Evening star., 1935-09-29
BY the Associated Press.

II.
years ago that visited farms in
this State and saw farmers thresh-
ing 30-cent wheat and shelling
20-cent corn. Much has happened
during the three years that fol-
lowed. Then, the prices of farm
products were falling lower and
even lower as markets vanished
and surpluses accumulated; farm
buildings and equipment were de-
teriorating month by month; soil
fertility was being sapped as farm
ers struggled to raise enough BUSH
els to meet their debts and taxes.
Country schools were closing, and,
most diSheartening Of all, thouS-
ands of farmers were losing their
homes by foreclosure. This was
true not only in this part Of the
great West, but in practically
every State of the Union-North,
East, South and West.
The man-made depression was,
as we know, followed in many parts
Of the country by the most severe
drought in our recorded history.
1 am taking the opportunity of
stopping here in Fremont to de-
liver to you a message Of thanks.
Through you I deliver that same
message to farmers and farm FAM
lilies throughout the Nation.
We all know the heroic story of
the pioneers. We know the hard
ships and the troubles they suf-
fered. If ever we need demonstra-
ton that the pioneering spirit that
originally settled this country still
lives, mistaken and undiminished,
the farmers of America have
proved it in the years through
which We have just passed. well
realize the suffering and the deso-
lation. I know the faith and hope,
the patience and courage you have
shown. For this I applaud you:
for this I extend the thanks of the
Nation to the farmers of the Ma
ton.
Recalls Earlier Promise.
Three years ago did not prom
ise the millennium for agriculture.
But did promise that should at
tempt to meet that intolerable sit
uation in every way that human
effort and ingenuity made possible.
I said that I should do my best,
and that II my efforts proved un-
successful should tell the country
frankly and try something else.
But that was not necessary.
was not meeting a theory, I
was meeting condition. Fore
most among the efforts of my ad-
ministration when we came into
Office were practical means to inn
prove the situation on the farms
of this country. I recognized in
March, 1888, that efforts to i'm
prove agriculture should of neces-
sity be twofold. We should at
tempt, first, to lift the immediate
burdens by raising farm prices and
by Tightening the burden of debt.
Second, I pledged myself to long
term efforts extending beyond
these immediate emergency meas
ures to stabilize American agri-
culture by long-term planning.
Even before went to the White
House I put into practice theory
which older and more cynical per-
sons told me was impossible. Up
to that time the farmers of Amer
lea had been unable to choose by
any substantial majority between
three or four plans aimed at re-
storing farm purchasing power and
farm prosperity. People in Wash
ington told me that you could
never get farmers as a whole to
agree to anything. Nevertheless,
at the famous conference, repre-
Sentatives of every section of the
country and of every farm organi-
zation, held in Washington in the
Spring of 1888, very large major
ity of the farm leaders agreed on
what you and I now know as the
agricultural adjustment plan. This
plan has been in operation for
only two years and a half. You
know its general results. You
know that there have been many
imperfectionS in it and that we
still have much to learn in pro-
viding better administration for it,
in amending it from time to time,
and in fitting 1t into world condi-
tions. which each year show tre-
mendous changes.
Relation With Industry.
The plan itself was, as you know,
based on the cooperative efforts of
the farmers themselves and on the
broad economic theory that the
industrial part of the population
of the Nation could not prosper and
return people to work unless the
agricultural part Of the Nation
were in position to purchase the
output of the industrial part. 1t
was based on knowledge of the fact
that for the farmers of the Nation
the long, downhill road to depres-
sion began not in 1929, but in 1920:
that from that date on through the
so-called boom days Of the 1920's
the debts Of the farms and farmers
mounted, while their assets and
earnings slid down hill.
Coming back to you after three
years, I experience the extreme
pleasure of recognizing that the
cooperative efforts in which the
farmers themselves, the Congress
and my administration have en-
gagged, have borne good fruit.
The problem of the early days of
the administration was not only to
raise crop values from starvation
levels, but also to save farm families
from actual loss Of their homes
and their chattels.
The burden of agricultural debt,
1t Is true, has not been eliminated,
hut 1t has been decisively and def