NFO-20 (AV10428): Midwest Farm Report: Iowa Farmers View

[music] Today on a Midwest farm report we have as our special guests one Des Moines businessman and four central Iowa farmers now the moderator is Coleman Scott of Des Moines how do you do ladies and gentlemen I hope in this particular meeting that we'll have a chance to bring you a story that truthfully is so unusual and so different and while it may appear to be challenging we hope it will also cause you to do some very carefully some soul analysis all over America there are men and women will join together in bringing this particular program to you the various members of the National farm organization the NFO abandoned their talents their hopes their efforts their dreams and together they have sponsored the series of broadcasts now each of these is co-sponsored by the people of your community if you find that there are bits of iNFOrmation or facts or answers that you might like to have about NFO they have urged me to ask you to come forward and ask them you'll find quite frankly you'll find this particular insignia all over the area where you live NFO find it as we're talking with you on these broadcasts over and over and over again you'll hear NFO find out what it means because to you it may mean the absolute difference between truth and fact the series of misrepresentations that stay all over America with people who are either un-informed or misinformed now on this particular show today we have asked the opportunity to be able to talk with individual men now these questions I can assure you are 100% unrehearsed at no time during the entire preparation of this particular show what any questions asked which in any way could lead toward the questions we're going to bring forward I have examined some material enough I have been invited to tear it apart and to ask questions as a reporter I intend to do exactly that these men who will appear on this particular broadcast are farmers they all come from the state of Iowa they are all interested in the very same thing your protection as a farmer and as a consumer since I've been invited to ask these questions I have read of a whole reef of material and I intend to go into it in a way I think you might have done it too firstly I present to you a farmer from story way over to my right his name is Dick Orit comes from Story County here in Iowa now beside him and immediately to my right is Gerald Robinson who comes from Jasper County all the way down to my left end of the table is Henry- is Levi Sutton who comes from story and Henry Voes who comes from Polk County I've switched him I beg your pardon I have switched them and I want you to be sure that you remember them Levi Sutton comes from story this is Levi and on the end is Henry Voes now we're going to ask questions that I said were completely unrehearsed I think you'll find the both interesting informative and we hope challenging because it is with this area of challenge that we hope to be able to stimulate both your interest and we hope your cooperation Dick I'd like to ask you some questions first where do you farm by farm about 20 miles north of Des Moines Coleman about 20 miles north of Des Moines are you a general farmer or what type of farming do you do yes you would call it general farming I have livestock and the feed all my grain to my livestock now when you began to get into this NFO story how did you happen to get into it what brought you in in the first place well I had a good neighbor who was more experienced and than I was I was just a beginning farmer and and you know we always seek advice and you can't learn everything in one day anyone will know that and you listen as much advice as is given you and then make up your own mind and this is what I did I say no I understand that you are one of the people who after these broadcasts have talked with farmers in your neighborhood people who are friends or neighbors and that you do this every Monday that you've taken your time to talk with farmers in your area what are the reactions of your people those for instance will have not joined NFO well it ranges it has changed over the period of time that NFO was coming to being at first it was a question of what is the NFO would have been an interesting question yes it was and now that they know what it is they ask what is it doing no they're not asking what is it doing for me yet they're just asking what is it doing that's right and we try to tell them what it will do for them and for us if we all can work together let me ask you something when you talk with these farmers and you show them how in order for the average farmer to be able to receive his full and just share of the farm commodity return that he's entitled to how it would raise the cost of the individual consumers market so very very very little what is the reaction of the farmer to this well he in some cases realizes this but then he is at a loss himself to know what how to get it get it there how to improve his lot well when you explain to him that the basic purpose of NFO is one of collective bargaining with with all of the farmers together helping all of the suppliers and processors to be able to achieve the same result without the cutthroat competition then what is he saying or does he just sit there and say well I don't know I want to think about what that's really the usual answer that you get really we don't stop to think about it and that is that is our problem we say we're going to do something like you've got a job you say I'll do this on a rainy day well this may be fine but this lucky bargaining or what are we going to do with to improve agriculture we can't put that off there any day that's something we have to do now I saw a sign not so long ago that said the farm you save may be your own what seems to be their reaction to this thought well I think they really realize this but then they hate to admit it in a lot of cases well nobody likes nobody likes to think that he's become a part of a of a tradition of the vanishing American that's actually what happening the President of the United States has recently pointed out just reading the article hit a night again of the tremendous change that is going to be made by the federal government it looks as though it's actually being made to force them away from the farm about a million more farms going up- going out of existence or a million farm families being forced off the farm now this this is obviously a million people or a million families that have to be absorbed into the stream of of industrial commerce there are people who were geared to be able to grow the plant to operate farms if suddenly they're not in