Evening star., 1932-04-05
SELF|SHNESS HELD
FARM BOARDS FOE
Former Chairman Says Deal
ers, Spectators and Poll
tiCians Criticize Act.
BY ALEXANDER LEGGE.

President International Harvester Co and
Former Chairman OF the Federal Farm Board.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
CHICAGO, April (NAN.A) Both
the agricultural marketing act and the
Farm Board since their enactment
have been the targets OF outrageous
Misrepresentation. Some OF the mis-
representation fas been mere partisan
politics. but most of it comes from
sheer self-interest. Look far enough
behind any attack on the act or the
board and you will find the politician,
or the handler or dealer in farm prod
ucts, or the speculator
Practically all these attacks are
aimed at the stabilization OF wheat and
cotton, but that Is false cry. The
real issue Is cooperative marketing;
the real purpose of the attack is to
keep the farmer from marketing his
own products. Except where he mar
kets comparatively, the farmer has no
influence over the sale OF what he
raises. He alone of all producers is at
the mercy of the middle man.
Can cooperative marketing OF farm
products be made to work successfully?
The answer is an emphatic yes" 1t
is working successfully today. Long
before there was a Farm Board the
California citrus fruit growers and wal
nut growers had achieved solid success
in this field. With the temporary aid
of the Farm Board thousands OF other
co-operatives, with millions OF farmer
members, have been soundly established
and are working toward success.
Advertising Activities Cited.
Last year the California citrus fruit
organization spent '$2,000.000 in adver-
tiSing to broaden still further the mar
ket for its products Could any COM
mission merchant or any individual pro-
ducer have done anything like that?
Could any individual grower or middle
man have set up the by-product plants
that have developed new uses and out
lets for the California citrus fruit
products?
These two co-operatives have found it
comparatively simple to regulate pro-
duction to the potential demand and
thereby insure their members a living
profit Can the same thing be done
with wheat cotton. live stock, dairy
products, poultry and so on? Certainly
1t can-and certainly it will be done.
Cooperative marketing is already sue
ceeding too well to please Mr.. Middle
man You can't blame man for fight
ing to protect his business; but which
would America rather have-a compar-
stively few very prosperous middlemen
and spectators or several millions of
farmers earning a fair living and able
to buy freely the products of other in
dustries?
If, when commodity prices started
down the toboggan in October, 1929,
the Farm Board had failed or refused
to recognize the emergency and use
the power and the money Congress had
put into its hands, 1t might well have
hnan hloF1and for the nrQch that fol.
lowed, and but for the stabilization OF
wheat and cotton the crash would have
been infinitely worse than it was.
Helped Cotton Market.
Sterilization has at least opened the
eyes of our people, including the farm
ers, to the impossibility of artificially
maintaining prices and has made dras-
tic and dangerous legislation for that
purpose unlikely, If not impossible.
Sterilization of wheat has enabled
Americas farmers to market two crops
at considerably higher prices than
they would, otherwise have received.
Wheat today sells in Chicago for as
much as in Liverpool, yet transpor-
tation from Chicago to Liverpool costs
approximately 16 cents q bushel
The best posted men in the cotton
trade, even those bitterly hostile to
the act and the board, agree that to-
days cotton prices, low as they are,
are substantially higher than they
would be but for the large stocks i'm
pounded by the Farm Board, the CO.
operatives and a large group Of South
ern bankers.
The real reason for current agitation
about the salaries paid to few man.
ayers of large cooperative central or
ganizations is not the size of the sal
aries, but the success of those vast op-
erations under competent leadership.
Some of these central co-operatives
have earned several million dollars
profit in their brief existence. Incom-
petent leadership would probably have
put them deep into the red.
I cannot believe that the self-seeking
enemies of the agricultural marketing
act and the Farm Board will be able
to fool Congress into, Gripping this
great movement, whose purpose Is to
put agriculture on a plane of equal
opportunity with other industries. r.
am absolutely certain that they cannot
fool the farmers of America.
Copyright, 1882. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, 1nc)