NFO-134 (AV10632): Cooperation is the Key

[music] the National Farmers Organization the organization that awoke America presents us farm report public information program brought to you in the interest of agriculture rural business and the well-being of our nation by members of the National Farmers Organization in its area and others interested in having farmers received cost of production plus the reasonable profit the national farmers organization takes pride in inventing a marketing system to meet the needs of the 20th century and a full collective bargaining for agriculture US farm report presents W.W. Swaim public information director for the National Farmers Organization and Arnold Paulson Granite Falls Minnesota businessman it's a pleasure to be here today to visit with you for a little while what's taking place in America and I have back to bay a longtime friend of mine business man from Granite Falls Minnesota that it's appeared on this program with me many times before and his name most of you probably already know is Arnold Paulson Granite Falls Minnesota heads up the industrial promotion industry up there to bring their industry into his community Arnold what have you been doing since that last show and since we last appeared on the program well butch it's been quite a while since we've made a television program together and I've been busy traveling throughout the country Butch lecturing on our fantastic economic problem and most of them past year why we've been conducting economic seminars throughout some of the eastern and southern states all directly related of course to this problem of agriculture of course my theme which has always been this that we've got a very serious problem today in agriculture but we look at it quite differently than most of the experts because we call it a major national economic problem with agriculture as its cause and we've had some very interesting seminars and Butch one thing I'd like to report to you at this time is that I think that the American people are waking up awful fast and beginning to realize how important agriculture is to our whole national economic problem but I'd like to ask you a question can you ever recall when farm prices have been in balance with the other segments of our economy where we've ever had the need for government programs like we seemed to have the need today back in the period of 43 to 52 and the farmers were getting practically a hundred percent of parity income we didn't have need for urban renewal manpower training job opportunity anti-poverty federal aid to education or any of these problems but you see how closely directed these problems are with the decline in farm income ever since farm prices started to drop off why all of a sudden these these problems just mushroom all over the country until today even the largest industrial cities in America can't even afford to clear their own slums or educate their own children and this is why which we maintain that our whole national economic problem today is directly tied to the price that the farmers are receiving for their production and of course this is the story that we've been trying to tell people all over the United States and our seminars and in our lectures and it's a real pleasure to be back with you again because it's been quite some time since we've had this opportunity what have you been doing but well of course we've been real busy down there in the research and Public Information Department as you know our organization to expand it over much more territory we're expanded now clear on over into Maine Vermont New Hampshire Massachusetts and on into Alabama and it extends all the way now Arnold from well from up in there in Maine which is the farthest most state up clear out across solid in every state I mean not every county solid a couple of three states there have a few more counties that need to expand more but after you get into western Pennsylvania or about maybe central Pennsylvania every single county is organized in all the way to Denver Colorado and extending on up into Wyoming up in Idaho from the Canadian border down into Alabama over there and where Michigan is and in all into Georgia and Florida and everyone down there is worked almost to the point that they can't hardly keep up anymore well most of these states enter all new recently right well no Vermont Maine New Hampshire Massachusetts and Alabama are new ones there yes those others before but we're expanding very rapidly in Florida and Georgia because down there they're doing a tremendous job of organizing the farmers I've often wanted to ask you butch I bought this television program these films that you make have you you've been adding quite a few news stations haven't you throughout the country well we run basically most of the time about 61 television stations different programs each Sunday that this this film will appear on and sometimes in the summertime we lose a few of these to baseball or football later on the year but basically most of these the majority of these stations are year-round now well I've noticed butch and my travels now and I've covered oh I think altogether about 32 states talking on this farm problem and I've noticed now in the last year especially that the attitude of people all over the country is changing and that the attitude towards collective bargaining for agriculture is changing and you find that more and more people now are beginning to awaken to that one statement that you said that as soon as they understand they'll all join or how was it that slogan went well I've never been any doubt in my mind but what all farmers will join and support our efforts as soon as they understand our program now all farm groups are talking collective bargaining for agriculture and even the government is advocating just recently I talked with one of the leading senators in rural America his top aide there told me that they were coming to the conclusion rapidly in Washington that collective bargaining was the only solution of the farmers problem well butch I just like to make a couple of comments on this problem and you know that I come from a small rural community of about thirty five thirty seven hundred population and were directly related to agriculture even if we do have considerable industry in our community but last week or last Saturday I believe it was I made a