The U. S. Farmer and the Free World Economy Toward Permanent Farm Prosperity The Farmer and America's Allies
SCHNABEL, OSCAR & SHINNER, E. G.
THE U.S. FARMER AND THE FREE WORLD ECONOMY Introduction by the Editors THE FARM PROBLEM that faced nations from the beginning of human history was the problem of scarcity: too many mouths, not...
...Steel expounded this theory in a recent speech before the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Chamber of Commerce...
...different crops have had their spokesmen in Washington, as have had both big and small farmers, and the many processing industries...
...We must rather effect a reasonable balance between production and consumption if we are to have a permanently healthy agricultural economy...
...This showing of payments due would permit the farmer to establish immediately the basis for a bank loan of a comparable amount, as his needs may arise...
...Our present farm-support program has substituted a high degree of regimentation and an insidious type of creeping feudalism, both of which are utterly distasteful to the rank-and-file of our farmers...
...Giving away food in case of an emergency, as after the West European floods last year, certainly makes sense...
...If we keep Dutch dairy products off our markets, and deprive Holland of other markets by dumping our own dairy products on them, we will lose Holland as a buyer of our wheat...
...It could not avoid the further building up of new agricultural surpluses...
...It does not attack the roots of the farm problem...
...The following example will more clearly illustrate my plan: • Farmer A raises 10 bales of cotton (5,000 pounds), which he sells for, say, 25 cents a pound in the open market, realizing $1,250...
...In common justice, we cannot continue to pay huge sums of money to factory-in-the-field type of operations, and at the same time permit only a dribble to reach the vast majority of our farm population...
...They can do so only by paying with the proceeds of their exports, mostly of manufactured goods...
...we must protect and stabilize our huge farm investment, the aggregate of which is over $150 billion...
...Simultaneously, we began to change the whole structure of our economy...
...It is reliably reported that the Western Union Telegraph Company, through the adoption of automation, has reduced employment by more than 39,000 persons since 1945 and by some 18,000 since 1952...
...The total gross income of farmers in the record year of 1951 was $37 billion...
...This section is the first of a series of special studies of current economic problems which The New Leader will publish in cooperation with the Shinner Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization...
...FARMER AND THE FREE WORLD ECONOMY Introduction by the Editors THE FARM PROBLEM that faced nations from the beginning of human history was the problem of scarcity: too many mouths, not enough food...
...Since 1930, the farm population has shrunk by over 8 million, while the overall population of the nation has gained by 41 million...
...Prices of farm products would be permitted to seek their own level in the open market...
...A certain group of economists and some businessmen contend that this process will simply release these people for more constructive work elsewhere...
...Oscar Schnabel, who discusses the international ramifications of Mr...
...Our vital long-term mortgage investment can easily be impaired, or even destroyed, by either deflation or inflation of any significant magnitude...
...Per-capita consumption of wheat amounted to 198 pounds in 1937, only 163 pounds in 1952...
...In a sense, we are the victims of our own genius...
...I am aware that certain economists will declare that this program penalizes efficiency...
...to the 91 per cent of small farmers whose need is vital...
...The United Nations Statistical Year Book for 1954 reveals the situation that has developed as a consequence of our present farm policy: Our population increased from 129 million in 1937 to 157 million in 1952 and 159.6 million in 1953—that is, by 21.8 and 23.8 per cent respectively...
...Therefore, it is hardly likely that Europe will step up her wheat imports...
...Therefore, it is conceivable that the money derived from liquidating the present surplus would completely finance the new program for at least two or three years...
...Unhappily, the end of the farm decline is not in sight...
...I would substitute for it a system of direct production payments to the individual farmer—in an amount sufficient to give him and his family a reasonable basic income...
...The founder and former head of the Shinner Company, one of the first successful chains of wholesale meat markets in the Midwest, he is also the author of a provocative economic study called Prosperity Can Be Permanent...
...Such a program would not only pave the way for a better balance between production and consumption of our agricultural products, with numerous advantages for our national economy...
...postponed an explosive situation in our wheat and cotton production...
...It would seem feasible, however, to exempt sugar and wool from the above program...
...E. G. Shinner, Chairman of the Foundation, is a retired successful businessman with broad experience with almost every aspect of the agricultural economy...
...Estimates of the savings in grain which result from the use of these miracle drugs range from 10 to 40 per cent...
...About a sixth of our wheat crop is so used—10 per cent for feed, 6 per cent for seed...
