Evening star., 1936-10-11
Text of Roosevelt Address at Omaha
President Offers 4Pont Farm Plan and Asks Nebraska to
Give Senator Norris Nation.

the farmers family can measure,
for themselves. the vast difference
between the desperation which was
theirs in 1888 and the recovery
which Is theirs in 1896. From
what the record has done and Is
doing for you-tudge for yourselves
our determination and our capacity
to carry this program through.
After having neglected l2-year
opportunity for help to the Amer
ican farmer as his condition got
worse and worse, what does Repub.
lican leadership now offer?
First OF all 1t would scrap the
present program, which 1t has con-
demned as . "subterfuge" and q
stop gap" 1t would junk the
farmers organizat ton to carry it
out. 1t would end the farmers
program Of cooperation and send
them back to the free compete
tion"-or rugged individualism"
If YOU will-that wrecked them in
1892. ,
Next it would substitute q sys-
tenn of tariff equivalent payments,
not for any permanent contribu-
ton to farm wealth or national in
come, but merely as cash hand
out-or q dole. These payments
would be made only to the pro-
ducers Of exportable farm crops
specifically on hogs, wheat, cotton
and tobacco.
Dairymen. cattle men, sugar
growers and producers Of other
crops Of which there normally is
no exportable surplus would be left
out.
What about the effect Of such .
scheme? Would it serve to pro-
tect farmers from price collapse
under q burden of surpluses? Would
1t guard them In the future against
q disaster like 1882?
No plan could lead the Nation
back faster to such . crisis.
Straight Subsidy
For Unlimited Production.
The proposed plan Of the Repub.
lican leaders is . straight subsidy
OF unlimited farm production. In
q year or two Of normal weather 1t
would pile surplus on top Of sur
plus, driving prices down and down.
It is the Federal Farm Board all
over again.
Finally, to make the parallel with
1882 letter perfect, the Republican
leaders now propose to repeal the
reciprocal tariff act and 60 back to
the Smoot- -Hawley tariff policy.
Once again, as in 1882, the farm
ers would have price-crushing sur
pluses at home, and no place
abroad to sell them.
What about the cost? 1t would
run to one and q half and even
possibly two billion dollars every
year. This vast sum would be
spent not to save agriculture, but
to wreck it.
Either this plan which they ad-
vocate in the West. or the curtail-
ment of expenditures they talk
about in the East. would have to
be discarded. Both promises can
not possibly be carried out.
For the first time in many cruel
years. we are getting the problem
of the business of farming well in
hand. Do you now want to turn
over that problem to the care of
those who did nothing about it in
the past? Do you want to turn
1t over to those who now make in
consistent campaign-devised. half
baked promises which you and they
know they cannot keep?
It has been said that the admin.
istration's farm program changes
each year like new models of auto
mobiles. I accept that simile. The
automobile of today is the same
kind Of vehicle. in principle. as it
was 20 years ago. But because the
automobile manufacturer did not
hesitate to pioneer-because he was
willing to make yearly changes in
his model-the Nation now drives
a car that Is vastly improved.
Farming, too, Is the same in prin-
ciple now as it has always been.
But because the farmer has been
willing 70 pioneer-because. with
the aid Of scientists, economists and
engineers. he has been willing, year
after year, to change-because Of
these things both the product Of
the farms and the business Of farm