The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-08-02
BY ALBERT MALTZ

market for farm products fell. The
cities could not consume what the
farmer had to produce to keep his
business going. The long 12-year
depression began. For many farm
Gus the automobiles bought shortly
after the war are the ones they
still possess. l have seen more
Model T Fords in Sisseton, the
county seat, than in any other
town in five thousand miles of
travel. And the carnivals who
played here the last two days re-
poT the largest attendance but the
worst business throughout their
whole circuit.
For some farmers the falling
market meant immediate destruc-
ton as the stock market crash
bankrup' ed certain spectators and
industrialists. The degree to which
others have held on has depended
upon the extent of their overex-
pansion during boom times. The
mortgages told the story and for
many farmers a few years of the
falling prices spelled the end.
But now the drought of the last
two years writes the final chapter
in the post war period. The big
drought is not farm crisis in it
self. 1t is merely an added Gala
mitous blow in a crisis twelve
years old. From now on. with only
rare exceptions, the farmers of
Roberts county will be tenants of
the banks or the insurance COM
panies or the government. l spoke
with a farmer who was poin'e
out to me as one of the few who
still had their land free and clear.
He had maintained this indepen-
dent position through a combina-
ton of shrewd farming, of per-
sonal frugality and of a policy
which preferred less efficient farm
ing TO the use of machinery which
would load him with debts. 81
don't know what I'm going to do, y
he said. 81 used to have money
and no debts. Then l had to sell
my loose land. Now all that money
is gone. The money / get from the
government l have to give right
back in process tax for hogs and
in income tax. Now / have to
mortgage and how long will it be
before 1 can't pay on my mort
gage and the insurance company
forecloses? This is something to
work all your life for, isn't it,"
This is the picture of the Rob
erts county farmer. He was once
an Independent producer. Now he
is either a tenant farmer or an
unemployed worker, dependent on
the charity Of the State. And this
is the blueprint for the American
farmer everywhere. Only a small
class of wealthy farmers will re-
main.
In the last few weeks many Of
the farm belt statesmen have beer
asserting that had the government
/ been able to forecast the drought
it would not have embarked upor
! it's crop and cattle reduction policy
This is oratorical nonsense. The
truth is the reverse. The A.A.A
has done and is doing all in its
power to accentuate the catrastro'
phic effects of the drought. The
clue to the New Deal in AgriCul
ture cannot be found in the puffeC
up statistics about the amount Of
cash which has so generously beer
/ placed in the hands of the farmers
(from which it soon passed to tn
banks, insurance companies ant
wealthy farmers). The only clu'
is the statement of Professor Tug
well that there is overproductlon
and that two million farmers mus
be forced off the land and absorbed
into other industries. This is eco
nonic trend and government polio.
in the same bowl.
The drought is merely natur
conspiring to help the AAA. Ha
they the power, the Agricultural
Brain Trusters would have writtel
Drought in as their ace policy.
Such a policy destroys more eftec
lively than government slaugh
terer and at the same time alb
solves the government from gull
and permits pious camouflage IL
the way of unreal drought relief.
If the government had been IN
terested in drought relief, adequat
relief could have been provided
The Farmers Emergency Relief
Bill put forth by the Unite
Farmers League demonstrates ho7
this can be done. But the govern
ment has not been interested in
drought relief. The government
has been interested in capitalism
upon the effects of the drought i
order to keep the price of beef vi
If the government had been II
terested in saving the farmers cat
tie it could have given him imme
date feed relief, instead of payin
ont enormous sums to kill the cat
tle sums which in most cases hav
gone to the mortgage holders OF
the cattle and not to the farmer
4 The policy of the government n
has been to delay feed relief Will
uniting through widespread
slaughtering campaign. In Sout
Dakota alone approximately one
hundred and forty-five thousan
head Of cattle have been snlppe
or destroyed already. Contact
have been signed for three hun
IL GI,orcand more head OF cattl