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The original documents are located in Box D13, folder "Ottawa County Farm Bureau,
August 19, 1949" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
speekly Representative Gerald R. Ford Jr
Ottawa County 8/19/49 form Bareau
Mr. Chairman, guests, members of the Ottawa County
Farm Bureau and your families. It is a distinct privilege
and pleasure for me to be here with you on this occasion and
I sincerely look forward to similar opportunities in the years
to come.
Periodically many city dwellers in good faith
question the need and necessity for basic farm product price
support legislation. If I may interject a humourous note,
which nevertheless answers in part this criticism, I would
like to quote an old saying from an Arkansas farmer which
reads as follows:
"The Arkansas farmer gets up in the morning at
the Alarm of a Connecticut clock; buttons his Chicago
suspenders to Detroit overalls; washes his face with
Cincinnati soap in a Pennsylvania pan; sits down to a
Grand Rapids table, eats his Chicago meat, and Tennessee
flour, cooked with Kansas lard on a St. Louis stove.
He puts a New York bridle on a Kansas mule, fed with
Iowa corn. He ploughs a farm covered by an Ohio mort-
gage with a Chattanooga plough. He says a prayer written
in Jerusalem and crawls under a blanket made in New
Hampshire, only to be kept awake by an Arkansas dog--
the only home product on his whole darn place."
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
Digitized from Box D13 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
- 2 -
As I make my few comments this afternoon I am not
unmindful of the fact that all of you are true agricultural
experts. The records show that Ottawa County is a diversified
agricultural area. Furthermore, although it is small in size,
Ottawa County ranks tenth as an agricultural county out of
Michigan's 84 counties. Few areas in the State of Michigan can
show a healthier livestock industry, a sounder crop program,
a more sizeable poultry industry or a better fruit section.
Each and every one of you are to be commended for making this
achievement possible.
In another important field Ottawa County has been
and will undoubtedly continue to be a leader, and I refer to
soil conservation generally and specifically to the West Ottawa
County Soil Conservation District. Those who have worked so
diligently to make this mutually beneficial project successful
are to be congratulated for their efforts.
Since the disastrous days back in the late 1920's
and the early 1930's the Congress of the United States has
been faced with a tremendous problem which not only affects
the lives and livelihood of the farmers of this nation but
also the countless millions who depend for sustenance on
production from our farms. Because of the global influence
of the United States at this time it is no exaggeration to
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
- 3 -
state that the American farm problem in the broadest sense is
truly an international issue.
The 64 dollar question might well be phrased in this
manner. What should Congress do on the legislative level to
establish a system of practical regulations which will give
the farmer reasonable protection against excessive price
fluctuations without subjecting him to governmentally-imposed
restrictions that will deprive him of all freedom of action
and initiative. Tied in with this is the dangerous possibility
of an eventual loss of a world market for our farm products
and an excessive consumer cost either at the market or through
the United States Treasury.
What is the basic cause or reason for this perplexing
problem. I pretend to be no expert but the following facts
and figures may throw some light on the matter. In 1945 each
farm worker produced enough agricultural products to support
himself and 13 others. In 1920 each farm worker produced only
enough for himself and nine others; in 1910 he produced enough
for himself and seven others. Through mechanization, fertiliza-
tion and improved methods each farm worker now produces suffi-
cient agricultural products for twice as many non-farm people
as 50 years ago.
Furthermore, without any increase in the acreage
of crop land farmed since 1920, farmers have increased the
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
- 4 -
total volume of agricultural production for sale and for home
consumption by 46 per cent. During this period farm production
increased faster than our population increased. Beginning in
1939 and continuing at the present time, food production has
been great enough to meet military and lend-lease needs during
the war, relief feeding needs following the war, and at the
same time furnish our civilian population larger per capita
food supplies than in pre-war years. Per capita food consumption
in the United States in 1946-1948 averaged 17 per cent higher
than in the 1935-1939 period. This greater farmer efficiency
in the United States has resulted in added availability of
farm products despite the per capita increase in consumption
of farm products. Consequently, this great nation is faced
with a real danger of super-abundance unless constructive action
is taken by all concerned.
