259 
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
He must be a chemist, botanist, biologist, horticulturist, and understand the 
peculiar nature of everything he grows; a financier, veterinary surgeon, a poultry- 
man, doctor, lawyer, preacher, carpenter, blacksmith, and almost everything 
else, or he will not succeed. Many of the successful farmers of to-day are prac 
tically all of these. To-day he finds that supply and demand are the king and 
queen to whom every farmer must inevitably bow, as no other craftsmen at this 
day have to do. Supply and demand are two sovereigns that know no right 
or wrong, and know no God beyond their merciless, selfish ends. The laboring 
man has his union that guarantees to him a fixed price for his labor; the profes- 
sional man has his associations that establish the rates for his fees; the business 
man has his combinations in trade that fix his prices; and the contractors have 
their fixed contract prices under which they operate; but the farmer has none of 
these things to look to. He goes by chance alone. He plants his seed—the 
seed may be bad—the season may be bad—the laborers may refuse to work— 
the pests may devour his crops. He grows his crop—it may be destroyed by 
fire—stolen from him—spoiled or rotted before he can get it to market. When 
he arrives at market with it he many times finds the market glutted so that he 
has to sell it for almost nothing, or, as many do, haul it back home or dump it 
on the highway. No other craftsmen have so many and such extremely difficult 
and insurmountable obstacles to contend with. We are told that in the vear 
1922, 2,000,000 farmers forsook their farms in the United States. 
No legislation since the time of President Buchanan for the relief of the farmer 
has amounted to anything. The vast sums now appropriated for the support 
of the Agricultural Department, beyond a very small per cent used in some lines 
of research, are all practically thrown away, and accomplish no other purpose 
than simply to give employment to its many officials and employees. The mass 
of the farmers get nothing whatever out of any of it. It is not seen how the 
$300,000,000 proposed by the McNary-Haugen bill can possibly meet the situa- 
tion if passed as amended. 
It is thought that the time has come in the interest of the farmer as well as 
the consumers that a radical course should be adopted. To this end I offer 
the proposed plan, which if adopted, will undoubtedly accomplish three things. 
First, it will be a great boon to the farmer to feel that there is at least some 
thing behind him that will at least save him from bankruptey, if he chooses to 
avail himself of its provisions. Second, that the consumer may have the op- 
portunity of procuring his products at a reasonable price, without having to 
pay his corfier grocer A per cent profit for handing the goods out to him. 
A ie Lf pu og ie Fovernment nothing, after the first expense of install- 
Pn at le Syst mm, or the reason that all the expenses will be covered by the 
n the prices paid the producer and the prices received from the 
consumer, the middleman having been knocked out of the game. Under the 
Dr asen. Supply-and-demand system it is not possible to do anything by legisla- 
rat will help the farmer. Free seeds, fertilizers, labor, and transportation 
would not help him in the least: nor would cooperation 
Verv respectfully, ’ 
Epwarp H. BooTH, 
717 Twenty-first Street NW., Washington, D- C. 
JANUARY 18, 1928. 
STATEMENT OF N. J. HOLMBERG, COMMISSIONER OF AGRICUL. 
TURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA. ST. PAUL. MINNESOTA 
Mr. HoumBERG. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee 
I'am here as a representative of the Minnesota Equality Corncaissin, 
which is a commission provided for by a resolution of the 1927 Seo 
of our legislature. I think the resolution is on file with the commit ce. 
This commission stands just where it has stood in the past. ot 
believes in the principles set out in the bill that is now being cot 
sidered by the committee. We believe that the object sought in 
this legislation will create a permanent policy for American agr 
culture that will be far superior to the hit-and-miss process tha 
we have had in years past.