trip out into Wisconsin for a meeting I took my boy with me and we stopped to drive through the business section of a community about 40 miles from where I live and the thing that struck us as we drove through this Main Street is that about one third of all of the business places in that town are now vacant and not only are they vacant but the interior of the building is is actually dirty and shabby and this is a direct result of the loss of income from agriculture and this is one of the things that's happening now to businessmen all over the United States especially in towns under 15 and 20 thousand population they know something's drastically wrong and they're beginning to wake up and now I think they're ready to do something and I just like to stress this fact that last year the agricultural industry and I'm talking now about farmers not the agribusiness just the farmers involved in production we're short forty eight billion dollars of income that they should have had- had they- gross income had they received their fair share of income like the rest of our national economy and yet these rural communities and i'm talking when I mentioned rural I'm talking town towns of twenty thousand population in under they've got these economic problems and if this 52 or 48 billion dollars that come to rural America there isn't a bank in rural or any community that would be short of funds to finance their their local economy and the prosperity and the economy of all these communities will be thriving the same as I used to back into the the period of 1943-52 what as a result of this we're all in trouble Butch and we're not going to solve this problem until these communities will run a what we call a proper balance of trade balance of payments survey within their community to find out where this new wealth originates and the communities that have done this there's a rude awakening and you might say that there's even a fear because a lot of them wonder if it's already too late well I think it's explained very well in this this paper right here senator McGovern from South Dakota that I guess received in the mail today there's although the cost of production in agriculture have skyrocketed farm prices today are generally lower than they were 20 years ago the gradual liquidation of farms is inevitable in such a situation along with the lick liquidation of business rural towns schools and churches and that's coming right to the man that that has been in government a long time and I would also like to read this one but I just received this is put out by the USDA and it says if farm prices the farm income doesn't improve the nation's family farm system will disappear to be replaced by a monopolistic corporate farming operations that could conceivably control food supplies so that they could get any price that they want now who said that the Secretary of agriculture of the United States and I received this in the mail it goes out to quite a lot of people they're trying to do a few things to hit this off and I run across one right here recently to Arnold that's talked about a great deal now and that is there's so many people going out of agriculture average age of the farmers are getting so old that now they see that it's necessary to do something so the young fella can get back in so they're proposing legislation that they would loan the young farmer virtually all the money that he needed and they're proposing four percent interest and everybody knows that interest is much higher than this but they're loaning him all the money to try to get him to take over as the older fella retires and this would be a long long time loan and they're saying that maybe half of this could be paid back in 40 years and then the balance of it could be refinanced at the end of 40 years now what do you think of that Arnold well books it just points out the fact that in the future people won't ever be able to buy and own their own farmland but I'm rate we're going this isn't the way it should go that's right but if the rate we're going butch what's gonna happen is that the people will not be able to own the land at all eventually I see if we continue to go in the direction we're going the government will end up owning all of the farmland because of the fantastic cost involved through through the inflationary trends that we're going but butch here's something that's real interesting along that same line and I'd like to go back to the period of 1950 because right around 1951 is when farm prices started to slide and of course the farmers been sliding and you might say bleeding ever since but I'd like to show the parallel of our fantastic debt Wonderland that we're living in and the relationship to the underpayment of agriculture and this is a very interesting chart it's published up in Canada on our own economy and which I don't know if you can see this we'll get it in the camera but this shows the debt of the United States prior to World War one and we practically had no debt at all and then during World War one that increased considerably and then after World War one we liquidated a big share of this debt now the reason we liquidated the debt in this period here is because we went into a depression and this is when we always liquidate our debt is when we go through the wringer and that's when repossessions take place and the thing that used to be yours or your farm or my business now belongs to somebody else and then we got involved in world war two and you can see how that debt continued to increase but this is the way this debt has been increasing ever since and just look at this chart as we unfold it now this is only the federal debt this doesn't include any of the public debt the state debts or our local government debts and here's what's been happening ever since we permitted farm prices to drop below the parity level and I'm going to give just two short illustrations now but you can trace this thing out all the way from 1950 up to the present time the debt in the United States has been increasing at a rate of two to two and a half times faster than the earned income to liquidate the debt and here's an example butch in 1965 in 1965 the national income for the whole country increased 40.2 billion dollars but we added a hundred and four billion dollars to the debt which is over two times the debt in ratio to the increase and income