Recently the House of Representatives considered
new farm legislation. The debate brought out one illuminating
fact, namely, that heretofore the Congress has always attacked
and tried to solve the farm problem on a non-partisan basis.
This previous non-political approach was sound and sensible
because the solution to our agricultural quandries affect too
many of our citizens.
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
- 5 -
Since January, 1949, however, it has become perfectly
obvious that the new Democratic Administration intends to
throw farm legislation bi-partisanship in the ash can and
substitute, to the detriment of this nation and probably the
world as a whole, a plan conceived solely by those with the
most extreme partisan leanings. Such an approach, which
utterly disregards constructive contributions which may be
made by able agriculturalists in all political parties,
should be condemned by all clear-thinking citizens. No one
can convince me that you farmers want your future welfare and
way of life dictated by a plan emanating solely from a Denver
lawyer. I'll put my faith, and I think you will also, in the
collective minds of those who do not seek for themselves or
others political aggrandizement.
Because of a new grab for political power the
American people and particularly farmers are now confronted
with the so-called Brannan Plan. Where did it come from?
What will it do to the farmer? Will it ruin or save the
nation economically? These are legitimate questions and they
must be answered to your complete satisfaction before the
present farm program is pushed over the precipice to oblivion.
Few will contend that the present farm program is perfect in
FORD i LIBEARY GERALD
- 6 -
every detail, but does that mean we should entirely junk both
it and the long-range farm law which had bi-partisan support
in 1948? It seems a bit paradoxical to now have the President,
the former Secretary of Agriculture Anderson, presently U. S.
Senator from New Mexico, and the Democratic party platform
in the year 1948 all demanding flexible price supports and
now, in 1949, finding most of the same individuals and organi-
zations turning a deaf ear to such a policy. Could it be that
political considerations, rather than a desire for a sound
American agricultural economy, affected this change of heart,
this confusing flip-flop?
Some people contend, and it hasn't been disproven,
that the Brannan Plan was written several years ago by some
of the then experts in the Department of Agriculture, namely,
Henry Wallace, Rexford Tugwell, and Alger Hiss. Regardless of
the truth or falsity of these accusations, it is irrefutable
that the Brannan Plan did not originate with the farmers them-
selves or with any of the great farm organizations, such as
the Farm Bureau or the Grange. In reality it is a plan conceived,
submitted and sponsored by certain federal employes in con-
junction with politically powerful non-farm groups whose
fundamental philosophy of government is diametrically opposed
to the typical American means and methods.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
- 7 -
This same kind of a scheme of complete regimentation
has been tried before in Germany, in Argentina and in Great
Britain. It has been found wanting even in those countries,
so I am positive it is not the answer to your problems. To be
specific, you might be interested in knowing how Germany
handled the egg program. For example, every person who sold
eggs was required to get a receipt in triplicate. One was to
be sent to the Department of Agriculture, one was to be safely
kept by the chicken raiser, the other was to be filed with
the purchaser. Does that sound like a practical or workable
plan for the poultry business in this county? I frankly fear
that you who raise chickens and market the eggs and everyone
else connected with the scheme, would get so fouled up in red
tape that the snafu of O.P.A. days would look like paradise
in comparison.
Let's consider for a moment the farmer's fate under
this proposal. His great worries in the past have always been
the vagaries of the weather, but he will find those worries
utter bliss compared with the anxieties that will beset him
when he becomes dependent upon the whims and fancies of the
Congressional committees on appropriations for his livelihood.
The Brannan Scheme means government-administered
farm prices and farm income, with absolute control of all land
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
- 8 -
and production. We have heard much in the past year about a
slave-labor law. Make no mistake. If the Brannan Plan ever
becomes law, we will have a slave farmer law. The Secretary
of Agriculture will become a complete czar with totalitarian-
like control of every acre of every farm in the nation. Oh,
yes, proponents of this "bargain day" scheme claim that the
farmers will have the chance to vote on accepting marketing
quotas and that acreage allotments will be used only as a
last resort. That is so much nonsense and prattle. If the
farmer does not vote for control, he does not get any price
support. Thus he has the privilege of voting whether he shall
eat or starve. This is like the "free elections" held under
Adolph Hitler and those now being held behind the Iron Curtain.
