Evening star., 1936-01-17
Text of Hoovers Farm Address Delivered in Nebraska

and business?" II 10, 1t was q juggler's
balance.
Finally-does anybody believe that
this himsy structure under agriculture,
OF regimenting men, OF putting fertile
acres out Of action, Of giving American
markets to foreigners and levying its
cost on the poor would not have fallen
Of its own weight, even without the
Supreme Court.
PARTY.
Examples Available
From Foreign Lands.
We may now explore some Of the
roads to relief.
And every country. including our
selves, has adopted measure after
measure to protect the farmer and to
speed q return to stability. Other
nations tried most of the New Deal
measures before the New Deal was
born. From all this experience we
should by now have learned some les
sons in what is harmful, what is futile,
and what will help.
We shall be less than intelligent,
and we shall be heartless OF the
farmers problems IL we do not distill
from this wreckage Of these expert
ments some lessons in truth. And
there have been aids to recovery ex-
tended to the farmer both at home
and abroad which have been success
full. The first group of these aids is:
Increase consumption Of food by
restoration of employment. That can
come only with a balanced budget.
stable currency and credit. Give the
farmer our own home market. Adopt
such sane national policies as will
again restore reasonable export mar
kets. Out OF this group Of policies
we can restore demand to many mill
lions of fertile acres.
The second group OF policies Is: To
retire submarginal lands where peo-
pie cannot make living. Do it in
the more effective and humane way
proposed by Secretary Hyde in 1882.
Retard new reclamation projects I'M
til the land can be used.
A third group Of policies Is: En-
courage cooperative marketing and
those marketing agreements which
contribute to prevent gluts In the
flow to markets. The farm credit
machinery established by Republican
administrations and improved by the
New Deal should be still further i'm
proved.
Further Experiment
Needed Yet for Farmers.
But beyond these measures this
farm situation Is now one where still
further emergency measures pending
general economic recovery are neces-
sary. They are doubly necessary as
a new road must be built by which
agriculture can get back on to solid
ground from the quicksand OF the
New Deal. We shall need to open
our minds to further experiment.
I suggest as one contribution to
new methods that instead of trying
to find a balance to agriculture by
paying the farmer to curtail a crop,
we should endeavor to expand another
crop which can be marketed or which
would improve the fertility Of the
soil. We import vast quantities OF
vegetable oils. sugar and other COM
modities. There are industrial prod
ucts that could be introduced by the
American farmer. We need to re-
plenish our soils with legumes and
restore coverages. II we include this
suggestion with the policies I have
already mentioned, which would re-
cover our lost acres from foreigners.
we would be able to employ more
than all the acres put out Of action
by the New Deal. We would reverse
this economy Of scarcity to an econ
omy of plenty.
This question Of sustained fertility
and better land use was brought to
the forefront by former Gov. Lowden
in 1880. Nationwide conferences
under Secretary Hyde in 1882 further
developed parts Of this subject. The
matter was still further advanced by
the Republican side in the campaign
of that year. These ideas have been
further contributed to by many think
ing men since that time. In order
to secure these objectives believe
We must be prepared to subsidize di-
rectly such special crops until ag-
riculture has again been brought into
balance. At the end Of such road
we could hope for a balanced agri-
culture in full production and in
creased fertility in our soils.
I am advised that it can be done
within the spirit as well as the letter
Of the Constitution.
Since this paragraph was written
these ideas have been discussed in
Washington as q method of overcom'
ing the debacle brough about by the
New Deal. But If they are adopted, II
should be under certain fundamental
safeguards. There should be no at
tempt to again impose New Deal idea;
of controlling and regimenting the
farmer or restricting production. He
must be free of any restriction and
control contracts. The farmer must
be an entirely free man to use his owr
skill and judgment. The administra-
f;o, ~ ithaca ~, otbods cho,lId he han.