Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19
The Anti.Farm Board Campaign.

The Federal Farm Board, set up by
Congress to help the American farmers
to a position where they could say that
own, Is constantly under attack. For
the most part these attacks are made by
politicians seeking to discredit the board
for purely partisan reasons and by the
grain trade, which has been sore ever
since the Farm Board was created. 1t
remains to be seen whether the poll
tisians and the grain trade are able to
beat down the biggest constructive gov
ernmental instrument yet set up to help
the farmers.
Chairman James C. Stone of the
Federal Farm Board, in an interview
with the press on Thursday, said that
the board had sold none of its wheat
holdings in the Southwest. the Winter
wheat country, unless an equivalent
amount of wheat had been purchased
from the farmers out of this years
crop. He also said that the board had
sold about 100000 bushels OF Spring
wheat in the Northern area, where 1t
was required by the millers and where
the new crop has not yet been har-
vested The millers, he made it clear,
required that particular kind OF wheat
for their business. Mr.. Stone also said
that the board did not intend to go
into the market and buy wheat from
the new crop on a large scale to sta
bilize prices of wheat, as 1t did last
year, explaining that the revolving fund
was not large enough to meet all the
requirements of such move. He
added, however. that the Farm Board
was prepared to do all it could under
the law to help the farmers in their
present difficult situation.
In hostile quarters Mr.. Stones in
terview was presented as a declination
to aid the farmers. 1t was heralded
abroad that the Farm Board was selling
its wheat In competition with the farm
ers at this time. So distorted were the
reports of the interview that Mr.. Stone
felt called upon to issue formal state
ment giving briefly what he really did
say.
Many Of the American farmers, and
more and more of them rs time goes
on. are understanding better and better
the functions of the Farm Board and
its efforts to help the farmers in the
marketing of their crops. great deal
of propaganda seeking to discredit the
board has been spread, much of 1t by
the grain trade, which has lived off
the wheat farmers for years Sooner
or later the farmers, and the public
generally, will understand that the
grain trade Is hostile to the board be-
cause the board Is there to take the
part of the farmers. The interest Of
the trade, which buys wheat as low as
It can from the farmers and sells it as
high as 1t can to the millers, does not
march with the interest of the farmer,
who naturally wishes to get as much as
he can for his crop. The farmer has
always been in a position where he has
to take what the trade offers for his
wheat. That is an evil which the Farm
Board is seeking to correct, by aiding
the growth of the farm co-operatives.
The Federal Farm Board has had
the courage to say to the American
wheat farmer that he should curtail his
acreage so as to prevent huge surplus
bringing lower prices. The trade, which
is interested in buying wheat at low
figures from the farmers and leaving
what it does not want in the hands Of
the producers, does not take the same
view Of the situation. The wheat bust
ness of the country and of the world is
just one big link in the chain which
binds all industry together today. Any
industry which overproduces in huge
quantities breaks down the system Of
exchange, which has been built up in a
world where production is no longer a
problem, but where oyerproduction and
lack of proper marketing have become
twin evils.