The over-all cost of this "propolition," to use the
term of the Kingfish in the Amos 'n Andy show, is still very
much a dark secret, but we can use Secretary Brannan's own
illustration in the case of milk as an example. The Secretary
said he wanted the average price to consumers down to 15 cents
a quart. The average price throughout the United States today
is around 21 cents per quart. The Secretary claims that for
each one-cent-per-quart reduction in the price of milk the
federal government would pay out $150,000,000. Now, for a
reduction of six cents per quart, which he would like to make,
FORD & LIBRARY GERALD
- 9 -
the federal government would have to pay out nine hundred
million dollars per year. Furthermore, this would take care
of only about one-third of the milk produced that is sold as
fluid milk. If the other two-thirds, which goes into the
production of butter, cheese, ice cream, etc., received the
same bounty, the total cost to the federal treasury on this
one product alone would be two and a half billion annually.
A sizeable amount even in these days.
As you know, the House of Representatives recently
turned this program of the Democratic Administration down by
an overwhelming vote and we approved a continuation of the
present law. It is indeed unfortunate that the Administration
made this a partisan issue at such a critical time for the
farmers of this nation. As a result, much valuable time has
been lost-time which could have been well spent working on
corrective legislation so that the "bugs" in the present law
would be no more. If unfortunate results do accrue in the
next several years, the blame should fall on the Donkey and
his followers who during the past eight months have been
trying to foist a strictly political farm law on the American
people instead of working in cooperation with those who have
the farmers' future foremost in mind. I can assure you that we
who are presently in the minority in Congress will continue to
strive for sound and sensible farm legislation without resorting
to political chicanery.
Speek by Rep. Herald R. Ford
annual Ottana County Farm Beerean Prinic
august 19,1949
Mr. Chairman, guests, members of the Ottawa County
Farm Bureau and your families. It is a distinct privilege
and pleasure for me to be here with you on this occasion and
I sincerely look forward to similar opportunities in the years
to come.
Periodically many city dwellers in good faith
question the need and necessity for basic farm product price
support legislation. If I may interject a humourous note,
which nevertheless answers in part this criticism, I would
like to quote an old saying from an Arkansas farmer which
reads as follows:
"The Arkansas farmer gets up in the morning at
the Alarm of a Connecticut clock; buttons his Chicago
suspenders to Detroit overalls; washes his face with
Cinsinnati soap in a Pennsylvania pan; sits down to a
Grand Rapids table, eats his Chicago neat, and Tennessee
flour, cooked with Kansas lard on a St. Louis stove.
He puts a New York bridle on e Kansas mule, fed with
Iowa corn. He ploughs a farm covered by on Ohio mort-
gage with a Chattanooga plough. He says a prayer written
in Jerusalem and crawls under a blanket made in New
Hampshire, only to be kept awake by an Arkansas dog--
the only home product on his whole darn place."
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
- 2 -
As I make my few comments this afternoon I am not
unmindful of the fact that all of you are true agricultural
experts. The records show that Ottawa County is a diversified
agricultural area. Furthermore, although it is small in size,
Ottawa County ranks tenth as an agricultural county out of
Michigan's 84 counties. Few areas in the State of Michigan can
show a healthier livestock industry, a sounder crop program,
a more sizeable poultry industry or a better fruit section.
Each and every one of you are to be commended for making this
achievement possible.
In another important field Ottaws County has been
and will undoubtedly continue to be a leader, and I refer to
soil conservation generally and specifically to the West Ottawa
County Soil Conservation District. Those who have worked so
diligently to make this mutually beneficial project successful
are to be congratulated for their efforts.