the farm what happens to those small towns were they been doing this but they disappear too then what do they do with those merchants that live in them or is that a part of the chain reaction that they don't talk about I'm afraid this is some of the after-effects or the side effects which grow out of the farm are being eliminated and I think we have seen this in all of our small towns throughout the years increasingly becoming more evident in the last I would say five years well let me bring Gerry into this thing immediately seated beside Dick Ort is Gerald Robinson who comes from jasper also the state of our Gerry what what happens with you now how did you happen to get into NFO well I was invited one evening to go to a meeting in my hometown and I did not know what the meeting would be about or anything but I went and and decided I liked what I had heard that night and I joined NFO that very evening all right you two are one of these people who talk to people on Monday mornings aren't you and other days on Tuesdays and Wednesday in other words your basic farming you have been actually able to set aside a basic part of your week to go out and talk about the protection of other people's property is that it tell them the story about the the ideas of NFO this is true if you plan your work you can go out one day a week and talk to the farmers and I always start out giving the reasons why I- the main reasons why I joined in fo and there are four of them basically that only farmers can belong to the NFO and number two NFO cannot be in business of any of any kind number three every step that is taken in the NFO anything that needs to be ratified is approved by a two-thirds vote at the county level a number four and most important of all i feel is that NFO is the only organization promoting bargaining power in the marketplace trying to promote a better price based on the cost of production plus a reasonable profit that's a good enough reason now when you begin to tell this very same story to your friends and neighbors what happens is what is the reaction of the farmer today after you've been you've been talking with him now for a long time what is his reaction today the man who has not yet joined an effort what is his reason why he doesn't join the only real reasons they can give are not really good reasons some of them say that they do not like holding actions and I feel that they do not understand a holding action they think that maybe the only program NFO has is a holding action and that's just a very small part of it it isn't even mentioned in the membership agreement and some of them very seldom anymore you will run into a person that totally objects to NFO they all agree with what you're trying to do everybody objects-- but they want to wait to see what you're gonna do about is that it true they want to wait and see and how long they feel they can wait I don't know generally one of my favorite story revolves around an experience I had down south many years ago I was talking with a businessman quite set in his ways a man who was well along in years and I laid out this plan and I said what do you think of it and he said I like it Mr. Scott and I said well let's buy it and he said well I I can't do it today why not and he said well very simple I can't do today because my dog is sick I said well what is your dog being sick have to do with this and he said this got it ain't got nothing to do with it but when you ain't going to do something one excuses just as good as another now maybe you're talking to some people with sick dogs maybe they haven't been able to make up their minds yet you know this is the story of the of the with this withholding action if I may I've examined this particular part of the story I've asked a lot of questions I've asked questions of people who have nothing to do with NFO I've talked with people in supermarkets I've talked with beer distributors I've talked with soft drink distributors automobile agencies and I've asked the same question does your business- is your business ever affected by a holding action and they said of course when the price drops on our product the factory withholds on the markets over the market becomes more favorable to them this is a holding action when the price is unprofitable to a supermarket to carry it we don't carry the product we take it out of our line we withhold it from the shelf until it is more equitable so that we share in it in other words we have a withholding action our withholding action means many things to many people as a matter of fact I'm quite sure that all of us personally engage in withholding action there are products that we would like to buy but we don't buy them because we don't feel that we can get enough back because of what they cost us so we withhold our money from them and thus we force them to meet our term isn't this what a with holding action is isn't that isn't it a holding action to attempt to hold back from an unfavorable market a product that would do nothing else but destroy the price you know they used to have a line that used to hang in the in the supermarkets of Persia out in the marketplace that said caveat emptor which meant let the buyer beware I think the farmer today is the only man I've ever known who went into the market and he should be saying let the seller beware he's the only man who comes in bended knees and says what would you give me for my year's work I don't know of any other man who will invest a hundred and fifty thousand dollars be expected to receive less return for a year's work than if he had put it in some kind of a mutual fund for instance and refused to work if you want unrelieved he would have lived better and actually made more money out of the investment then he would off the farm in having done a year's labor now one of these days we've had a chance to get into some real exciting series on figures of how much work and how much investment it would have to take for individual types of farming to be able to produce a thousand dollars additional net income and not only is it an astronomical amount of figures but until we can positively show them to be true at it authenticated and graphed I don't want to mention them but I've seen them and they are almost unbelievable in many cases it goes to show completely that after you reach a certain figure the more you invest the more certain you are gonna lose money and there's nothing you can do about it it doesn't make any difference how much you work and the same thing is true with others now let me bring in here if I may Henry Voes from Polk County Henry how long have you been in NFO how did you happen to get in what brought you