...The importance of a healthy agricultural economy can hardly be overestimated...
...The advantage the company has gained from this curtailment is apparent...
...We should keep the door of opportunity open not only for the small, family-sized farm but for the business and professional men of the small towns and villages, who depend for their livelihood upon a healthy farm economy...
...In our eagerness to promote and develop democracy in agriculture abroad, we have seemingly neglected to protect our own agricultural economy against the growth of a kind of creeping feudalism...
...Denmark is in a similar predicament...
...Moreover, while non-farm income now is slightly higher than just after World War II, farm income has shrunk by almost 20 per cent...
...Furthermore, on the European market we face the competition of other wheat-exporting countries—primarily of Canada...
...I regard the figure as less important than the principle, but whatever figure may finally be adopted should not be so high as to defeat the objective—to effectively divert price-support benefits away from the wealthy 9 per cent who do not need them...
...In uniform 1953 dollars, per-capita non-farm income was $1,921 in 1946, $1,970 in 1953, and $1,926 last year...
...Now, the United Kingdom and Western Europe must import raw materials and part of their food supply...
...Since the end of the last war, the recovery of European agriculture has made great progress, even compared with prewar days...
...Hostile propaganda can easily convince the beneficiaries of our gifts that we are more interested in dumping our surplus than in aiding anyone...
...This exodus from the farms means that small towns and villages are suffering a similar fate...
...He, too, is entitled to a subsidy payment of 10 cents a pound on the first $7,000 of gross production (in this case, the first 20,000 pounds), but not more than $2,000...
...hence, it becomes an elementary economic necessity that farm values be maintained at or near their present level...
...Admittedly, automation has created a new industry...
...We are now producing food and fiber clearly beyond the capacity of both the domestic and foreign markets to absorb...
...Vast production of wholly unneeded products for sale to the Government should cease forthwith...
...Even assuming this is correct, I would like to call attention to the phrase in our Declaration of Independence which speaks of our inalienable right to "the pursuit of happiness...
...During World War I, we repaid our foreign debts and started on our way to become the world's largest creditor nation...
...While estimates of the effects of automation on the nation at large are, at best, educated guesses, students of the problem believe that insurance and communication companies, public utilities and similar concerns which have a high degree of repetitive clerical operations will, within the next two or three years, install much automatic equipment...
...All of this can be accomplished to the slight disadvantage of only 1.9 per cent of our farmers (the group currently getting 25 per cent of Government support benefits...
...While farm indebtedness is, percentagewise, comparatively small (roughly $18 billion), it is nevertheless true that many farms are mortgaged up to 50 or 75 per cent of their current market value...
...It has also been suggested that a graduated support system might be established with the payments, lowered by stages, up to a total of $15,000 of gross annual production...
...In 1953, our wheat and flour exports totaled $589.5 million...
...earnings per share were $7.50 in 1954, compared with $6.77 in 1953, $1.04 in 1952, and $4.85 per share in 1951...
...These farms now contain a total of 494 million acres, or 42.6 per cent of all U.S...
...Improvement in our clothing was provided primarily by the use of synthetic fibers...
...I had a feeling of frustration and deep disappointment when I read the President's 1955 Economic Report and found not a word on this all-important subject...
...I submit that, in order to meet the cost of these programs (all of which, for the purpose of this discussion, may be accepted as necessary), a sound and healthy national economy must bo maintained...
...We are now by far the most industrialized nation in the world, and could, if necessary, provide our population with practically all the manufactured goods it needs or wants...
...operating costs were reduced some $4 million for the first nine months of 1954, compared with the same period in 1953...
...After reading it, you may well agree that the Congressional furor over "rigid" and "flexible" supports misses the heart of the support question, namely: What are we supporting, the family farm, backbone of America, or the corporation farm and processing industries...
...Less well known is the successful use of stilbestrol and urea in the feeding of cattle and sheep...
...Reuther was not at a loss: "How," he asked, "are you going to get them to buy cars...
...I would allow the individual farmer full parity on his production up to $7,000 of gross annual product and stop all payments at that point...
...The five largest corn loans in Iowa averaged $98,000 against an overall average of $2,154...
...Here we have an opportunity to improve the economic status (purchasing power) of some 20-odd million of our farm population and, to a lesser degree, help the entire population through a reduction in the cost of living which must inevitably follow the restoration of a free market on agricultural products...
...Since colonial days, the American farmer and the family-sized farm have been the very backbone both of our free-enterprise system and of our political democracy...
