President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Commentary on the National Farm Program (1940)

the motion pictures that you have just seen tell in graphic form something of what Farmers have been doing over the whole of the United States to make farm life more secure and more comfortable and more satisfying we all know that for many years Farmers have practiced cooperation perhaps more than any other group in the United States more than any other group of our American people they have known what it is to be good neighbors in the earliest Pioneer Days Farm folk used to help each other in husking bees and quilling bees and Home Building and barn raising that Spirit has not been lost even in this day of modern machinery Farmers often change work as they call it change work with each other Farm families share their toil and their play their Joys and their sorrows their aspirations and their achievements share them with their neighbors in recent years Farmers have carried this Spirit of neighborliness into broader Fields through the national Farm program the farmers have joined hands to improve their income and conserve their soil gain greater security safeg guard guard the nation's food supplies Adapt credit facilities to their own needs bring electricity into their homes and protect their markets against the effects of War things on the farm are not as good as they should be as good as they ought to be or as good as they will be the farmers have already accomplished much and as we think back back to the days of 1932 and 1933 the days of closed Banks a farm foreclosures on a wholesale scale corn so cheap that it was used for fuel as we think back to those days we realize what a change there's been only through their own efforts in cooperating with each other could farmers have brought about such a widespread Improvement and it is well known to all of us that the farmers themselves with each succeeding year vote on what is going to be done about the major crops of the country but with the whole world in turmoil even the United efforts of the farmers themselves would not have been sufficient without the cooperation of the government of the United States since 1933 the rural Al part of the United States has ceased to be the Forgotten part of the United States since 32 and3 your government as represented by the Congress by the Department of Agriculture yes and I think I can say with some truth the White House itself has recognized the farmers problems and has been determined that Rural America shall not be forgotten that it shall have equality with the rest of the nation since 1933 the government your government has been a friend of the farmer not in promises that were made only to be broken but in real concrete action that gets results your problem now this fall is to make sure that this National Farm program will go on this is a very real problem because the opposition of the minority in the Congress of the United States has consistently voted three or four to one against your program in the light of that record you cannot rely on any grudging acceptance of the program that is now made unless the farm program is in the hands of an Administration that is sincerely and wholeheartedly in sympathy with agriculture it's almost certain first to be weakened and ultimately to be destroyed the choice that farmers make this fall is especially vital in view of the serious World situation and the effect of it on Farmers export markets the welfare of 50 million people who live on Farm Farms or who live in communities and towns that serve the Farms their welfare is at stake their welfare depends on meeting that situation courageously and wisely and sympathetically and effectively I am confident that the people of America recognize the gravity of our future and are determined to take whatever steps are needed to safeguard millions of American homes