Evening star., 1935-07-12

and on opposite sides Of the great
rivers and mountains, were dazed and
bewildered. A great financial disas-
ter had descended upon them.
No Means Of Output Control.
A wheat or cotton farmer reasoned
that all the wheat or cotton his farm
could produce at prevailing bankrupt
prices would not bring him over rs per
cent of his former income, and his in
come had been entirely too low for
some years. He felt that he should
produce as much as was possible on
his farm. He knew his fellow farm
ers would produce all they could for
the same reason. There was no way
for the millions of farmers to get
together to consider the state of their
affairs and agree upon adjustment
programs. They had no machinery
for controlling aggregate farm pro-
duction, such as the United States
Steel and other Industrial corpora
tions have through their stockhold-
ers and Boards of Directors and exec
utive officers for the control of their
production.
While industry discharged millions
Of employees and caused them to go
on public relief rolls in order to ad-
just supply to demand. the farmers
continued to toll long hours, produc-
ing the full capacity of the farms
and selling their years yield at pow
erty prices.
Landlords, out of spirit of loyalty
and faithfulness to their tenants,
continued to advance to them the
credit and equipment necessary to
make crops. Many farms were under
mortgage when the depression start
ed, and mortgages were placed upon
many other farms. As a necessary
condition for keeping the farms in
operation, this widespread financial
difficulty applied both to farms occu-
pied by their owners and farms oc-
cupied by tenants. Everywhere in
the agricultural sections, newspapers
were filled with notices of foreclos-
ures, and as a result many thousands
of farmers who owned their farms
were translated into tenants, while
thousands of landlords lost their
farms.
Agrarian Revolt L00med.
With conditions so alarming, it is
not strange that an agrarian revolt
was in evidence in many sections. The
Government, through the Farm Credit
Agency, saved for the owners several
hundred thousand farms through new
credit facilities. with lower rate OF
interest and at generously protracted
installment payments.
1t was recognized, however, that
pay day must come. With the pre-
vailing prices of farm commodities,
the day of reckoning was merely be-
ing postponed. The fundamental
thing to do was to bring about, if
possible, an increase in farm prices
comparable with the prices of indus
trial commodities, or expressed, in
other words, to arrange for parity
prices.
As the result of such a change In
the earning power of the farmers, it
was plain that the farmers would be
advanced to a position where it could
be reasonably expected they would
meet their obligations.
This administration was convinced
from the beginning that the depres-
sion could not be overcome until agri-
culture, constituting such a large
part of the consumers of America, had
been financially rescued.
Machinery for Cooperation.
Then came the passage of the agri-
cultural act. and with it the dawning
of a new and better day for Amer
ican agriculture. Machinery was pro-
vided for effective cooperative pro-
grams by producers of the basic COM
modities through crop adjustments
and for the producers of speciality
crops through marketing agreements.
There was much resistance to the