri. Legge wears dark,
conservative clothes.
He eats lightly, holding back at
the table, but keeping plenty of ap-
pies and pears in his office.
Quit 100000 Job
When President Hoover sounded
him out about leaving his 100000
a-year job as president of the In
ternational Harvester Company to
go on the farm board, Legge is said
to have accepted, on condition that
he be made chairman.
Originally he took the job for a
single year, ending next July Is, but
it seems unlikely that he will quit
at that time, unless convinced that
the campaign to put agriculture on
a sound basis is off to a good start.
After selling farm machinery for
for years, Legge appreciated
what farmers were up against and
also that the farming business has
been the basis for his own rapid
rise.
Legge was confirmed quickly and
has been talking turkey to people
here ever since. He told President
Butterworth of the United States
Chamber of Commerce, for instance,
that the chamber ought to divest it
self Of the economic theories of the
horse and-buggy age.
Senator Caraway Of Arkansas,
questioning Legge, said: II believe
you said you read the farm bill
twenty times and didn't understand
it?"
Frankly" replied Legge. II will
read it twenty times more and then
am doubtful whether I will
understand il"
Il may be kicked out and prob
ably will" he told the American
farm bureau federation in warn
ing it that SURPRISES must be con-
trolled at the source. But the work
is being started and the rest de-
ponds on you
LeggeS present popularity here
was mostly achieved when he defied
Julius Barnes ard the western
grain dealers. The grain farmers
never did like the dealers, who
made most of the profits in the
business, but they were at the deal
ers' mercy.
Champion Of Farmers
Now they have a champion IN
Legge. The farm board has been
trying to set up a marketing and
sterilization structure owned and
operated by farmers. If the grain
operators are forced from control
the farmers may get fair break.
Because Legge wanted the farmer
to dominate the marketing system
the operators went cunning for him.
Barnes, a large exporter and chair
man of the directors of the United
States Chamber of Commerce, led
the charge He found no encour-
agement at the White House or
anywhere else.
That incident, plus the credit
given him for stepping in at the
time of the stock market crash and
pegging wheat at SIPS a bushel
when it might have gone down to
60 or 70 cents, seemed to make
Legge solid with both the farmers
and the belligerent senate farm bloc
oE ~ aueT-