NFO-175 (AV10674): Injustice to Agriculture

us farm reports a 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 this area and others interested in having American agriculture received cost of production plus a reasonable profit the American farmers and ranchers are building a brighter future for agriculture through the national farmers organization the organization that awoke America and represents the leadership of Agriculture u.s. farm report features a special guest Monsignor Dan Cooper of wahoo Nebraska who is vice president of the National Catholic rural life conference of the entire nation here to visit with Monsignor Cooper is Ken Stoefferhan director of the NFO field staff Department Oh Monsignor Cooper it's a pleasure to have you on US farm reports today is a special guest and I know that your vice-president to the National Catholic real life conference with headquarters in Des Moines and I know that you work with rural people a lot and I think and I'm sure that our listening audience today would be very much interested in knowing some about your agricultural background and your interest and some of your background dealing with farm problems and farm people could you tell us something about this yes ken I would be very happy to I was born in Story County Ames Iowa about 4 miles west of the college in 1904 I lived there for probably for 13-14 years and then we moved further closer to Boone Iowa and all of these years I became very interested in 4h my first product was an acre of corn of course born and reared in a farm my love for the farm has grown each additional year of my life I continued encouraging the 4-h wherever I go also water and soil conservation I was out of I graduated from high school and they appear consolidated high school in 1923 at that time I had been specializing in five different breeds of hogs and I had planned to continue going on into raising of hogs and farming until my father after my graduation of high school stopped me and asked me what I plan to do in the future and I told him what my plan was and so he discouraged it because farming didn't look so good then and that was back in 1923 do you remember anything important at that time no I don't believe I can remember anything about the year of 1923 but I have often heard of it the period of time between 21 and 23 as far as agriculture was concerned and of course this was a year the passage of the capper-volstead Act of course which the National Farmers Organization is authorized under and I would imagine that the year 22 and 23 and there were very significant years as far as agriculture were concerned with the passage of this act now you mentioned that you have quite an agriculture background being a farm boy and leadership in 4h and also in hog breeding and husbandry work in in animals and you also I believe you told me that you were also a herdsman at one time yes I had an uncle that was a short horn cattle breeder and I became his top-notch herdsmen at that time showing his cattle at the county and state and district fairs and then also a man by the name of mr. Billy bar from Ames Iowa a great a cattle men he had short horned cattle so I learned a lot about thoroughbred livestock then and then at the same time Ken I had the invitation to join a notch and earing company named Joy and Hunter so well when I joined it we it was joy hunter and Cooper auctioneering company that lasted a few years it was we sold an auction only at throw bed livestock hog and cattle sales so I had a little taste of that at that time too there's a right now I would like to say can my visit here today has been an inspirational one when I came into the in the new entrance you have here of your national headquarters I was very edified and inspired to see the renovation of your headquarters offices here and then the the tour that I had by your various personnel it really is an inspiration for anyone and I've often said in my work no out in my work in Nebraska and other states that if people will only come to your headquarters here they certainly would get a an education on your program there is a I'd like to since our time is rather short again I'd like to mention a story that I often tell when I'm talking to groups and it's called a a golf story and it runs like this you know when you begin to play golf you're called a golf dumb well this man hit the ball it kept trying to hit the ball but he kept messing it finally he did hit it but he knocked that off over into the rough. trees and shrubbery and grass and ant hills and he got over the fence and was trying to hit that ball but he was missing it all the time so finally one of the ants said to the other ants listen guys if we don't want to get hit we better get on the ball so I think that's true with our farmers of today if they don't want to get hit and get hit clear off of the farm they'd better get on the ball and I know where they stand this is true this is exactly what the NFO is doing is providing the leadership for agriculture for farmers to get on that ball and with your visit here at our national headquarters and you expressed the difference from the first time that you came in the door we have had some terrific expansion and not only do you see a tremendous expansion here at the national headquarters but this all comes about as as we go through the expansion of the organization through the entire country and through the years of organizational work we've now expanded to 40 states in the nation from coast to coast from Maine to California and from state of Washington to the state of Florida and from North Dakota down to the Gulf of Mexico so it does take quite a staff here at the national headquarters and a bistec quite a staff of people out in the field to build the terrific organization that we have and of course it takes a lot of coordination to complete the objectives that we started out to do in coast to coast bargaining the NFO way now also I'd like to find out some more about your background you did have some experience and soil conservation work I know you have a great love for the soil and I would imagine that this had a lot to do with your working in this particular part of that that's my Ken where we lived we're about four miles west of the state Iowa State College and every spring we would have rain falls and floods down that river between the college and downtown Ames and my father used to always bring us down we didn't have an automobile then but he would drive us down to where we could see the overflowing of this river and the flood an area with dead livestock and even some livestock floating on this water there wasn't even dead yet with all of the other debris well this left a lifetime impression upon me and I kept thinking to myself what could I do when I grew up I got older to prevent this disaster and that's why I got wrapped up in and again became interested in the water and soil conservation program of which I am now a member of the state committee in Nebraska and I loved that work very much in fact the little parish where I was located for 18 years I was up about Bellwood Nebraska 55 miles northwest of Lincoln we had ten floods in that valley there in one summer and this destroyed all of the good