The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-13
Wallace Silent on
Farm Debt Burden
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Chamber of Commerce Glee Club, led
the singing Of the Iowa corn song,
while the band played. Touching tes-
timony to his kinship for the ruined
farmers Of the state, Wallace'S smooth
palms were raised, as the Chamber
Of Commerce choristers sang out,
That's where the tall corn grows"
With gasoline nineteen cents a gall
lon, those farmers who did come to
hear Wallaces alibi for the present
ruination Of the countryside, were
able to do so only by coming in groups
on trucks contributed for the pur-
pose. A large portion of the farm
ers" present were of the Wallace
Reno variety.
Des Moines police we're on hand
to prevent any possible demonstra-
ton against Wallace, and the recep-
ton received by RooSeve't's S"0~et"'y
of Agriculture was far from demon
stratiye.
Not once did Wallace make refer
ence to foreclosures and the mount
ing debt burden on the ruined farm
ers. He referred to the present farm
strike being betrayed by the Milo
Reno of1cialdom only to sheer at
those farmers who raise corn and
hogs, and those who believe only in
raising hell"
For the first time in the history of
the corn belt" Wallace declared,
there is a practical method of rails
ing farm prices and keeping them
up" He outlined what he described
as "a s350,OOO0OO corn and hog pro-
gram, which," de declared, would
make $75,o0O,O0O in rentals and bene-
fits available to farmers of Iowa, if
they are willing to take advantage
of it's provisions"
The proposed plan is the familiar
method of cutting production. The
farmer who signs the contract must
do four things, according to Wallace
/. Must reduce acreage of corn on
the farm he is to operate in 1884
by 20 per cent under the average fo1
1882 and 1888.
2. He must reduce the number of
hogs he has been raising by 20 per
cent.
8. He must not increase the total
of corn OF hogs produced on other
land owned, rented or controlled by
him, which is not covered by corn
log contract.
4. He must use the rented corn
acreage for Summer following, green
manure, or soil ecc--cn prevention
crops, but not for gr--r7.
Ill return, the fsrner-broken on
the rack-will get a rental at the
rate Of 80 cents q bushel for the corn
land he keeps out of production. Ac-
cording to Wallace's own illustration,
if the yield of corn on the 20 acres
the farmer rents, has been 40 bushels
an acre, he gets rental OF Sl2 an
acre. OF that rental he gets two
thirds, as soon as the contracts for
his county are approved, or in this
case, a muai1icent total of $3.50. The
balance of $50 he receives a year
lEOlu I1DNs
Wallace. who is a strong advocate
of currency imitation, became Roose-
velts Secretary of Agriculture after
he had helped swing the corn belt
to the Democratic Party by his de-
claration of approval of the farm
policies outlined in Roosevelt'S To-
peka, Kansas, speech. He had de-
serted the Republican Party in 1928
to support Al Smith.
In his speech here last night, Wal
lace spoke as dirt farmer" His
dirt farm experience is limited to an
inheritance OF a publication, wal
lace's Farmer" recently merged with
the Iowa Homestead" and expert
ment5 in the cross breeding OF hogs
at his 490-acre farm in Polk County,
near Johnstown, Iowa.
Wallace sought to justify the gov
eminent aid to the bankers instead
of to the ruined farmers. There are
more serious problems he said,
which, within democracy, can best
be settled outside the halls Of Con-
gress. We are not yet people skilled
in these problems, which are Of the
heart" Little comfort to farmers
facing eviction after years of toll.
Wallace continued to depart from
his prepared speech. He was back
in his old home town. He must be
neighborly; "Only the merest quar-
ter-turn of the heart separates US
from q material abundance beyond
the fondest dreams OF any one pres
ent. Selashness has ceased to become
the handspring Of progress. There is
something more. We must learn to
live with abundance" Little comfort
to farmers battling in sub-zero wea-
Their with armed deputy sheriffs and
their law and order leagues.
Wal!ace's father was Secretary OF
Agriculture in Coolidge and Harding
regimes.
Besides inheriting the farm paper,
Wallace inherited talent for cunning
demagogy, as revealed in his recent
speech before the Iowa Legislature,
called to consider farm relief pro-
posals, when he said:
THE pity is that the bankers, the
insurance company executives, the
packers, the millers, the cotton spin
ners, the railroad executives, the oil
executives, ETC., cannot meet together
to work out a program which will be
best for them and best for the farm
ers.%