Since the disastrous days back in the late 1920's
and the early 1930's the Congress of the United States has
been faced with a tremendous problem which not only affects
the lives and livelihood of the farmers of this nation but
also the countless millions who depend for sustenance on
production from our farms. Because of the global influence
of the United States at this time it is no exaggeration to
FORD s LIBRARY GERALD
- 3 -
state that the American farm problem in the broadest sense is
truly an international issue.
The 64 dollar question might well be phrased in this
menner. What should Congress do on the legislative level to
establish a system of practical regulations which will give
the farmer reasonable protection against excessive price
fluctuations without subjecting him to governmentally-imposed
restrictions that will deprive him of all freedom of action
and initiative. Tied in with this is the dangerous possibility
of an eventual loss of a world market for our farm products
and an excessive consumer eost either at the market or through
the United States Treasury.
What is the basic cause or reason for this perplexing
problem. I pretend to be no expert but the following facts
and figures may throw some light on the matter. In 1945 each
farm worker produced enough agricultural products to support
himself and 13 others. In 1920 each farm worker produced only
enough for himself and nine others; in 1910 he produced enough
for himself and seven others. Through mechanization, fertiliza-
tion and improved methods each farm worker now produces suffi-
cient agricultural products for twice as many nen-farm people
as 50 years ago.
Furthermore, without any increase in the acreage
of crop land farmed since 1920, farmers have increased the
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
- 4 -
total volume of agricultural production for sale and for home
consumption by 46 per cent. During this period farm production
increased faster than our population increased. Beginning in
1939 and continuing at the present time, food production has
been great enough to meet military and lend-lease needs during
the war, relief feeding needs following the war, and at the
same time furnish our civilian pepulation larger per capita
food supplies than in pre-war years. Per capita food consumption
in the United States in 1946-1948 averaged 17 per cent higher
than in the 1935-1939 period. This greater farmer efficiency
in the United States has resulted in added availability of
farm products despite the per capita increase in consumption
of farm products. Consequently, this great nation is faced
with a real danger of super-abundance unless constructive action
is taken by all concerned.
Recently the House of Representatives considered
new farm legislation. The debate brought out one illuminating
fact, namely, that heretofore the Congress has always attacked
and tried to solve the farm problem on a non-partisan basis.
This previous non-political approach was sound and sensible
because the solution to our agricultural quandries affect too
many of our sitisens.
FORD i LIBRARY
- 5 -
Since January, 1949, however, it has become perfectly
obvious that the new Democratic Administration intends to
throw form legislation bi-partisenship in the ash can and
substitute, to the detriment of this nation and probably the
world as a whole, a plan conceived solely by those with the
most extreme partisan leanings. Such an approach, which
utterly disregards constructive contributions which may be
made by able agriculturalists in all political parties,
should be condemned by all clear-thinging citisens. No one
can convince me that you fermers want your future welfare and
way of life dictated by a plan emanating solely from a Denver
lawyer. I'll put my faith, and I think you will also, in the
collective minds of those who do not seek for themselves or
others political aggrandizement.
Because of 2 new grab for political power the
American people and particularly farmers are now confronted
with the so-called Brannan Plan. Where did it come from?
What will it do th the farmer? will it ruin or save the
nation economically? These are legitimate questions and they
must be answered to your complete satisfaction before the
present farm program is pushed over the precipice to oblivion.
Few will contend that the present farm program is perfect in
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
- 6 -
every detail, but does that mean we should entirely junk both
it and the long-range farm law which had bi-partisan support
in 1948? It seems a bit paradoxical to now have the President,
the former Secretary of Agriculture Anderson, presently U. S.
Senator from New Mexico, and the Democratic party platform
in the year 1948 all demanding flexible price supports and
now, in 1949, finding most of the same individuals and organi-
zations turning a deaf ear to such a policy. Could it be that
political considerations, rather than B desire for a sound
American agricultural economy, affected this change of heart,
this confusing flip-flop?
