Evening star., 1935-12-09

ana L1eSe uldIluldCIuISIo III b0AA 81
into the market for more cotton. !
Goods are moving again, and as goods
are moving, so is money moving once
more, and as it flows, millions OF farm
and city families are getting bigger
share of the national income.
1 think it is safe to say that al
though prices for farm products show
many increases over depression lows,
the farm program instead Of burden
ing consumers as a group has actually
given them net benefits. There are in
dividuals whose incomes have not
risen in proportion to the rise in GER
tain food prices, but at the same time
the total net income of city dwellers
is several billion dollars higher than
in 1882 and I think you will agree
with me that bargain prices for food
in 1882 were little consolation to peo-
pie in cities with no income whatso-
ever.
Food Prices Too High.
Though food prices in the cities are
not on the average as high as they
were, for example in 1929, yet they
are in many cases too high. 1t is diff
flcult to explain why in many cases if
the farmer gets an increase for his
food crop over what he got three years
ago the consumer in the city has to
pay two and three and four times the
amount of that increase. Lifting prices
on the farm up to the level where the
farmer and his family can live is op-
posed chiefly by the few who proflted
heavily from the depression. 1t is they
and their henchmen who are doing
their best to foment city people
against the farmers and the farm pro-
gram. 1t is that type of political
profiteer who seeks to diScredit the
vote in favor of continued corn-hog
program by comparing your desire for
fair price for the farmer to the ap-
petite of hogs for corn.
Yet know that the great masses OF
city people are fair-minde6. They,
like yourselves, suffered deeply from
the depression, and I believe with all
my heart that millions of these city
people, struggling back toward better
days, resent the attempts of political
advantage seekers and proflteers to
heap ridicule upon the recovery efforts
that all Of us are making.
Trying to Stir Up Farmers.
Some of the same type of individuals
and groups are also trying to stir up
farmers against other phases Of the
broad recovery program. Dispensers
Of discord are saying that farmers have
been victimized by the new reciprocal
trade agreement with Canada and are
painting pictures of a great food Of
imports Of farm products rushing
across the border. Just as am con-
fident that the great masses Of city
people are fair-minded, so I am sure
that the great majority of American
farmers will be fair in their judgment
of the new trade agreement. If the
calamity howlers should happen to be
right you have every assurance that
Canada and the United States will
join in correcting inequalities, but I
do not believe for single moment that
the calamity howlers are right.
Agriculture, far from being crucif1ed
by this agreement, as some have told
you, actually gains from it. We export
more agricultural products to Canada
than we have imported from her. We
shall continue to do so, for the very
simple reason that the United States
with its larger area of agricultural land,
its more varied climate and its vastly
greater population, produces far more
of most agricultural products, includ-
ing animal products, vegetables and
fruits, than does Canada. In the case
of the few reductions that have been
made, quota limitations are set on the
amount that may be brought in at
the lower rates.
Sees Benefit to Farmers.
On the other side of the picture we
believe, and most unbiased men be-
lieve, that the general increase in our
trade with Canada, including the ex-
ports of our factories, will so add to
the purchasing power Of hundreds OF
thousands of wage earners that they
will be able to spend far more than
they do today for the products Of our
own farms, our own forests and our
own fisheries. Greater trade is merely
another word for more production and
more employment. The proof OF this
particular pudding is in the eating,
the best way to judge the new accord
is to observe how it works out. Ana
lyze and remember the source and the
motives of the objections. Remember,
too, the old saying, sit all depends on
whose baby has the measles"
But the success that has attended
and is attending our efforts to stem
the depression and set the tide run
ming the other way cannot blind us to
the necessity of looking ahead to the
permanent measures which are nee
essary to more stable, economic life.
We are regaining more fair balance
among the groups that constitute the
Nation and we must look to the fac
tors that will make that balance stable.
The things we all are seeking Is
justice in the commonsence interpre-
tation of that word-the interpreta-
ton that means "do unto your neigh
Dor as you would be done by"
That Interpretation means justice