...but I am unable to find where it has increased employment in any of the so-called basic industries...
...The postwar predicament is now over and done with, and we must now recognize that commercial exports cannot take care of these surpluses...
...That was, roughly, $7,000 per farm, the figure which I have arbitrarily used as a limit of income on which production payments would be made...
...This special section treats the present controversy over farm price-supports from the viewpoint of the family-sized farmer and the ordinary urban consumer...
...This foundation, of which Senator Estes Kefauver (D.-Tenn...
...The present regulations appear to be getting reasonably satisfactory results on these products...
...is an honorary trustee, believes that "control of the so-called business cycle presents democratic society with the major politico-economic problem of our time...
...We promote over-production through Government subsidies, and our Government agencies try to sell our surpluses abroad at prices far below those on our home markets...
...The so-called "farm bloc" has often represented an inadequate compromise of the varying farm interests, with the majority of small farmers (like the majority of consumers) left out in the cold...
...There is a widespread belief that the best way to get rid of our agricultural surplus is to give it away to needy countries, thus mixing charity with good international politics...
...Parallel with the growth of our economy has been the increase of our political influence upon the free world, now challenged by the Communist bloc...
...Lest there be any question about agriculture's importance, the following figures compare the gross annual output (in millions) of our five leading industries (construction figure for 1954, the rest for 1953) : Agriculture $35,430 Construction (plant and residential) 26,100 Oil (est...
...A stamp plan is, at best, only a palliative...
...We will be fortunate if, in the years to come, we can sell as much wheat as we sell now, without endangering export markets for our industrial products...
...this was 2.75 per cent of the value of all of our exports, less than 0.2 per cent of our national income...
...To be reasonably effective, a stamp plan would involve a gigantic problem of administration—a bureaucracy previously unknown to us in peacetime...
...Abroad, we preach the blessings of free enterprise and induce our friends to facilitate international trade...
...By the end of 1954, the per-capita farm income of $652 was about a third of non-farm income...
...are making tremendous inroads in the use of cotton, wool and other natural fibers...
...I know no better place to start attacking the problem of automation than on the farm...
...It has been argued that my figure of $7,000 is too low...
...The orderly distribution of this farm surplus has become a problem which has baffled the most ingenious and analytical minds...
...When agriculture falters, there is no other sector of the economy capable of taking up the slack...
...Production payments would consist of the difference between the parity price and the price the farmer received in the free market...
...Right now, we have a Government land expert in Indo-China engaged in a similar program...
...In twentieth-century America, it has become a different problem: First, in the 1920s and 1930s, we faced farm poverty amid an abundance of food and fiber...
...Over the last ten years, an average of 77,000 families has made the exodus from farm to city each year...
...and Representative Wright Pat-man (D.-Texas...
...During this period, we would gain the necessary experience upon which to predicate a permanent program...
...It is safe to estimate that our urban labor force is being annually augmented from this source by another 30,000 or 40,000 workers...
...Farm recessions, as we have learned by bitter experience over the last three decades, quickly infect other sections of our economy...
...And I contend that there is much more happiness on the farm than there is in the city slums to which many of our displaced farmers must migrate...
...He would be entitled to a subsidy payment of 10 cents a pound, the difference between parity and market, or a net total payment of $500...
...World politics was made by the then existent six "big powers" without much consideration of our country's isolationist policy...
...Similar production payments would be made on any and all products which Congress might see fit to include under the price-support system...
...Yet even the continuation of a politically unsound and obviously inflationary give-away policy could reduce our annual surplus only to a very slight extent...
...While millions around the world (both free and slave) have starved, we have been wrestling, like the sorcerer's apprentice, with an ever-mounting glut of wheat, corn and other farm products...
...Factory employment in January 1955 was a cool million and a half below that of January 1953...
...The less we are open to such barter, the more they must trade with other countries that open their gates to European exports...
...Shinner's proposals, should be no stranger to readers of THE NEW LEADER...
...Labor groups increasingly pressured by the annual addition of 140,000 to 150,000 displaced rural workers must also face some startling facts about industrial automation...
...which we published last December 20, aroused wide interest throughout the nation...
...At the same time, per-capita wheat consumption shows a steady decline in Western Europe, while the intake of calories (with the exception of Italy, whose per-capita wheat consumption is second largest in the world) is practically the same as that in the United States...
...As a result, we are possessed of a glut of farm products...
...We strongly object to import restrictions, as well as to unsound promotion of exports by subsidies and by dumping...
