J. Con Lanier Points To Controlled Production As The Road To Prosperity!
Wonderful changes have occurred
in the tobaceo-growing business dur
ing the past twelve months.
A year ago sceptics were saying
that farmers would never agree to
reduce production. You growers an
swered that statement almost unani
mously.
It was also said that tobacco grow
ers would not keep an agreement
after one had been entered into. You
have confounded your critics, and in
so doing you have wrought wonder
ously for your own good.
The present price level of flue
cured tobacco is a glowing tribute
to your courage, your honesty and
your resolution.
It is now said that the tobacco
program will bog down, that the high
prices now being paid for tobacco
will cause the tobacco farmers to
abandon the program of controlled
production in the hope of reaping
next year abnormal profits at the ex
pense of their neighbors who stick by
the program.
The cross roads will be reached,
and the parting of the ways will
come, next spring when the time
comes to plant the 1935 crop. The
new road to prosperity and economic
independence is labeled, "Controlled
Production". The old road to ruin,
to poverty, and to hoplessness is
marked, "Uncontrolled Production".
You have traveled the old road
through the weary years in days
gone by, and to me it is unthinkable
that you will again turn your foot
steps down this path, pot-marked
with years of drudgery and misery
and meagre returns.
I have steadfastly maintained that
you tobacco growers will stand by
the program. Up to this time you
have abundantly justified this faith.
And in the same faith I now predict
that the fruits of your tobacco pro
gram which you are now enjoying
will solidify your support of that pro
gram in future years.
Every tobacco grower worthy of
respect ought to, and in my judgment
will, stand united with his neighbors
in support of the present program.
With such support and under in
telligent leadership the program will
not fail.
J. C. LANIER
J. CON LANIER
J. Con Lanier, of Greenville, to
bacco specialist in the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration, since the
beginning of that organization last
year, was unanimously selected by
the code authority of the loose leaf
auction tobacco warehouse authority
as the code administrator for that
industry.
The position has been much more
important to North Carolina and to
the entire flue cured tobacco area,
composed of the States of North
It so happens that Mr. Lanier has
been the only person in the tobacco
section with first hand information
of the problems of the flue cured to
bacco area, and although J. B. Hut
son, section chief, A. C. Jones, and
others in the section have been sym
pathetic with the growers, they have
not had' first hand information of
the situation in the flue cured belt.
He had much to do with the mar
keting agreements with the large
manufacturers last year by which
the price of tobacco was greatly
raised and with the drafting and
passage of the Kerr-Smith tobacco
control bill at the recent session of
Congress.
At the beginning of the new ad
ministration the farmer was receiv
ing only 50 per cent as much as He
received in the pre-war period 1909
to 1914.
Farmers Are Praised For Business Methods! ~
Chicago, Aug. 13.'?American far
mers were congratulated today by
AAA Administrator Chester C. Davis
for having quit "playing Santa Claus
to the rest of the country" and
adopting business methods pointing
to "startling" gains in the future.
Opening farmers' week at the Cen
tury of Progress exposition, he warn
ed them against those who say the
drought is "God's punishment" for
controlling production.
Davis termed the organization of
3,000,000 farmers in production con
trol committees to supervise the fed
eral program "a monumental triumph
for the farmers and the farm leader
ship of this nation," which will work
because, "the farmers will make it
work."
"This is an American plan," he de
clared, "fitted to the American so
ciety and in harmony with the
genius of American institutions. It
is not dictatorship or regimentation
from above. It is not communism,
and it is not Fascism. The American
people will not stand for either one
of these systems of foreign growth.
The total farm indebtedness
amounted to 12 billions of dollars.
Interest and taxes were delinquent,
and ruinous surpluses overhung the
market when Franklin D. Roosevelt
went into office.
MARKKTING AND ALLOT
MENT CARDS
You should note the following
points in connection with your Mat
keting and Allotment Cards:
'1'he Marketing Card:
(1) All renters, share-tenants and
share-croppers (if any) should sign
their own name under "Designation
of Trustees" on page 3.
(2) If there is a trustee other
than the producer, such trustee
should sign on page 3, accepting the
trust.
