The fifth major policy has to do with the welfare of our farm population.
Production of food reached record heights in 1946. Much of our tremendous
grain crop can readily be sold abroad and thus will become no threat to our
domestic markets. But in the next few years American agriculture can face
the same dangers it did after World War I. In the early twenties the Nation
failed to maintain outlets for the new productive capacity of our
agricultural plant. It failed to provide means to protect the farmer while
he adjusted his acreage to peacetime demands.
The result we all remember too well. Farm production stayed up while demand
and prices fell, in contrast with industry where prices stayed up and
output declined, farm surpluses piled up, and disaster followed.
We must make sure of meeting the problems which we failed to meet after the
first World War. Present laws give considerable stability to farm prices
for 1947 and 1948, and these 2 years must be utilized to maintain and
develop markets for our great productive power.
The purpose of these laws was to permit an orderly transition from war to
peace. The Government plan of support prices was not designed to absorb, at
great cost, the unlimited surpluses of a highly productive agriculture.
We must not wait until the guarantees expire to set the stage for permanent
farm welfare.
The farmer is entitled to a fair income.
Ways can be found to utilize his new skills and better practices, to expand
his markets at home and abroad, and to carry out the objectives of a
balanced pattern of peacetime production without either undue sacrifice by
farm people or undue expense to the Government.