Some people contend, and it hasn't been disproven,
that the Brannan Plan was written several years ago by some
of the then experts in the Department of Agriculture, namely,
Henry Wallace, Rexford Tugwell, and Alger Hiss. Regardless of
the truth or falsity of these accusations, it is irrefutable
that the Brannan Plan did not originate with the farmers them-
selves or with any of the great farm organizations, such as
the Farm Bureau or the Grange. In reality it is a plan conceived,
submitted and sponsored by certain federal employes in con-
junction with politically powerful non-farm groups whose
fundamental philosophy of government is diametrically opposed
to the typical American means and methods.
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
- 7 -
This same kind of a scheme of complete regimentation
has been tried before in Germany, in Argentina and in Great
Britain. It has been found wanting even in those countries,
so I am positive it is not the answer to your problems. To be
specific, you might be interested in knowing how Germany
handled the egg program. For example, every person who sold
eggs was required to get a receipt in triplicate. One was to
be sent to the Department of Agriculture, one was to be safely
kept by the chicken raiser, the other was to be filed with
the purchaser. Does that sound like a practical or workable
plan for the poultry business in this county? I frankly fear
that you who raise chickens and market the eggs and everyone
else connected with the scheme, would get so fouled up in red
tape that the snafu of C.P.A. days would look like paradise
in comparison.
Let's consider for a moment the farmer's fate under
this proposal. His great worries in the past have always been
the vagaries of the weather, but he will find those worries
utter bliss compared with the anxieties that will beset him
when he becomes dependent upon the whims and fancies of the
Congressional committees on appropriations for his livelihood.
The Brannan scheme means government-administered
farm prices and farm income, with absolute control of all land
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD
- 8 -
and production. We have heard much in the past year about a
slave-labor law. Make no mistake. If the Brannan Plan ever
becomes law, we will have a slave farmer law. The Secretary
of Agriculture will become a complete czar with totalitarian-
like control of every acre of every farm in the nation. Oh,
yes, proponents of this "bargain day" scheme claim that the
farmers will have the chance to vote on accepting marketing
quotas and that acreage allotments will be used only as a
last resort. That is so much nonsense and prattle. If the
farmer does not vote for control, he does not gat any price
support. Thus he has the privilege of voting whether he shall
eat or starve. This is like the "free elections" held under
Adolph Hitler and those now being held behind the Iron Curtain.
The over-all cost of this "propolition," to use the
term of the Kingfish in the Amos 'n Andy show, is still very
much a dark secret, but we can use Secretary Brannan's own
illustration in the case of milk as an example. The Secretary
said he wanted the average price to consumers down to 15 cents
a quart. The average price throughout the United States today
is around 21 cents per quart. The Secretary claims that for
each one-cent-per-quart reduction in the price of milk the
federal government would pay out $150,000,000. Now, for a
reduction of six cents per quart, which he would like to make,
i
FORD
GERALD
LIBRARY
- 9 -
the federal government would have to pay out nine hundred
million dollars per year. Furthermore, this would take care
of only about one-third of the milk produced that is sold as
fluid milk. If the other two-thirds, which goes into the
production of butter, cheese, ice cream, etc., received the
same bounty, the total cost to the federal treasury on this
one product alone would be two and a half billion annually.
A sizeable amount even in these days.
As you know, the House of Representatives recently
turned this program of the Democratic Administration down by
an overwhelming vote and we approved a continuation of the
present law. It is indeed unfortunate that the Administration
made this a partisan issue at such a critical time for the
farmers of this nation. As a result, much valuable time has
been lost-time which could have been well spent working on
corrective legislation so that the "bugs" in the present law
would be no more. If unfortunate results do accrue in the
next several years, the blame should fall on the Donkey and
his followers who during the past eight months have been
trying to foist a strictly political farm law on the American
people instead of working in cooperation with those who have
the farmers' future foremost in mind. I can assure you that we
who are presently in the minority in Congress will continue to
strive for sound and sensible farm legislation without resorting
to political chicanery.
FORD i LIBRARY GERALD