...farm lands...
...We must now realize that the free world's postwar predicament, and the aid we provided to overcome it...
...In 1953 (the last year for which figures are available), we exported only 265 million bushels, or 195 million bushels less, largely because we reduced our foreign aid...
...Automation is here to stay, and a process of intensive study should be directed toward meeting this challenge—without delay...
...since World War II, we have been trying to deal with inflated food prices and an ever-mounting surplus of farm produce, maintained in recent years through public taxation...
...Furthermore, I would limit the amount of production payments which any individual farmer could receive to a maximum of $2,000 annually...
...Since Canada buys $800 million worth more from us than we buy from her, such inroads would automatically lead to a reduction of our exports...
...Obviously, Europe will cover her food (as well as cotton) needs in countries which provide a market for her manufactured goods—that is, in Asia, Latin America, etc...
...Yankee ingenuity in making two blades of grass grow where but one grew before has hoist us on our own petard...
...that $10,000, $12,000 or even $15,000 would be more realistic...
...in fact, she might reduce them...
...The life of natural yarns so treated can be increased, in some instances, as much as ten times...
...Such formidable giants as rayon, dacron, nylon, etc...
...MY APPROACH to the present farm problem would be to abandon completely our present system of purchasing and/or providing non-recourse loans on farm products...
...Nor can we substantially increase commercial export of our dairy products without hurting allies...
...Farmer B, a plantation owner, raises 1,000 bales of cotton (500,000 pounds), sells it for 25 cents a pound, for a total of $125,000...
...The general approach of these articles is expected to be embodied in legislation to be introduced by two veteran spokesmen for the small farmer, Senator John Sparkman (D.-Ala...
...Also increasing is the national consciousness of the waistline...
...it would also have a healthy influence on our economic and political relations with our allies...
...Per-capita income is perhaps the best means of measuring economic health...
...Notwithstanding this sharp decline, our concern is more for the farmers' future than for their immediate present...
...But what are we doing...
...Our wheat production rose from 874 million bushels in 1937 to 1,299 million bushels in 1952 and 1,167 million bushels in 1953 —increases of 48.7 and 33.7 per cent...
...While it is true that there are still several million people in the United States who are undernourished, it is difficult to see how the farm problem can be solved in any permanent way merely by improving their diets...
...If conditions in the industry were stabilized and would not in the foreseeable future grow worse than they are today, there would be comparatively little cause for alarm...
...If certain wealthy individuals and/or corporations wish to engage in farming as a business, let them do so by all means...
...it might run as low as $750 million a year...
...He would be freed of the burden of providing storage, conforming to acreage allotments and all of the many regulations to which he is now subjected...
...But this program would take the Government completely out of the picture insofar as buying, selling and storing farm products are concerned, and would accordingly permit it to start an orderly process of liquidating the $8-billion hoard of products now on hand...
...to her, dairy and pork exports are literally of vital importance...
...his special section, "More Inflation or More Leisure...
...THE PRESENT farm price-support program is both inequitable and ineffective...
...In other words, in a fifteen or sixteen year period, population grew by 22.7 per cent while the wheat crop rose by more than 41 per cent...
...The Bureau of Internal Revenue could easily amend its tax forms to show what products a farmer had produced and sold, for how much, and the amount of payments due from the Government, settlement to be made annually at the earliest date feasible after filing of the income-tax return...
...The shrinkage of farm population means a comparable shrinkage of the small-town population—professional men, merchants and a great variety of service tradesmen...
...Our policy of subsidizing over-production is a major source of inflation...
...its researches are devoted to the solution of this problem...
...All of this should cause labor leaders to take heed, especially in view of the fact that urban production and employment are constantly yielding to technological improvements...
...All the facts of the urban labor situation point to the conclusion that we should seek to improve and conserve rural life by every means possible...
...To meet this challenge, we need the cooperation of the other countries of the free world—most of all, of Western Europe...
...In other words, they must barter the products of their industrial labor for food and raw materials...
...In addition, the use of silicon in the treatment of fabrics is producing fantastic results...
...Administration of such a law should be relatively simple...
...There is another angle to all this...
...But giving away unwanted surpluses regularly will misfire politically...
...The latest census figures indicate these startling facts: • 1.9 per cent of the nation's farmers received more than 25 per cent of the total price-support benefits...
...This means that the total human wheat consumption in 1952 was the same as in 1937—namely, 426 million bushels...
