The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-10-02
Farmers Union

quests " congress III Ills April ~ an(
September messages. If the full 7
point program to stop initiation is no
to falter and fail, taxes must be
placed on those able to pay. Stalline
and shifting the burden must stop.
8. The assignment of drastic war
time powers to the executive branch
Of the government SO that this ma
ton may proceed to maximum produc
ton in agriculture as well as other
businesses. Every business m n
knows and every thoughtful person
knows that responsibility and author
ity go together. Until we give the
President authority to match his re-
sponsibility for winning the war, we
will keep on losing it.
Marines Ask No Parity
The Marines on the Solomon Islands
are not debating the fine points of
parity Farmers are entitled to par
ity and no more. The position taken
by the President has been our posi-
ton for fully year. We asked the
congress then and repeatedly since
to give us sterilization at equitable
levels clear across the board" of all
commodity prices, service charges,
profits, interest, rent, wages and sal
aries. The history already written in
every country at war showed more
than year ago that such controls
were necessary and inevitable
We stood and stand for full parity
for agriculture and no more. Let
others try to explain any formula
which asks for more at this time We
have no explaining to do.
Corporation Farmers HoIler/
Prominent farm leaders who no
longer ago than July were fighting
the release of government-owned
grain for feeding and loans to more
small farmers, using the argument
that we already had ample produc-
ton, now raise the threat of lowered
farm production in attempting to Sc
cure further benefits for themselves.
The hollering for 1919, 209o, 300 more
than parity is the voice of the 10 per
cent of farmers operating big CONNER
cial farms who harvest more than so
per cent of the total agricultural in
come.
The nation is moving to manpow
er crisis without adequate plans and
to meet it. Neither in in
dustry nor agriculture can the man
power problem be met primarily by
the payment of higher wages. This
will soon be apparent. The executive |
should have power to allocate the sup
ply OF farm labor and supplement |
wages where necessary. That is the |
answer to farm leaders crying labor |
shortage.
Do Not Break Faith
Whatever the merit of arguments
or revising the parity formula, we
believe it would be breaking faith
With the nation, to do so at this mo-
nent. Moreover, no set of prices,
however devised, will be sufficient to
meet our production needs. For the
duration we must move out of an
controlled by prices into a
economy in which the
Use of manpower and materials and
esources is the test Higher prices
an not direct limited supplies to their
most efficient USE
Price relationships artificially estab-
ished by our farm programs cannot
10 allowed to stand in the way of
uick action to use our land and man /
fficient and necessary yields. Only t
reduction incentive programs with
tabilized markets and minimum price 7
rejection. can insure maximum pro-
uction of all major farm commodi- G
es All major corps must be placed g
n the same footing as the so-called :
asic commodities corn, cotton, r
heat, tobacco, peanuts and rice. We t
lust use our land resources for the n
rops to which they are best adapted
nd thus avoid using such land re- o
)urces blindly for basic" crops in |,
rder to cash in on government sub n
dy payments. This is necessary to
ct total production from our farm s
IS. p,
We have repeatedly asked congress
Id the secretary Of agriculture for B
lch action. Now the President has T
quested it. In the immediate future 81
'ngress should authorize the secre- Io1
ry of agriculture and the Commod- =
C,Qdit 30
ajor crops, counting them into the =,
It Of crops with minimum price "
,ors. ;"
armily Farm Must Be Used n
The tragic truth is that agricultural n,
oduction has not yet been turned 81
ose. We have a reservoir of more ia
an one million farm families who hi
int to produce more but are still Oh
rottled by either restrictive acreage lis
otments or the lack of adequate M
vernment credit. These familytype
'mers have the labor power They wi
list be brought into full war produc ha
n by an enlarged Farm Security A
IN program, by revising acreage
1trols, and, if necessary, by shifting AZ
ch farmers to better farms than -
~ are now on. Agriculture can 10,
,duce much more
We have hundreds of thousands of CO.
eat farmers with millions of acres mo
land who want to go into increased wo
,duction but can't because of arbf- vi,
ry federal restrictions on the han an
lg of their land and the marketing no
their products. he,
he secretary of agriculture would fiji
, to meet this problem and knows ma