or our ability to pay him and last year 1966 the national income increased about fifty billion nine hundred million dollars but we added a hundred and fifteen billion dollars to the debt again over twice the ability to repay it and butch here's the thing that scared the life out of me as I was analyzing the statistical abstract of the government of the United States that the actual assessed valuation of property in the United States in ratio to taxes that there's only approximately one-fourth of all of the taxable property that's on the tax roll in other words three over three-fourths of the property in the United States is not taxable because it's being owned by tax-exempt foundations and other groups and there's even giant food chains in the United States that are owned by non taxable organizations whether very exempt from paying taxes to support the economy that we're living in and all of this is directly related to the underpayment of agriculture we never had these problems at any time when farmers we're receiving they're just share of national income at the marketplace and this is why I'm so vitally concerned about this farm problem which not because of farmers or individual farmers alone but I'm keenly concerned about our private enterprise system the system that built them established the greatest standard of living that any country in the world has ever known and it's not agriculture that's on trial but it's our entire private enterprise system now if we're going to destroy private enterprise we've got to crack the foundation or the base of the private enterprise system and here's what people don't realize that today there is still more private enterprise involved in agriculture than all of the other segments of our national economy combined and so if we're going to lose our private enterprise structure the first thing we've got to do is destroy the family farm and when the incentive and the opportunity for these millions of farm people who are common people just like businessmen in my community we're common people when the incentive is gone for us so that we can no longer own our own small business in a rural community or butch you and others can no longer own your own farm then the meaning of private enterprise is completely lost and then what's the next step government takeover the same as has happened in every other country throughout the world and this is my main concern today in the program of the National Farmers Organization of what you're trying to do you're trying to preserve that family farm structure which is the key the basic foundation of our private enterprise system and Butch we don't have too much time left in my estimation no and I think that this idea of a loan that would be halfway paid off in 40 years then the other half renewed again shows how far down the road we are if our men come in so low that they could only pay half of it off in 40 years time everyone knows that something must be wrong and if we're going to correct this situation it's going to take cooperation the camera would move in over there we have a picture that illustrates this pretty well cooperation is the key and you will note there you listening audience will note that there's a big steep bank with the farmers up there and a couple of them have already made it up the hill in other words they're in position where they've cooperated together and they've made it to the top the other or half of the farmers about are struggling to hang on they're almost to go over the cliff go down and out of business and while we're talking about that we've lost one farmer every five minutes around the clock day and night seven days a week for the last seven or eight years we're losing farmers at the rate of over 2,000 every week are being forced out of business basically because underpayment to agriculture and cooperation is the key the National Farmers Organization and the note that the farmer leaning out over the bank offering a helping hand to the rest of the farmers is labeled NFO the National Farmers Organization has found the key to success at the marketplace through collective bargaining whereby the farmers can receive cost of production plus a reasonable profit and this internal will save the rural businessman the independent businessman and it's cooperation they're going to leave the camera right on there it's cooperation that they're going to have to cooperate to with each other and plan out as the banker I mean the the professor Dr. Earl Heady told him at the bankers convention in Texas last year when somebody pointed out that what he was telling us that rural America must organize he said exactly he said you farmers and bankers if you don't organize together for the good of each other you're all going to go out of business you're just as well realize it I think that's pretty strong language I know what cooperation is the key and firm publication farm temple I think in and the addition not too long back we begin to realize this and they drew on the front page of the publication NFO has the combination that will work cost of production plus a reasonable profit and the big dial there that you see of the safe the well-being of all of us in fo turning the combination that will get the job done what we need now Arnold is more cooperation out of businesspeople church people and other farmers what do you think this is right well this is true butch now here's here's another illustration that I think should be driven home is that today almost every community throughout the entire United States has got a business and Industrial Development Corporation trying to attract new industry to their community to solve their economic problems well if these communities would only stop for a moment to analyze what caused their problem in the first place they get to the to the cause of this thing instead of trying to deal with the effects and I wonder how many communities that are listening in today would like to get a 10 million dollar industry for their county that would benefit every community in that county and they wouldn't have to invest 10 cents because there's no investment required there wouldn't have any increase in their taxes in fact as a result of this they'd get a tax cut they'd get tax relief they wouldn't have to add any new public facilities or utilities it would bring in increased profits for every business