The world-wide depression has affected agriculture in common with all other
industries. The average price of farm produce has fallen to about 80 per
cent of the levels of 1928. This average is, however, greatly affected by
wheat and cotton, which have participated in world-wide overproduction and
have fallen to about 60 per cent of the average price of the year 1928.
Excluding these commodities, the prices of all other agricultural products
are about 84 per cent of those of 1928. The average wholesale prices of
other primary goods, such as nonferrous metals, have fallen to 76 per cent
of 1928.
The price levels of our major agricultural commodities are, in fact, higher
than those in other principal producing countries, due to the combined
result of the tariff and the operations of the Farm Board. For instance,
wheat prices at Minneapolis are about 30 per cent higher than at Winnipeg,
and at Chicago they are about 20 per cent higher than at Buenos Aires. Corn
prices at Chicago are over twice as high as at Buenos Aires. Wool prices
average more than 80 per cent higher in this country than abroad, and
butter is 30 per cent higher in New York City than in Copenhagen.
Aside from the misfortune to agriculture of the world-wide depression we
have had the most severe drought. It has affected particularly the States
bordering on the Potomac, Ohio, and Lower Mississippi Rivers, with some
areas in Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It has found its major
expression in the shortage of pasturage and a shrinkage in the corn crop
from an average of about 2,800,000,000 bushels to about 2,090,000,000
bushels.
On August 14 I called a conference of the governors of the most acutely
affected States, and as a result of its conclusions I appointed a national
committee comprising the heads of the important Federal agencies under the
chairmanship of the Secretary of Agriculture. The governors in turn have
appointed State committees representative of the farmers, bankers, business
men, and the Red Cross, and subsidiary committees have been established in
most of the acutely affected counties. Railway rates were reduced on feed
and livestock in and out of the drought areas, and over 50,000 cars of such
products have been transported under these reduced rates. The Red Cross
established a preliminary fund of $5,000,000 for distress relief purposes
and established agencies for its administration in each county. Of this
fund less than $500,000 has been called for up to this time as the need
will appear more largely during the winter. The Federal Farm Loan Board has
extended its credit facilities, and the Federal Farm Board has given
financial assistance to all affected cooperatives.
In order that the Government may meet its full obligation toward our
countrymen in distress through no fault of their own, I recommend that an
appropriation should be made to the Department of Agriculture to be loaned
for the purpose of seed and feed for animals. Its application should as
hitherto in such loans be limited to a gross amount to any one individual,
and secured upon the crop.
The Red Cross can relieve the cases of individual distress by the
sympathetic assistance of our people.