Evening star., 1935-12-09

or your capital in what you consider
a wholly safe investment, which will
conserve your principal so that you
will still have that principal intact
after 10 years or 20 years or 80 years,
you are naturally aghaSt if the value
of that investment drops so per cent.
Equally, when you make the invest
ment you do not expect the principal
suddenly to increase so per cent in
value.
And yet, we have shrugged our
shoulders when we have seen cotton
run up and down the scale between
Az cents and % cents, wheat run
down and up the scale between $l.50
and 80 cents-corn. hogs, cattle, po-
tatoes, rye, peaches-an of them fiuc-
tuating from month to month and
from year to year in mad gyrations.
which, of necessity, have left the
growers of them spectators against
their will.
Measures Urged by Farmers.
The measures to which We turned
to stop the decline and rout of Ameri-
can agriculture originated in the as
pirations of the farmers themselves
expressed through the several farm
organizations. I turned to these or
ganizations and took their counsel
and sought to help them to get these
purposes embodied in the law of the
land. What you wanted and what
you and have endeavored to achieve
was to put an end to the destructive
forces that were threatening Ameri-
can agriculture. We sought to stop
the rule of tooth and claw that threw
farmers into bankruptcy or turned
them virtually into serfs, forced them
to let their buildings, fences and ma
chinery deteriorate, made them rob
their soil Of its God-given fertility.
deprived their sons and daughters Of
a decent opportunity on the farm. To
those days, I trust, the organized pow
er of the Nation has put an end for
ever.
I say "the organized power Of the
Nation" advisedly, because you and I
as Americans who still believe in our
republican form of constitutional gov
ernment know, as simple fact, that
48 separate sovereign States, acting
each one as a separate unit, never were
able, and never will be able, to legis-
late or to administer individual laws
adequately to balance the agricultural
life of a Nation so greatly dependent
on acknowledgement crops of many
kinds.
Used Basis Of Parity.
AS a. first step, organized agriculture
pointed out that it was necessary TO
bring agriculture into fair degree Of
equality with other parts of our
economic life. For so long as agri-
culture remained dead weight on
economic life, sooner or later the en-
tire structure would crash. We used
for temporary guidance the idea OF
parity between farm prices and in
dustrial prices. AS you know, the
figures that we used to determine the
degree to which agricultural prices
had fallen in relation to other prices
were based upon the figures Of 1908
to 1914. This was a fairly satisfactory
way of measuring our efforts. Those
five years preceding the beginning OF
the World War were years of fair
prosperity in this country. They were
the last years before the widespread
disturbance caused by the World War
took place in our economic life. And
measured by the figures built upon
this standard, the relative purchasing
power of the farmer had fallen to less
than SO per cent of normal in early
1888. I promised to do what I could
to remedy this, and, without burden
ing you with unnecessary figures, lei
the record say that relative purchas-
ing power of below so per cent has
now moved up today to better than ou
per cent. AS I have pointed out be-
fore, this rise in farm prices has meant
a very substantial improvement in the
farm income of the United States
The best available figures show that
it has increased nearly $4,000, 100000
in the past two and one-half years.
Buying Power Felt.
This buying power has been felt Ii
many lines of business, outstanding
among these is the farm equipment
industry, in which employment jumped
from 27 per cent of the average in Oc'
tober. 1882, to 116 per cent in October
1885. In the motor car industry, Whicf
has found some of its best markets or
farms and in small towns, over ths
same three-year span employment ma
increased from AZ per cent to lO5 pei
cent. These simple figures show how
industrial employment in the cities
has been benefited by the improve
ment in the farmers condition.
Increasing pay rolls in the tarn
equipment and automobile industries
in turn are stimulating other lines
Only a few days ago I noted an item
in the papers which I thought very
significant. 1t told of increased &C.
tivity in the textile mills. One reason
said the newspaper account, was the
demand for textiles in the manufac-
ture Of automobiles. There you have
the complete chain. The cotton-grow'
ing South, with more money to spend
buys new automobiles. The automo-
bile makers buy more cotton goods
from manufacturers in the NorthweSt