| Show farmers workers united unite in less than parity issue seven groups back pres president on continuing farm security administrations veteran observers see now new trend by neiff analyst I 1 and commentator service 1313 1343 it II street N W IV washington ashington D C there Is an I 1 interesting g story yet to be told behind the letter sent to the president urging him to take to the public the issues of continuation of the form farm security administration t r and the sale of 91 grains rains tor for teed feed below parity the story lies in the signatures to that letter there were sq seven en ot them and they represented two farm organizations organIzation sp three labor organizations and two religious groups the combination of names united in a single plea mar marks one one of tile the few occasions when farmer and worker found common ground on which to take a stand on policy and some persons in washington who are working for a closer farm labor alliance see in the move inova the beginnings of a realignment of the farm organizations with the formation of a now new group that has at least a loose agreement with thearl the and the CIO behind it veteran observers who have watched agriculture and labor pull in opposite directions tor many years still feel these two groups have more to disagree than to agree upon but they admit that this time the situation was ideal tor for nu logrolling backers ova of a new day in farm organizations say it Is more than that they point to significance in the signatories signa tories of the letter to the prest president the seven signatories signa tories of 0 this letter were first james G patton president of tile the national farmers union the most radical of the farn groups this group contains more tenant farmers and fewer farm owners than the other farm groups it Is a virile growing outfit second murray lincoln executive secretary of the ohio F farm arm bureau federation of ohio the farn farm bureau federation Is not EL a left wing organization its president oneal is opposed to selling grain below parity but mr lincoln head of the ohio fa farm I 1 rm bureau units has a mind of his own ho he runs buying operatives cooperatives co in the country he Is very minded the next signature is that of witham william green president of the american federation of labor and the next phillip murray head of the CIO the fifth of this group is J G luhrsen executive secretary of the american railway labor execl tives association the religious groups are headed by L G ligutti executive secretary of the national catholic rural life association and benson landis of the F federal council of churches those who dont know the whole story behind efforts to realign the farm organizations see only the surface reasons why all the organizations represented by the above names were willing to support the issues mentioned in the petition the tenant farmer who Is ambitious wants to own his own farm he sees in the farm security administration an aid to that end he considers this help a substitute for the vanished frontiers the days when a man with a strong will a willing wife and a sharp axe could cut a now new home out of the wilderness to which the government was glad to hand him the deed cheaper food this concept concerns labor less directly but the question of cheaper food concerns concer ils him considerably the argument for sale of gr grain ain below parity is that it Is necessary to keep dairy and meat products prices down and the farmers unton unon claims that opposition to farm security comes from interests solely committed to the high price through scarcity concept which of course Is the opposite of labors platform those are the obvious and immediate reasons why the signature of two of the count rys leading labor leaders rest among the seven the religious organizations have the family and general welfare in mind of course but there may be another reason why mr murray and mr air green signed up and why their onetime one time colleague john lewis the story of the part mr lewis play is closely connected with the effort to create a new farm organization which will have the blessing of labor this Is what happened jonn john lewis head of the powerful united mine workers of america americ qs as you nil know has been trying to organ iza farm labor abor lie ho has mode made some progress under the so called district 50 of his union in up hands in the dairy industry but ho he hasen has encountered countered obstacles of all kinds among fa farmers amers whoa who alq all potential employers and capital is isas arheart aC at heart it if he could only get t some really rw respectable farm birkan sa I 1 iz atlon or a man connected with some such organization to take up his hl banner it 11 w would help tic he settled on the farmers union not because of the name fa cpr it Is not nullon a union at all in the sense labor employs the word but bee because use 1 it was left ot of center and ha had an ag g gresslee gress gres lve sive president through degoti i got ti at acors ors he made an offer to mr r pat ton something like this fall do down n and worship me get your y our organization to sia stanc behind my district 50 drive and hero ere Is a million dollars to play wl with til 0 t op mr pattons Pat tons answer WEIS was no but that move mova made murray and green very patton conscious it also called the attention of other biller up and comers wh a le left of center inclination to the possibilities ties of developing an orvaill or organization gaill which without in any way way gei getting ting under the direct influence of a union labor movement such as lewis might work out a practical working agreement tor for pooling common interests whether this Is a practical idea will be revealed by the amount ot of activity the labor whips show allow when farm issues are up in the next months whether this Is just another temporary logrolling log rolling alliance which has made stranger bedfellows bed fellows before or whether it has the lo 10 basis asis of a more permanent working agreement times are changing its worth watching victory pig clubs prove successful A prominent former washing ionian who moved to kansas city with his cohorts in order to make room for war workers was waa in the capital on an business recently ho he is A D black head of the farm credit administration ile he was full of the story of the victory pig he suld said the victory pig movement which Is getting a good start in the south promises to spread into the northern states the first victory pig auction was held at jonesboro Jone ark recently and tho the farmers and farmer boys who signed up to deliver pigs were paid in war bonds and stamps the cry of the auctioneer worked prices up to 1530 15 30 per hundred pounds and that was more than top hogs were bringing on either the memphis or st louis market the idea was hatched by the secretary of the local production credit association lie ho held a contest of offering 5 for the best name for the plan and so the victory pig club was biern born the local chamber of bom commerce joined with the association and the whole countryside soo soon n was feeding pigs to trade for war bonds tills in spite of the tact fact that this agricultural county craighead Cral ghead had signed up for in bonds in the last 12 months although jonesboro Jone claims t to 0 have held the first auction quitman go ga boasts of the organization of the first victory pig club many of these auctions will be held th this I 1 a fall prior to the date when secretary says there is likely to bo be a bottleneck in hogs by BV this he means that there has been so many million more hogs raised this year than normally it is going to tax both transportation facilities and the capacity of pack ing houses the secretary is urging farmers not to try to market too many hogs between thanksgiving day and birthday which is the time of the year when the pack is ordinarily particularly heavy more accidents happen to farm people than to any other class of workers and in wartime accident rates usually rise sharply careless use of the tractor and other farm machinery causes 29 out of every farm accidents |