(3) The Marketing Card should
he returned without the signature of
the producer, to the County office as
quickly as the designation of trustee
can be completed. The Card will be
held by the county office until the
crop is sold.
(4) The producer will sign the
Marketing Card after the entire crop
is sold and at the time he surrenders
Allotment Card(s) (see below).
Allotment Cards:
Your attention is called to the fol
lowing Statement in Section 111 cf
your Marketing Card:
"The producer hereby requests that
Allotment Card(s) be issued to him
in accordance with the list shown in
Table 1 below. The producer under
stands and agrees that if any Allot
ment Card should be lost he will not
b:> entitled to receive a duplicate
Allotment Card nor to receive tax
payment warrants covering the to
bacco allotment included on such lost
Allotment Card."
(1) The Allotment Card must be
presented by the producer or the per
son making the sale to the Agent of
the Secretary of Agriculture at the
warehouse office to obtain a tax pay
ment warrant.
(2) The tax payment warrant
must be surrendered in payment of
the tax to the warehouse clerk, be
fore the check covering the sale of
tobacco is obtained.
(3) The following entries will be
made on the Allotment Card by the
agent of the Secretary when each
sale of tobacco is made.
(A) Under column (2), Quantity
.sold, the number of pounds sold as
shown on the warehouse bill.
(B) Under column (1), Unsold
allotment, the number of pounds
which may be sold on the basis of
the particular Allotment Card after
the quantity sold is deducted.
(C) Under column (3), the num
ber of the tax payment warrant cov
ering the sale of tobacco.
(4) When nearly all of the pro
duction allotment has been used you
should determine, before making
another sale of tobacco, that the
quantity of tobacco to be sold is not
more than the unsold allotment.
(5) After the crop is sold all Al
lotment Cards must be surrendered
at the County office before the ad
justment payments can be approved.
All entries on Allotment Cards will
be checked against copies of tax pay
ment warrants.
PLAN NO CHANGE IN FARM
PROGRAM
Washington, July 29.?Secretary
Wallace and his farm administration
leaders declared today that, despite
agitation against crop adjustments
hred by the drought, the program
for 1935 would go through.
(Controlled production, it was
maintained officially, has shown its
value to farmers this year and a
return to unplanned output of farm
commodities would inevitably bring
agriculture back to chaos. The AAA
chiefs thus have set to work with
the expectation of having, next year's
program ready for presentation to
farmers by October 1,
Its paramount feature will be sim
plicity. Officials have recognized
since the AAA came into being that
the system was complex, bulky, and
unwieldy. Much of the delay in mak
ing benefit payments to farmers has
been credited to the natural inertia
which had to be overcome.
The 1935 plan in its rough form
as handed to chiefs of the commodi
ties section for study after being
outlined by the planning division
aims at three objectives:
1. A "unified" farm contract, or
a modification for principal crops,
with one county production control
association administering its provis
ions instead of several as at present.
2. Stimulation of production of
forage crops and planting of pas
tures so there will be no idle acres.
This would be designed as a guaran
tee against shortages of forage in
future droughts.
3. Payment of rentals and benefits
on the basis of the amount of land
in production or amount of crops
produced. These payments now are
made for percentage reductions from
some "basic" years.
The unified contract would be ex
pected to simplify the machinery.
Preliminary discussions aimed at a
"blanket" contract for all crops, but
this was discarded in- favor of one
which would control a few principal
crops.
Attention is centered on including
wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley and
possibly hogs. A difference exists on
whether it would be possible to
control live stock through adjust
ment of feed supplies.
Among the questions involved in
a group contract is whether the ad
ministration has the right to lump
receipts from all processing taxes
to pay group benefits. The legal sec
tion holds this can be done.
Officials declined to discuss what
adjustments in acreage will be asked
of farmers until definite estimates
of drought damage are available in
the crop report.
Crop-production loans have been
made available for farmers who, be
cause of conditions prevailing during
the past three years, have been un
able to obtain credit elsewhere. This
assistance is temporary but it has
helped to save many farmers from a
desperate situation.