...See the accompanying article by Oscar Schnabel...
...Price-support loans, for example, to the five largest cotton-growers in California averaged $649,335 in 1953...
...This program would stop subsidized over-production by big farms and, at the same time, protect the purchasing power of the bulk of our rural population...
...Assuming that there is no further decrease in our per-capita consumption of wheat, our present productive capacity is adequate to meet the needs of a population of 220 million (currently projected for 1975) after allowing ample reserves as insurance against wars, droughts, floods or other emergencies...
...The pursuit of dollars—efficiency, if you please—is not mentioned in the Declaration or the Constitution...
...it was about 44 per cent just after World War II...
...There are other complicating factors in the present dilemma of our farm economy...
...Our people don't want charity...
...Furthermore, it would become a badge of pauperism, publicly displayed throughout the retail markets of the nation...
...And our economic history is replete with indisputable evidence that the basis of our prosperity depends at all times on the degree of mass purchasing power which we are able to maintain...
...In the history of the American Republic, politics and economics have always been inextricably involved in the farm question...
...9 per cent received in excess of 50 per cent of the benefits...
...While it is true that even this inequitable distribution of public support has made some contribution to the farm economy, it is inconceivable that it be continued as permanent Government policy...
...Holland, for instance, exports dairy products in order to pay for her wheat imports...
...The trend toward gigantism and the factory-in-the-field type of farm is astonishingly rapid...
...the persistent recommendation by expert dieticians of the desirability of reducing the intake of sweets, fats and starches establishes an effective roadblock in the way of greatly increased food consumption...
...He would replace this with direct subsidy payments to individual farmers...
...But, in evaluating its cost, let us bear in mind the health of our agricultural economy and its proper priority in relation to other major governmental expenditures...
...Thus, the projected increase over twenty years of our domestic human consumption of wheat will be less than the decrease of our wheat exports in two years...
...they want the opportunity to earn the money with which to buy food, and at prices which they can afford...
...Such a farm program would simply do for the small farmer what is being done for the worker by labor unions and by the minimum-wage law...
...Benjamin Fair-less of U.S...
...One should also mention the increasing use in the human diet of oleomargarine, saccharin, sucaryl, various extracts, etc...
...THE FARMER AND AMERICA'S ALLIES By Oscar Schnabel DEEPLY CONCERNED about our highly involved agricultural problem, E. G. Shinner proposes that we abandon our present system of Government purchasing and/or non-recourse loans on farm products...
...They will say that factory-in-the-field farms, whether operated by individuals or corporations, are most efficient...
...The lesson is clear: Factory production is rising, while employment is steadily on the decline...
...WHAT ARE the overall benefits to be derived from a program such as I have outlined...
...In producing this surplus, ease of production has been coupled with the inducements offered by the Federal Government in the way of a guaranteed market for unlimited quantities of agricultural products...
...We could no longer be charged with dumping by the various nations of the Western world whose good will we so earnestly need and seek...
...The development of synthetic fibers and foods (for both human and animal consumption) can no longer be ignored...
...Before World War I, we were a debtor nation, which imported manufactured goods and exported farm products...
...And we continue to accumulate these surpluses at a fantastic rate, holding them like a Sword of Damocles over the economies of our allies...
...Since 1935, the number of farms of 1,000-or-more acres has increased 37 per cent...
...this type of chemical competition with natural farm products will undoubtedly increase as time passes...
...Certain economists have suggested a food-stamp plan as a means of disposing of our unmanageable surpluses...
...It falls far short of its major purpose—stabilization of the farm economy...
...The use of revolutionary power machinery, the development of hybrid plants with high resistance to weather and disease, the elimination of pests, and the scientific use of fertilizer have all greatly contributed to raising our per-acre yield to unprecedented heights...
...refined product) 23.000 Automobiles 13,984 Steel 12,433 Not only must we protect and stabilize our leading industry...
...91 per cent of our farmers received less than half of the price-support payments...
...If each family represents approximately 1.5 workers (the actual figure is a bit higher), we are augmenting our city labor force by roughly 115,000 workers every year...
...We must begin to consider the revolutionary change since 1914 in both our economic and political relationships abroad...
...The first is obvious: lower food prices...
...In 1951, we exported more than 460 million bushels of wheat and flour...
...These would amount to an automatic wage increase for the entire economy...
...If we want to keep these people on our side, we must consider the impact of our economic policy on their economies...
...By so doing, they can easily reduce their working force by literally several hundred thousand persons annually...