into this thing well my neighbor came in made another farmer yes and encouraged me to join that at that time I didn't know too much about it and but it did look too good to me I thought there was a need to organize I mean you know what what was it what was it that that appealed to you well to get a better price see that was back in 59 and 60 and things at that time seem to be getting worse all the time and being done about it they have gotten worse so far as the return from the on early labor residence right so you're absolutely right when you get in in 1958 you saw a need then to be able to bargain collectively for the sale of your commodity right that's the way it seemed to me now since that time you also have have actually gone out and have used your time to talk to other men to join in the same activity having somewhat not as much as some of the other sellers as much as some fellows can but then where you farm what what is your type of farming now in Polk County what do you do it's general farming I feed around 100 head of cattle a year and raise a couple hundred head of hogs and the rest is grain farming it my land is all row crop and it's diversified in that way mhmm now if you were not in NFO today today if you had never at any single time heard anything about it now this is a loaded question no reason in the world why I can't ask them loaded because these people have no idea what I'm going to ask and we have we kept it open so that we could ask these questions exactly as they came Henry if you were not a member of NFO and it's at this very moment you were to be sitting out there instead of here listening and we were to pose one question that would get you an answer that would cause you to want to join NFO or examine more carefully what would that be what one thing would appeal to you as a farmer the most you mean as far as you to become interested in NF oh well to get a fair price to get a price that reflects your management and your labor and your life's investment and things of that nature you mean if you thought that there was a possibility because of your assistance in this particular activity where all the farmers went together and they use their collective bargain and they use their combined thinking to be able to market profitably not only for the farmer but for the supplier the processor and the ultimate consumer because let's face it the day the farmer is paying a subsidy to the consumer yes you know definitely if you then as a farmer and as a merchant because that's what you are you are a manufacturer you manufacture a raw material the possibility then of being able to receive a just return from your product is the one thing it would cause you to become more interested in NFO than anything else right that would be the main thing yes then I think that the benefit of your judgement would be let us say to those farmers out there that this is one place where collectively those achievements can be reached is that it right now you've been in it since 1959 would you say that your time has been well spent oh definitely so yes would you say that you're a lot further ahead than you were I said in 1959 I think so I think farmers generally are for the results that NFO has done so far even I had a chance to go through your national headquarters your national organization and I have never seen an organization more carefully more completely run every single thing in there was laid out to the most minute examination there wasn't an inch of space there wasn't there wasn't one single portion of a penny's waist in that total operation which means that this was being run totally to be able to do exactly what they said it was to be able to accomplish a definite goal which was collective bargaining for the American farmer and through this a fair price for the consumer I was extremely excited by the way it was being run I can't tell you my my complete approval of it as a businessman I know what must have been in it I know how hard they have worked to accomplish it it's a fantastic organization and it has been put together and operated entirely by farmers it was started originally by farmers who saw the basic need it had the assistance and advice of other men who had been lifelong farmers and were good sound business men and I not only was impressed but I wanted to pass that story along when I had the chance and I can't think of a better place to do it than here Levi, Levi Sutton comes from Story Levi oh what is your story in farming what are you farming what kind of kind what do you have farm about 380 acres I run a beef herd of about 64 cows and feeding the calves out and I raised around 200 head hogs a year and I raise some beans and being just a general farmer I did this is the only loaded question I asked anybody in this place I did say an investment much the same as yours conservatively placed on the cost of today's market to be able to buy or to hold or to to classify how would you classify that as a farm investment I think you told me about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars plus didn't you I would say at least 100 and fifty thousand dollars and it could be more do you run this entirely by yourself - you do all of the labored or do you hire extra help or what is the stuff I have a hired man to help me because I can't handle alone it's too much and I've got a little older you know well so that we all know productive years are coming to a past we don't like to admit this but it happens to all of us I beg your pardon go ahead I was gonna ask you what was it that brought you into this particular NFO idea well home and I was the first member to join in Story County Iowa I think you must have been aware of something that's pretty sure I went to a meeting they read the membership agreement and they explained it to me and I told the boys that night our national vice-president were the one that had the meeting I told him that I would sign the membership agreement that the very next meeting I went to which was about 10 days later and I signed the membership agreement and I've never been sorry I have received the best education that any farmer could ever receive through NFO because I have found out things in the NFO that I never would have known before and it's very impossible for the individual farmer to find out without an organization like the NFO working for us to get this information out to the farmers for them to thoroughly understand their problem how to combat their problem we have to have collective bargaining Coleman the same as every other business or we cannot exist or no question about it you know I recently have heard the story said that the independent merchants