in every community it would increase the wages and the labor payrolls in all of these communities and it would bring in more money for their churches they'd have better schools and a better tax base for their schools they could improve their hospitals in their community there wouldn't be any new need whatsoever for federal aid to education or any of these other government programs and this industry is available to every community in the United States that's in the agricultural areas because what I'm talking about butch is the agricultural industry and it's merely the shortage of income that this mighty industry deserves and must have if they're going to have the equity of income to keep these communities alive and growing and all we have to do is support the farmers and their efforts to obtain fair farm prices which is based on the cost of operation or in racial to the wage and interest costs and every community will directly benefit from it and this is why I say that we didn't have to have these programs when farm prices were in balance or the rest of the economy but we're going to have more and more of them now I'm not against government programs entirely but I think we're barking up the wrong tree and we're creating the need for programs through the underpayment of agriculture and if we don't get on the stick as businessmen and leaders in rural America and I'm talking to the clergy now into the educators civic leaders and so forth and even the laboring people if we don't get on the stick and begin to understand this economy that we live in and how important agriculture is to the well-being of every person here in the United States we could we could stand to lose this private enterprise system of a system of economics that we're living in and this butch is the one thought that I think we've got to drive home because how long can this economy of ours continue to operate on the basis we're going when we don't have the earned income to finance the fantastic increase in the debt and it's all because of the underpayment of agriculture and the historical records of government will prove it this is right that the debt has fantastically risen not only the government debt but everybody's dead I believe that last year over half of everything that was purchased in America was purchased on credit if I recall but he's talking about folks in a cinch every dollar of gross farm income eventually generates $7 of earned national income and as the farmers lose everyone loses all along the line we're losing Main Street businessmen we're losing churches at a very rapid rate how many was it that lost out in the state of Kansas alone one denomination one denomination alone butch last year closed 250 churches in the state of Kansas alone just one denomination now here's the thing a lot of people realize that we have this problem and of course the the $64 question is how are we going to solve it or who are we going to let's solve it I think that's even more important than the solution itself is who we're going to permit to solve it but here in the United States we've established a system of economics and business which is based on pricing production and every business segment in the United States that handles a goods or service prices their production and the same is true with your farm products butch from the time your farm commodities leave the farm in the truck the trucker prices his services the manufacturer the processor the distributor wholesaler jobber and the retailer and pricing your production is the American way of doing business everybody uses it our corporations all the way down to the smallest retailer and the only segment of our economy to today that doesn't price their production is agriculture and this is why we're in the mess we're in everybody's waiting for somebody else to solve their problem for them and this is the reason why the National Farmers Organization has captured my eye is because they intend to solve this problem by pricing their production by farmers organizing pooling their production and putting a price on it and I talked with Mr. Pfingsten just before we went on the program this evening and I asked him how long since collective bargaining has been organized in agriculture so they've been in the position to solve this thing if the farmers would cooperate and he says ever since 1958 the American farmer could have had a hundred percent of parity if they wanted it and this is true much they can have it tomorrow morning if they'll just wake up and see the light well the farmers are waking up are they I'm very happy to report that they're waking up as they never woke up before more and more farmers are beginning to be concerned enough to do something about it and basically folks there are just two requirements other than being a farmer number one you have to be sharp enough to see that your industries and problems and number two you have to be a good enough American to do something about it good enough American to stand up with your neighbors say this production is mine I have the legal right under the Capper-Volstead Act to get a price for it to set this price based on cost of production plus a reasonable profit and band together as producers and producers only to bring this about and we can start getting the price tomorrow Arnold if enough farmers would wake up and if you're out there watching and you've been waiting to see what's going to happen why wait any longer with 2,000 farmers being forced out of agriculture every week why stand back and wait are you going to wait until your industry is completely depleted before you worked with your neighbors or are you going to join with your neighbor now well we have the time the ability and the facilities to carry out the program dispose of any surplus that we over produce and get a price for all of it that will keep your son in my son in agriculture and keep private enterprise system in America thriving instead of the way it is today thank you [music] members of the National Farmers Organization invites you to tune in again next week at the same time for more facts on agriculture and Rural America which is the gear wheel in our economy that produces the majority of our nation's new wealth now recognized as the chief spokesman for agriculture National Farmers Organization represents new aggressive thinking and a new generation of farmers