The Washington times., 1936-11-06
AAA CHARGES
HELD BLUNDER
BY LAND0N
By EARL GOODWIN

to Washington to tell just how
it was that the once-apparent
farmers bolt to Landon turned
out to be q jump on the Roosevelt
band wagon. A few weeks ago
with former Governor Frank o.
Lowden and other nationally
known farm leaders attacking the
triple A it looked as if the Landon
ticket would get more than half
the midwest farm vote-which
it didn't do.
The explanation these New
Dealers bring back is that Landon
made a tremendous tactical error
when he charged that AAA had
been plunged into politics; that
the officials Of AAA in the field
were politicians and that he would
take agricultural problems out Of
politics.
City-Bred Advisers
The fact is that the AAA had
turned over the local, county and
State administration of AAA de
tails to the farmers themselves
who were asked to appoint or elect
committees of four in each local
farm section, each county and
each State.
Then these committees were
told to attend to their own bust
ness and keep out Of politics and
it seems that everyone in the corn
belt understood this and was salts
fled with the arrangement-so
long as there had to be such a
patchwork farm scheme.
Now the story goes among the
Presidents closest farm leaders
that there was a grave danger OF
losing the farmer vote to Landon
and the Kansas man could have
gained hundreds Of thousands had
he not listened to his city-bred ad-
ViSerS.
Politics Charge Fatal
What the farmer in the midwest
was interested in mostly was not
AAA checks but in sustained
prices for his products. They
realized along with Henry wallace,
secretary of agriculture, that
checks for corn, wheat, hogs, ETC.,
not produced was freak Sltua-
ton, soon to be discarded for some
thing permanent.
Had the Republican candidate
said that his detectives wee SINH
lar to those Of the Triple A-but
that he could reach them with less
effort, more equality among farm
erS, and with far less machinery,
those who claim they know what
they're talking about think Ian
don could have swept the corn
belt.
But when he charged that the
farm program was tainted with
politics, those purely non-political
groups of four took off their
coats, rolled up their sleeves, and
actually did go into politics to Mr..
Landon'S great grief.
Urged to Stick Tight
They campaigned on the gen.
eral theory that Landon did not
know what he was talking about;
that evidently he was being ad-
viSed by a committee of city bred
advertising copy writer's instead Of
farmers, and that all in all the
farmers had better stick tight.
Which they did to the great
arnazement of many an eminent
New York political observer who
traipsed through the midwest
and reported OBJECTIONS from
Roosevelt-which never occurred.
One instance may suffice.
Former Gov. Lowden Of Illinois
himself made the mistake of re-
pesting this charge about AAA in
politics. 1t happens that Gov
ernor Lowden's manager for
his tremendous farm "Sinissippi"
near oregon, ILL.,, is well
known farm expert named
Lee Gentry who is one of the
head men on the Illinois COM
mittee of four to handle AAA mat
tiers.
After Lee Gentry heard his boss
attack AAA, he himself enrolled
under the Roosevelt banner and
sent a Roosevelt committee 500.
Price Propaganda
Another adverse element in the
Landon fortunes was contained
in the G. o. P. Market Basket
propaganda. This consist e d
mainly of large posters showing
the increased price Of food as
paid for by the city housewives.
The posters showed there had
been a great increase since 1882.
These did we'll in some of the
cities and accounted for many a
thousand votes from women.
But the Roosevelt farm COM
mittees leaped with glee. They
reprinted 10000 Of these posters
just as they were-with the G.
o. P. signature on them and all
that. These reprints they circu-
lated among farmers with the
simple statement:
"See, these Republicans are
trying to bring you back to the
ruinous low prices you were
getting for crops in 1892"
This argument never failed to