Montana labor news., 1936-03-19

eastern Montana. The allotments rang
ed from S250,000 to 100000 per year
in each OF those counties. This was
the section Of the state where the
drouth had been at its worst, and which
was the most in need of assistance.
The years 1888 and 1884 were not
good crop years, due to the partial
continuance OF the drouth. 1885 was a
good crop year in most parts of Mon
tana. The farmers not only got good
crops generally, but the plan had so
disposed of the national wheat sur
plus that the price went up to around
$l.M a bushel, and the farmers got ex-
%cellent prices as well as excellent crops.
In other words in those three short
years, due almost wholly to the benign
effects OF the Processing Taxes, agri-
culture has gone from the extreme bot
tom Of the economic ladder UP to a
greatly improved condition and if not
interfered with, would provide a stabi-
lily for agriculture which would make
it comparable with industrial activities.
1t is agriculture in Montana beyond
anything else which has pulled the
state out Of the depression, and it was
the prompt and intelligent application
of the Agricultural Adjustment Act that
did it.
Montana has been used in the fore
going Illustration because the writer is
most familiar with the conditions in
that state, and wheat has been used as
an illustration because it is the most
important crop. Conditions as outlin-
ed above have prevailed, and similar re-
sults have been obtained, in other wheat
growing states, such as Kansas, Neb-
raska, the Dakotas, Idaho, Washing
ton and Oregon. The corn-hog tax in
the middle western states, and the cot
ton and tobacco taxes in the south,
have had similar effects in those locali-
ties.
Vast as these benefits are TO agri
culture, the story is not half told until
attention is called to the fact that,
now that the farmer has gotten back
his old-time purchasing power, it has
had an electric effect throughout the
entire nation. He is beginning now to
buy those things which have been den
led him for the past decade. His pur-
chasing power has started the wheels
OF industry all e the nation. The
automobiles from Michigan, the stoves
from Illinois, the clocks from Con-
necticut, now being bought by farm
ers in huge quantities, are being manu-
featured by labor which is now in turn.
able to buy and pay for the food the
farmer produces. 1t is agriculture, as
a result of the A.A.A. which has liter
ally pulled the nation out of the de-
preston.
1t is resented by the farmers as a
and it is resented by labor as a
that the majority of the Supreme
Court has seen fit to say that the AAA
is unconstitutional. Without something
to take its place, the return to the old
conditions would certainly produce the
same results, as in the past. SURPRISES
would again pile up, farm prices would
again go down to the same starvation
the farmer would be without
his purchasing power, again both the
farmers and labor would be on the
rocks, and the country would be in
another depression.
Fortunately, we have a courageous
militant president who sees the situa-
ton clearly as it is; and fortunately
we have a Congress as anxious as the
President to pass some legislation
which will stand the Constitutional test
and reflect the will Of the vast major
ty Of the voters of the nation.
No one in Montana wants to 90 back
10 the thirty cent wheat and four cent
hogs and the business conditions con-
,omitant to those starvation prices.