the small businessman who runs a grocery store but a well-run store today is becoming not only well accepted again but he has become an important entity as an individual item now I began to check into this his investment is a large one he is certainly not a competitor to the great big huge chains but the individual businessman who runs a grocery store who is making a profit is joining a buying and selling unit there is no question about it he has a way of buying collectively he's able to take multiple discounts and compared to say to a wholesaler we will buy this much under these conditions he takes complete discounts on everything that he buys it the best way that he can and this is what makes them competitive now what you're saying and I think this is this is the thing we were trying to get across so many times in our previous discussions is that if the farmer could sell like the buyer buys then the farmer could receive a fair share for his product as well as everybody else and the individual farmer does not get it today does it he does not and Coleman another thing I'd like to add to this is if it weren't for the individual farmers staying as an individual as they're telling me is these chain stores could not buy at a cheaper rate and turn around and put it on the bargaining counter to the public if we were organized together like we're doing in the NFO we could set the price on our product the same as a chain store or any other business does and we could get the price but we have to be organized together to do it just as they are then essentially the basic the basic hole in the bottom of the boat is the instability of the open market that's exactly right I came across a comment the other day in all of these notes you know I came to this program completely prepared I had spent probably six days of reading I had amassed so much material it was impossible for me to do anything else except be a complete bore with my own knowledge so for this reason when I brought this in I discovered that while everybody else had read them they were already old hat to them everybody knew them but they were exciting bits of material to me but among the thing I noticed was a note there that said that with all of the surpluses and all of the endless amount of material food existence that we now have in the United States if everybody ate as everybody eats today we've got only about ten days supply of food actually on hand so when they talk about all these fantastic amounts of surplus the surplus lies today in the farmers production this is where he's only about ten days away from an open market in me essentially ten days away from an open market well a few days ago I had a chance to get out and I talked with a group in one of the individual areas so many of these meetings are just exactly like I remember them when I was a kid I used to go to a we're meeting out in a in a Township my people one time lived in a Township 600 people it was a great gathering point when we got together we used to look forward to meeting and we discussed so many things and not only did the men discuss farm products but among the younger fellas the fellas my age with the question about whether or not my big brother can lick your big brother you know one of those things but I noticed that these meetings that I've attended now the complete the complete gathering knowledge of the willingness to spread information there the open discussion of how to be able to accomplish things the feeling that something can be done is now beginning to to permeate the the outer group I felt this now in so many places do you fellows feel this that even the fellow who hasn't yet joined into NFO he says they're working on something that has sense to it do you feel is you get that feeling that I just imagined it what do you think Dick do you have that feeling that that maybe every farmer is hoping that something will be done I'm sure of that coming but still they're afraid to jump in the water and swim to they were afraid of what I don't know what this the farmer has been an individual for such a long time it is they relied too much on his own ability to get along and and he can see that we've got a good thing going here he's all for us but he must stop and realize that for this thing to really be successful it requires the cooperation of all the farmers not just the few that are trying to bring this program about Gerry do you agree with that agree with that you you hear very few farmers say anything against NFO they think the theory is all right but for some reason they want to wait and it seems kind of sad to me my mother said that they used to tell her when she was a little girl but there was no sense of the time of a school teacher to teach a farm girl to read and write all she had to learn was how to cook a good mess of [unclear] but you're not going to learn on my good food so maybe that's the same old case today we've come a long ways may I ask Henry Voes Henry do you agree with this assumption that everybody says something should be done but everybody wants to wait and find out who's gonna do it yes I do you think that's the case and I think there's a general awakening that something maybe is being done and I think I think it will come in in the near future Levi do you subscribe to it Coleman I'd like that just a little bit to that I think we have an educational program and I have found it in my experience and working then at all and talking to farmers which I do about five days a week every week through the winter and I've definitely found that once they understand it they'll join it now some of them is just a little harder to get to understand it than others but once they clearly understand what it will do for them and why they must do it in order to maintain the family type farm and I think I think the thing they should think about is their children we possibly can get by but how about our children well in a generation where we have mortgage not only our future but the future of our children and our children's children and our children's children's children's children it might be good to take a look at what is left may I thank you for the use of your time and thank you for the hospitality of your home and the opportunity to join with you this program brought to you by the NFO has been sponsored by the friends and neighbors of your locale the family who lives next door thank you very much [music] NFO members of this listing area are calling on the rest of the nation's farmers to help solve our farm problems attend NFO meetings in your area find out the truth about the national farmers organization and you too will want to become a member [music]