NFO-21 (AV10429): Midwest Farm Report: Rural Economic Truth

[music] My name is Butch Swaim I'm national promotional director of the national farmers organization and today on our midwest farm report i have as a special guest Mr. Arnold Paulson businessman from Granite Falls Minnesota also manager of the Minnesota business and industrial promotion agency Mr. Paulson is past president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce of the state of Minnesota National American chairman of the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1954 Minnesota's outstanding young man of 1950 and past president of his local Chamber of Commerce Mr. Paulson has been having a series of meetings round throughout the Upper Midwest and he has a message that I think everyone in America should be vitally interested in he's been holding a series of these meetings and we have entitled these meetings or he has I should say real economic development seminars and the reason he got into these is because he's worked real hard on a lot of committees to attract new industry into the state of Minnesota for the rural communities and he did a lot of survey work on what's happening in rural America and what's likely to happen and what new industry would have to be pulled in to make up this difference in Arnold if you would I'd like for you to tell our listening audience here on Midwest Farm Report your experience along this line and and the what your conclusions are well thank you but first of all I'd like to point out that the people of the United States of America have been brainwashed by many of the economists of this nation into believing that we have been living in the greatest prosperity that this nation has ever known in fact the President of the United States in his own words said that the economy of this nation was rosy that things couldn't be better that 1964 was the banner year as far as prosperity was concerned but yet as we review the history of 1964 we can see that some mighty unusual things happened number one we saw the step-up of the Urban Renewal Program number two we saw the revival of the CCC camps or the job Opportunity Act which was adopted by President Roosevelt during the greatest depression that this nation has ever seen we also saw the adoption of the Anti-Poverty Program because nine million families 36 million American people are classified as living in poverty and during the greatest prosperity that this nation has ever experienced 36 million American people do not have the minimal requirements of food shelter clothing or medical care yes we have been having great prosperity for some but how about the other half of the population of this nation today throughout America forty eight percent of all of the farmers are classified as living in poverty here in the great states of Iowa and Minnesota 46 to 47 percent of all our people are classified as living in poverty during the greatest depression or during the greatest prosperity that this nation has ever seen now these are only some of the problems that will confront this nation in the year 1965 and the years to come some of the other problems are urban blight, juvenile delinquency, and syndicated crime but this afternoon or this evening I would like to speak to you about the greatest problem of them all the most complex problem facing America today and a problem that too few of us people seem to be concerned enough about the problem of agriculture but yet all of these problems are problems that each and every one of us should be really concerned about it demands courageous study and actions on the part of every one of us living in rural because it's our responsibilities of citizens of this great democracy to make sure that these problems do not exist in our own community too many people today have the opinion that democracy is something that lives in Washington DC Boston or Philadelphia but remember folks that democracy is right here in hometown USA and that we all must assume the responsibility of defending and preserves our basic American freedoms and rights if we are going to have freedom reign in America now just a few years ago a staff writer for the Minneapolis Tribune wrote one of the most controversial articles to appear in the state of Minnesota during the past decade small towns grow or die by Carl Rowan many of these civic leaders and businessmen throughout the state would like to have tarred and feathered Carl Rowan and drive him out of the state boundaries why because the truth really hurts yet today we find throughout America over 30,000 communities who have heeded the warning of Carl Rowan today throughout the United States we have over 30,000 business and industrial development corporations that are organized for one purpose trying to attract an industry to help bail their community out of their economic mess over 17,000 of these business and industrial development corporations employ full-time personnel working for the same purpose and objective trying to locate an industry but what are the odds let's take a look in the United States today about eighty-five percent of all of our industry employs less than 20 people only four percent of our nation's industry employs over 200 people and we're told that there are only approximately 200 or so major industrial moves throughout the entire country per given year so you can see what the tremendous odds are for the communities who have resolved to grow rather than die and who were attempting to solve their recognized problems by attracting a new industry to their community well now what spurred on this tremendous competition throughout America between these communities who have resolved to grow rather than die well believe it or not the problem really started with agriculture because after all what purpose have these communities served other than the farmer in the early days when the