The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-06-17
Constructive Leaders Needed

Constructive leadership would do more for American
agriculture than all the laws congress can enact for
farmers, for in legislation in behalf of the tler history
reveals repeated application Of nostrums, because the
farmer as a class has been more susceptible than any
other to buncombe. There always have been political
mountebanks more than willing to supply him. About
all the gains agriculture made up to the passage Of the
farm board act was in the aid given the farmer in the
formulation of more scientific methods Of sowing and
reaping. Now a real economic attempt has been made
to prosper the industry of the soil, but 1T is In Its initial
stages and its outcome still SINNERS in the alembic Of
cooperative test.
What can legislation do best for the farmer. because
there is in 1t common sense and the limits Of possibility
are not overstepped? Samuel r. Mcxelvie, a member Of
the farm board, considered this question at the COM
mencement exercises at South Dakota Agricultural col
lege, Bookings, Friday evening, when he made the lead
ing address of the graduation program. He said the best
that legislation can do is to bring about equality of OPP
~portunity for the farmer and as soon as possible leave
with the farmer the responsibility for doing things that
the government is now assisting him to do. That, he said,
demanded constructive leadership in the ranks of the
tiners-unselfish leadership of men and women who are
not controlled by prejudice or prompted by expediency.
This is what the farm relief act is striving to do. If
it can attain to developing a leadership of vision as
broad and deep as that of Tom D. Campbell, the big
machine farmer Of Montana, 1t will succeed. With such
leadership that essential cooperation to scientific mer-
chandising of the produce of the farm can be established,
and this has been the feature of agriculture in which it
always has broken down.
Leading the farmer out Of the wilderness is going to
be q slow process. And in that sowness the pessimist
and demasogue will find their opportunity to seek the
continued befuddlement Of the tiller. Meanwhile. in the
farm board. the agriculturists will find their leadership.
Eventually they will develope leaders Of their own. When
that day comes the farmer can come to the relief Of the
government. free it of its guardianship and stand on his
own feet. economically as well as politically independent.
That is the goal which agriculture has been seeking.
For the present the experiment Of the farm board
seems safely on its course with the retention of Alexander
1egge as chairman. Legge stipulated when he accepted
the Craftsmanship Of the board that he was not to serve
more than a year, but with the expiration Of that period
he has been induced to allow reappointment.
! He enters his second year with the farm situation
more beset than when originally appointed with the
Formation Of the board. As the st. Paul Dispatch says
lin reviewing the situation he starts out his second year
with wheat falling below 81 q bushel at the terminals
and the first Of the new 1880 winter wheat crop rolling
into Chicago from the Southwest to pile on top Of the
Nenormous carTy-over. Government reports indicate an
other large yield Of winter wheat In the United
States, only 3 per cent down from last year: favorable
conditions for spring wheat in the northwest and Cam
ada, and probabilities Of no great decrease in European
countries.
with this prospect ahead, both farmers and farm
board need the services Of the energetic, resourceful and
fearless Alexander Legge. Farmers may be ~skeptical
about the efficacy Of the agricultural marketing act.
but they have confidence in the man. The traders are
against him. but the producers are with him.
Surplus production Of agricultural products promises
to be the major problem Of 1880 as it was for 1929. If
the Hoover program for farm relief contains the pos
sibilty of a solution of this difficult situation, the farm
board with Legge at It's head and the cooperative organ
~.izations. out Of their ~swaddling clothes. are now in better
position than before to give agriculture its expected
relief.