TWO Congressma 4 Cooley Familiar With Situation, North Carolina Congressman Makes Urgent Plea For The Passage Of A State Compact Law In Recent Magazine Article ARTICLE PRINTED IN NEWS REPORTER Permission Given This Paper By CAROLINA COOPERATOR To Reprint Article Appearing In May Issue The following article, which appeared in the May Issue of the j Carolina Co-operator, farm pub- j llcation printed in Raleigh, contributed by Congressman Harold D. Cooley, who is thoroughly familiar with the tobacco situa-! tion in North Carolina, is publi- j shed again in this paper with, the permission of the editor of| the Carolina Co-operator: 1 I need not discuss in this brief article the benetits ana Diesmngs which came during the life of the Agricultural Adjustment Act and the Kerr-Smith Tobacco Act. The Tobacco Program undertaken j by this Administration under'' these two measures was a complete success, in that the producers received reasonable fair , prices, the manfacturers continu- j ed to make their millions, and ' the government continued to col- j lect its enormous tax, yet the ' consumer carried no burden. . j' On January 6th, when the Su- j preme Court invalidated the Agri- j cultural Adjustment Act, which', was followed by a repeal of the , Kerr-Smith Tobacco Act by Con- . gress, the government, after paying all cooperating tobacco farm- 1 ers all benefits due under the 1 law, actually profited to the extent of nine million dollars. This was truly a self sustaining program which brought a degree of j prosperity to the poverty-strick-1 en, taxridden tobacco farmers of the nation. In the Supreme Court opinion, in validating the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Mr. Justice Roberts, speaking for the Court, used the following language: "The Act invades the reserved rights of the states. It is a statutory plan to regulate and control agricultural production, a matter beyond the powers delegated to the federal government." There may' be a "twilight zone" in the field j of law, in which, under our form of government, neither the fed-, eral nor the state government has a right to operate but the j language quoted above it at least! an intimation that the right to i regulate and control agricultural j production is a right and a power reserved by the states and not delegated to the Federal Government States Can Regulate Since the Supreme Court held that the United States had no i power to intermeddle in this par- j ticular field of action, is it not reasonable to assume that the sovereign states of this nation can, themselves, by law, regulate the depletion of natural resources and control the production of price-depressing surpluses? There fore, I shall assume for the time being, at least, that there is no "twilight zone" ir. this particular field of activity and that the several states have a right, under their own Constitutions, to enact laws regulating and controlling = LEi / 0 0 n Urges To ? . ? HIP : Hps? ^^P ;- ; : ^ I j 1 ^Hp-' k w I&MMI&L 1 L HAROLD V. COOLEY agricultural production. Even if the states, in their own right, enacted laws regulating and controlling the production of tobacco, or for that matter, any other agricultural commodity which is grown in one or more states, it would be foolish and futile for them to attempt to do so unless, at the same time, other states producting the same commodity, likewise, enacted similar control measures. Obviously, if North Carolina, which produces five-sevenths of the flue-cured tobacco, enacted a control measure and Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia refused to enact similar legislation, it would be only natural to suppose that these states would increase the growth of tobacco to the detriment of not only themselves, but of the tobacco growers of North Carolina who were honestly seeking to balance production with consumption. All States Must Cooperate Realizing that if the production of tobacco was to be controlled in any one state, that it should, likewise, be controlled in other states producing a simj j*rat3t3C3m3CJtJC3tK3tJtJCK3 II 11 II 11 ii F( ii 1 K i ! Collins II | A SAVI1 I - YEA ! I I I ! I i and i i Colli !' "WHITER II II II ! HA vs \ I WAf I Will Be ( A Fori i 000 THE STATE 1 bacco Comj ilar type, those of us who an interested in the welfare of th< tobacco farmers have sponsorei legislation which provides fo congressional authorization to thi several states growing simila types, to the end that simila and uniform control measure can be enacted by the states, pro viding for a coordination of ef fort in the control of the produc tion of tobacco, a commodit; which is produced in a very smal area and consumed not only ii all section of this nation, bu abroad. This legislation by Con gress is necessary to enable th states to enter into compacts be cause of the language in tha part of Article 1, Section 10 o the Federal Constitution, whicl provides: "No state shall, with out the consent of Congress . . , enter into an agreement or com pact with another state . . The passage of this legislatioi will enable the states produc ing a given type of tobacco b (enter into a compact