| Show WAR FOR FARM VOTE there will be a desperate battle for foi the farm vote in the glamorous presentation en of the 0 0 P bid for support I 1 fear that many farmers will lose sight of the facts and one of the main facts Is that the much vaunted foreign market for american farm produce Is still in the glimmering distance it was ruined devastated knocked flat as a pancake by the smoot hawley tariff the democrats I 1 take 14 it will again proffer strong federal control of agricultural products with benefit checks for complying farm owners an artificial and temporary measure but it seems to be the only present plan which guarantees anything to rural america that Is all there Is to it by every test agriculture has come back bach and Is still coming back gross grosa farm income has increased from that low point in 1932 when farming was as flat as the prairies to more than eight billion dollars it has stepped up more than five billions in four years the farm real estate market improves all the time this adain admin administrations eistrat ions friendly policies with respect to farm finance have helped a lot the increase in farm commodity prices has stepped along with a reduction of interest rates on farm mortgage loans not only has the farm price of corn tripled since hut but interest rates on federal land bank loans are at an all time low point it is impossible in a brief space to review the whole work of the farm credit administration it would take us into contact with mortgaged farm homes and three years ago half of them were in danger of f foreclosure ore closure that was a desperate situation farmers were losing their homes their farms their morale but in the main the auntry country was saved from the debacle of millions of farm families working like peasants on land they no longer owned in money and in figures the story Is told by the fact that the farm credit administration received applications from halt half the mortgaged farms in the country and as a result loaned two million dollars to farmers |