work that I was doing on our grounds around there so I was glad to get some movement started then on water and soil conservation and we did well certainly the importance of soil conservation work cannot be expressed too greatly because anything that we can do as a nation as I'm sure the importance of the work you do and your interest in the soil conservation work is only going to serve to strengthen this as an entire nation is an entire people a Monsignor Cooper you've told us some about your agricultural background and your farm background your vice president of the National Catholic rural life conference out of Des Moines Iowa I'm sure our listening audience would like to know something about the objectives and the goals of the Catholic rural life conference well Ken I'm certainly happy to tell you a little bit about that program the national catholic rural life conference really started in about 1955 i believe it was around granger i along which is south of Des Moines and as a high school student I used to go down there quite a bit and visit with Monsignor Laguri who played such a very active part in this rural life conference work today Bishop Senecer is the president of the real life conference from Owensboro Kentucky and in the National Director is Monsignor Edward O'Rourke who is stationed right at the headquarters in Des Moines and the national executive secretary is Monsignor Weber so they all three of those people make up my bosses oh I have to be careful what I say I've got to stay in line with them but that isn't hard to do because we get together quite often on our executive meetings and our our conventions the big thought about this role life work is I'm primarily I'm innocent of course in all people because I love all people but having been born on a farm I have a great love for the warm people and the [unclear] profession of Agriculture my great love for livestock because when I look at livestock I cannot help but think of the hand of God he did a wonderful job on livestock and then we look at the man and you can see again the great job he did on man and I think he did a good job on you Ken by the way thank you your wife knew what he was doing when she married you I would say but here's a little thought I'd like to put forth there in this real-life program that I can and that is we try to bring Christ to the country and the country to Christ that sums up quite a bit of what our program is and this rule of a farm problem that we have right now this farm crisis as I call it I don't like to hear people say that it's just the farm problem I disagree there I would like to call it our problem because agriculture is the basic industry in my thinking of all industries because it deals with the most important product and that is food if any army wants to win a battle they cut off the supply of food from their enemy don't they yes sounds reasonable yes and if they cut off the food they can win that battle so agriculture is very important and with this problem that we have in agriculture I think we should call it everybody's problem because we're all involved after all aren't we all members of one big family of gods God is the creator of the whole world of all people so we are all brothers and sisters of God's big family so what is your problem in agriculture or another man's problem in in some industry of Labor or whatever it might be that's my problem too if you rejoice I should rejoice and if you weep I should weep to me that tells us that we should have more love for one another the one of the things that we are stressing now in rural life program is and rural life workshops we try to bring in the clergy and now our good Bishop Bishop Loughlin of Lincoln Nebraska has granted permission for us to have a diocese wide clergy workshop where we invite in economists from the Agricultural College to talk on the agricultural economic conditions of today and then we also have outstanding lay men and women join us and we invite all known Catholic clergy and even Jewish clergy to join us in these conferences it's from these workshops that this education goes out then into the areas that word is needed most I think so I'd like to encourage clergy workshops I think our clergy should be brought more up-to-date with the problems of today am i right on that score again yes you are very much right because I know the great program that were in in the National Farmers Organization and we've had a great deal of pleasure with working with the National Catholic real life conference and all clergy of all faiths and it's really a schoolmasters job yes another thing I like about your the National Farmers organization can is that when you go to one of their meetings and by the way if you ever want to get a group of people together all you have to do it seems in anywhere in the United States today is to have a NFO sausage feed or a pancake supper and boy you really get a crowd and another thing that I like about these NFO meetings and I attend many of them because I love the atmosphere the jolly atmosphere the people have they and there's very sincere and it you don't know what nationality anybody is or what their Creed is or what their politics are you're just they're all there for a common good and you can see that sincere expression on their faces that they're there for a purpose just like it was down in the Louisville Kentucky I'll never forget that trip down there that was one of the highlights of my life those five days that I spent Louisville Kentucky Convention this always is a marvel of many observers especially our national conventions because there you will see anywhere from probably 12,000 voting delegates plus all the visitors there and on all occasions and talking to the observers who are not farmers but interested and they will say that this is the first group of people this size of the convention that I've ever seen that come here to conduct themselves in a businesslike manner and there for one purpose to take care of the organization's business for another year I remember of him appearing on the program I was quite impressed with his enthusiasm he said we're going to send all of our policemen and guards home because we just don't need them after observing the delegates that were there he said we could see that there was no use for these men so because he said he never saw such a peaceful group of convention candidates in his life while it had that auditorium in existence ken there's another problem that I have and that is I'm worried about the factory farm that's taken over the family sized farms this I imagine would be part of your interest in rural America and dealing along with in part of your National Catholic Rural Life Conference work and I know that the agriculture problem which really amounts to a problem for all of our nation and has world implications as well because of an agriculture problem here in this country because it's our biggest industry and it's the only industry that is remains depressed economically now I know that you have expressed some grave concern about the world problems and I think some of these are agriculturally implicated and with solving some agriculture problems I believe that you can solve a lot of these other