or compact for the purpose of holding down [production, to the end that pro ducers may receive a fair prici for the product of their toil. Un der this legislation, therefore I crop control may or may not b | exercised by the states, deter mined by the wishes of the pro ducers themselvse as may be ex 1 pressed in a referendum provid jed by state law. Whether crop control is goo< ,or bad; whether it is un-Ameri [can or not; whether farmer want it or not, is a matter whicl [ farmers themselves may deter imine. No one is in a better posi tion to express an opinion upoi these vital questions than th< farmers. They know what usual!: follows the production of hugi surpluses. They are familiar witl their hardships and vicissitude,' of the past. They likewise knov the benefits, and of the fault and failures of other control pro grams, and they know better thai anyone else whether or not it ii now too late for them to b( (XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX1 1LL0W THE CROJ TO Departmei \G IN EVERY PTJ R IN AND YEAR You Will Find SQUARE DEALING one low Price to Ever -ATns Dept. , LILLE'S TRADING RRY G. VAR jts to ; )n The Job 1 ce As Good i :(We Do Oi PORT PILOT. SOUTHPORT, 3act In State e i benefited by the control of the e 1936 tobacco crop. Certainly nc 1 one should be willing to denj r them the right to express theii e views in a matter which so vitalr ly affect their wellfare and prosr perity. s The Virginia Law The control contemplated bj _ the Ac^ of the General Assemblj . of Virginia, which is the basif Y for the formation of the compacts, provides for state comJ missions, allotments cf state quot tas and farm quotas, and for ? .; tax or commission upon tobaccc e produced in excess of the allot. ted quota, and for a similar ta> t or commission upon tobacco prof duced upon a farm to which nc i quota is allotted. The money sc . collected will not go into the general treasury of the state: but will be held in a special func for the benefit of cooperating I farmers and will provide a de gree of insurance in the evenl 3 of drought, hail, and other diss | asters. ! The Act of Congress author izes the Secretary of Agriculture e of the United States to furnist . the several compacting state: with the best expert advice availe able as to marketing conditions - statistical data and other infor-1 mation requested by the state . commissions. Upon the failure of any state mentioned in the Act of the GenII eral Assembly of Virginia to en-1 act a similar control measure 3 or to cooperate in the mannei i provided therein, the compact - fails. No state allotment can be - materially increased or decreasi ed except with the consent ol 3 a majority of each state comf mission and of a majority of the 3 central commission in the comi pacting area. The Federal Gov3 ernment is charged with no rej sponsibility in administering the s control program, other than tc - furnish the advice and informai tion hereinbefore mentioned. 9 Decrease Needed 3 The report of the Bureau ol VD if 9}f\ra L1L k/Lv/i V/ i i RCHASE | OUT- I 'S yone Store CENTER" kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkJ LEA, Oi EHOl SELL YOI 'o See That E Is Any And ir Work Or N. C. | : Agricultural Economics of the! c ,; United States Department of Ag- j 1 | ricuture, issued March 23, 1936,1 i . indicates the necessity of a de- c ! crease in acreage in the 1936 f ' tobacco crop, rather than an in- { ' crease in production which is in- j r " dicated by reported intentions of f growers. The 1935 flue-cured to- I bacco crop was second to the ? largest ever produced. This was, v of course, due to the increased j a r allotments allowed in 1935 overir r 1934 and to the unusually high j ? , yields per acre in 1935. The 1935' c ' r~ yi'OliUHMMIiiHi.MMWMWMIlUOIlUHIllMlllMliU*! i : >' : New C II! whiti "THE PEP i ! , I I : Extends Tob, ) >; Sell your Tob: Prices and cor tre for your ei THE NEV IS ONE ( : II AND BES IN THIS CAROLIN 11; Featuring the attractions thi some amusem moderate pric COME OF FAMILY I ALWAYS "The Home I n ????^^^ I vner & USE, UR TOBA ach Pile Brings Better Than l The Floor" * WED :rop was approximately eight lundred and five million pounds, n the face of world consumption if approximately six nundred and ifty million pounds. While the tobacco farmers will, 10 doubt, receive great benefit rom the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, passed it this session of Congress, it inll, in my opinion, be wholly inidequate to meet the situation iow confronting the tobacco -rowers of the nation. The failure if the Soil Conservation and Do olumbus 1 mile, North Car :fect sound t ; A Hearty Welc icco Grox acco in Whitevill ne to The New Co itertainment. ir columbus t )f the most ] t equipped tf section of fA IX~&? pick of the pictu it furnish good < ent for both youi es. TEN AND BRIN m FRIENDS.. GLAD TO SEE Y Of High Class Ent op. WHITE] North Ca cco Its Worth Many 000 i NESDAY, AUftne* . I ; mestic Allotment T?? ' 0113 Particular pro*SM 1 the peculiar character W 1 No other major crop^? a value per acre 4 to produce, or invo^>.? ; labor as does tohJ! < 1 in the flue-cured area t '"