...But our cotton production rose during this period by more than 39 per cent...
...the overall average was $1,731...
...we must cooperate with our friends to reduce the gap between our price level and theirs in order to make increased trade possible...
...While it is impossible to state with any positive degree of accuracy exactly what the program might cost, the most intelligent estimate that I have been able to obtain would place the maximum annual cost under $3 billion...
...It would be presumptuous to suggest that the factor of trial and error ran henceforth be completely eliminated...
...His four decades of activity in international trade and finance included organizing the Austrian Grain War Office in World War I. TOWARD PERMANENT FARM PROSPERITY By E. G. Shinner AMERICA'S Number One industry—agriculture—has come upon troubled days...
...Shinner's suggested program would be a major step in the direction of a liberal foreign economic policy...
...Apropos of this argument, there is a story that Harlow Curtice, President of General Motors, was displaying the newest automatic machines to CIO President Walter Reuther and asked: "Walter, how are you going to collect union dues from these guys...
...Our cotton consumption in 1953-54 was 22.5 per cent higher than in 1939...
...Third, we would once more be in a position to compete in the markets of the world for our just share of foreign trade without fear of ridicule or criticism...
...But even these figures do not tell the whole story...
...The parity price is, say, 35 cents a pound...
...For all practical purposes, we have eliminated the free market in our largest industry, agriculture...
...The more we permit our price level to rise, the more we increase the difficulty of liberalizing our foreign trade policy...
...Just a casual glance at the distribution of the money spent for farm support readily reveals the inequity and futility of the present program...
...It is now proposed that the Federal Government contribute some $2.5 billion a year to assist in improving our educational facilities, and, in addition, sponsor a highway program to cost $101 billion over the next ten years...
...If, in sharp competition with Canada, we captured a quarter of her wheat and flour export, we would decrease her income by approximately $170 million, or nearly 1 per cent of her national income...
...agricultural production has risen in free Europe (including the United Kingdom) far faster than population has grown...
...To avoid misunderstanding, we should note that the needs for seed and feed are not included in this discussion...
...Cotton exports, which in 1950 amounted to 5.7 million bales, fell to 2.8 million bales in 1953, again chiefly because of the reduction in our foreign aid...
...I regard food stamps as un-American in concept, basically a form of charity rather than a fair reward for labor...
...For the same three years, farm income was $851, $709 and $688, respectively...
...It would serve as a floor —an assurance that if the farmer makes the effort, he can get a reasonable return for his labor...
...Second, the farmer would be free to operate his farm in accordance with his own judgment...
...Acceptance of Mr...
...Dumping our agricultural surpluses on Asian markets, therefore, would bring about a major disturbance of the free world's economy without greatly increasing our exports...
...The question of the cost of such a program is, of course, proper...
...Canada's wheat and flour exports amounted to $670.1 million—16 per cent of her exports and 3.5 per cent of her national income...
...The farmer would be entitled to the difference between the market price and the parity price on the first $7,000 of gross production, with a maximum subsidy of $2,000...
...Government figures show that in January 1955 the factories of the nation were employing 400,000 less people than they employed in January 1954, notwithstanding an overall increase in production of some 8 per cent...
...Public acceptance of new synthetic fabrics is a fait accompli...
...The magnificent growth of our urban industries has been accompanied by an equally steady increase in our agricultural production, the latter far exceeding the need of our growing population even after adequate allowance has been made for our steadily rising standard of living...
...Because of the population increase in that period, this means that per-capita cotton consumption did not change at all...
...The five largest wheat loans in Montana and Oregon that year averaged $176,-000 each, against an overall average loan of $4,000 in Montana and $6,293 in Oregon...
...In this case, the difference between market and parity would exactly equal the $2,000 maximum...
...We are currently spending some $40 billion annually on national defense...
...The farm situation today is not healthy...
...Europe is at the same time the seat of the Communist powerhouse and the home of twice as many free and culturally advanced people as we have in our own country...
...We need no further details to show that, on a commercial basis, there is no foreign outlet for our wheat surplus...
...But they should depend on the open market rather than on the Government for the sale of their product...
...ONE OF the most serious aspects of the farm problem is the constant drift of the farm population into the industrial labor market...
...When we moved armies of occupation into Italy, Germany and Japan, among our first acts was to break up the great feudal estates...
...Because the present support program is also economically unsound, a new approach to the farm problem seems very much in order...
Vol. 38 • April 1955 • No. 15