problems in the world of starvation hunger and so on right it seems very difficult for me to think of the starving millions of people in the world and yet we are the most efficient industry of all industries and who yet these farmers of today are getting the least for their money of all industries that's what bothers me very much can a Monsignor Cooper the national farmers organization is involved in a gigantic campaign to solve the American farmers problem by raising him in the neck anomic class two levels of other segments in our society now do you in connection with the starvation problems in the whole country and I know that the NFO is going to play and is playing a giant role and and not only getting more money in the hands of farmers so that they can spend to keep the gear wheels of the economy running what do you think this is going to play in the role of starvation and providing enough grease in the gear wheel so that we can distribute food and better proportions ken I'm glad you asked that question because it concerns me very much I feel very deeply about this problem I noticed here Ken a little flyer that I picked up in my visited the national headquarters of NFO a little flyer it says the corn prices in United States are down as low as one dollar and five cents were up in France it they're up the price is up to two dollars and seventeen cents for corn so I think I'd rather live in France there in the United States on that basis and on the other side of this little flyer it says that the price of wheat in the United States is down to one dollar twenty-five cents a bushel were in Finland it's up to five dollars in 10 cents a bushel this doesn't look good to me at all pardon me there is just too much of a contrast there Ken I feel deeply about the NFO in this that it's it's a powerful organization then as I've said to some of your staff members before and I've been asked to talk to many groups and I'm glad to do so when I have the time as a a rural life booster III when I talk with these groups many of them are members of NFO and many of them are not sometimes they ask me about what do I think of the NFO well I have often told them this that if they don't like the NFO why don't they look into it and make an investigation and I urge them to come to the national headquarters here in Corning and I say if you investigate it I think you will feel like I do you will want to join the NFO and I I'm very sincere about that I and here's another thing that I like to mention many times I as a clergyman I get some pretty cold shoulders and get some pretty harsh language used against me because of my interest in them and I I tell them that when they have an opposition I ask them what is your problem what is your opposition what is your objection and when they mentioned this objection I say or have you read the Constitution or the bylaws and they say no I haven't well then I tell them well then your argument doesn't hold any weight as far as I'm concerned and then to I have you ever been over to the headquarters and usually they say no to me that means something here Ken I'd like to mention a little story that I often use because of the fact that we need some more honesty in our world dealing with one another a little story called the father and son the father we used to take his son out every night when the corn was ready to be picked in the moonlight he would cross over into his neighbor's cornfield because his crop was better and he would fill the sacks with the neighbors corn and the little boy and he would carry the sacks back and forth over to his field there was no fence there so it was easy to cross over from his field to the other field after several these trips this little boy finally I saw dad looking this way in that way and finally the little boy said say dad you forgot to look up which to me stresses the fact that you know God has something to say about this very significant have Monsignor I'm going to ask you this question I know you deal with rural people a lot I know that if you didn't have some real deep feelings about rural people and agriculture why you probably wouldn't be working with them but why do you feel that there is really a problem in agriculture today well in the first place can I say that and I feel all that agriculture is definitely our greatest industry and since it is the greatest industry it's bound to have the greatest number of opposition or enemies and I'm convinced in my own mind and someone will have to disprove this if I'm point if I'm wrong the fact that the opposition to agriculture and there definitely is an evil force working against agriculture I'm convinced too that the powers that are against agriculture are doing their very best and they are hiring some of the most intelligent minds that they can possibly get they help them drive the farmer off the land and I fear this I fear losing possession of the land we hope to keep the families on the land as long as we possibly can what are the best ways to raise your family and you know that yourself from having been a farmer the father and the mother and the children all work together as a team and the child learns and observes his father and mother all the time while they're working there to me it's a real way of life Ken and I love it very much Monsignor and along with this what do you think is the solution to the farm problem well yeah one word would really sum that up in my mind Ken and that is the word of love L-O-V-E is a pretty big word and it's the greatest virtue of all virtues in my books I asked a chaplain from Vietnam one time when he was telling about the tragedies happening there and I asked him how he would sum up what would be I would just solve this whole problem and he said the same thing he said there's one word which would answer your question that is the word of love but if that word of love it's got to start with me and it's got to go clear around the world and I too I- stressed that very much said can I tell people that I've got to conduct myself in dealing with my fellow man in such a way that they can see the image of Christ in me and that I can see the image of Christ in them and I tell them too that we should not forget just like today you Ken and I are on this television program as we are on this television program we're on another television program all the time and that's God's television camera do you agree with me there can't sure do you like that idea I sure do I like it very much well I know that the NFO can be the instrument to bring people together to solve this program uh problem that we have and it's been a real pleasure and having you on our program with a special guest in the u.s. farm reports well I certainly have enjoyed it too ken thank you u.s. farm report has presented a visit with Monsignor Dan Cooper vice president of the National Catholic rural life Conference of the whole nation and Ken Stoefferhan director of the NFO field staff Department members of the national farmers organization invite 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 the farm income pattern sets the nation's prosperity and the national farmers organization represents new thinking in a new generation of agricultural producers [music]