Pioneers moved west and homesteaded their lands small communities sprang up primarily to serve the farmer with their needs and the larger cities are the hub centers provided the smaller communities where their needs who in turn took care of the farmer this is basically why we have the thousands of communities that exist today throughout rural America but yet over the past few years we have seen countless numbers of farmers driven from the land already we've seen a decline of approximately two and a half to three million farmers leave the soil and what effect does this have on rural communities when we lose farmers we also lose many other vital businesses that are necessary to the community such as creameries and hatcheries automobile dealers implement dealers and many other vital businesses such as grocery stores hardware stores clothing stores and so forth yes farm problems are problems that every community should study seriously and with an open mind because agriculture is the largest industry in the world and by far the largest industry that we have in our community and our rural agricultural states and agriculture certainly deserves more consideration on the part of community leaders and businessmen everywhere as I mentioned countless numbers of communities are eager to attract a new industry to their community they will raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to try and lure an industry to their community they will offer free land and free buildings and they will even raise large sums of money to help finance the industry if they will but move and yet we will not spend five minutes time sitting down discussing problems or the largest industry of them all agriculture little do we realize what effect the loss of two and 1/2 million farmers will have on rural America the president in his state of the budget message told the American people that 1 million farmers are all it's necessary to serve America with their food and fiber we can take that literally but the tragic of this whole promotion is is it along with the two and a half million farmers that will leave the soil we will also lose hundreds of thousands of other private enterprise businesses throughout rural America writing in the American farmer in this same leaky boat that's headed for destruction we will find independent bankers we will find thousands and thousands of rural independent businessmen we will find thousands of communities that are also headed for destruction through the loss of this great industry agriculture now thank God that there are people in America today who are concerned about the tragedy that exists in rural America today I say that the Great Society program that's been inaugurated by the President of the United States is the Great Suicide as far as rural America is concerned because it will completely destroy the incentive and the opportunity for the common people of this nation to participate in private enterprise it will destroy their opportunity to own their own business and to own their own farm and yet this is a problem that is going to affect you your family your business and your own community yes thank God there is an organization in America that is concerned and is doing something to try and stop this mass suicide in rural America this organization is the Independent Bankers Association of America they have conducted a vast survey of the economic growth of this country to find out what is wrong why is it that this nation is having the economic problems that we have why is it that 48% of all of the people in this nation are living in poverty the further their study they engage the services of the National Foundation for Economic Stability in Washington DC to do a thorough study of the economy of this country going way back to the years of 1929 taking a careful analysis and study of the economic growth year by year up until the present time 1964 let's take a look and see of some of the things that have happened to the economic growth in this nation during the last few years we're taking the years of 1940 to 1950 which has been proclaimed by the economists of this country that it has been the most stable basic growth period in the history of our country because during that ten-year period the national income of this country increased 196 percent the gross value of all farm production sold also increased a hundred and ninety-five percent wages and salaries increased over that ten-year period a hundred and ninety five percent and private enterprises share in profits increased 209 percent so you can see how equal the increase of growth of all of the segments of our economy was during this 10-year period but yet after 1950 something drastically happened to the economic growth of this country and this is what alarmed the Independent Bankers Association to do something about it the study and find out the cause of the illness that exists in the economy of this nation and this is why they brought in the services of the National Foundation of economic stability to see what they could discover and find out what we can do to solve the economic problems in this country to be real truthful ladies and gentlemen for the past 15 years we have been living in a greater depression in America than we were during the Great Depression of 1933 all of the economic growth that we've experienced in this nation since 1950 has been based on debt and we all every penny of economic expansion that we have gained plus an additional 98 billion dollars let's take a look at the economic growth of the various segments of the economy in this country from 1950 to 1963 labour received an increase of a hundred and forty eight percent rental income in this nation has increased 63 percent the profits of our corporation has increased 86 percent net interest profits and this is the thing that alarmed the Independent Bankers Association had increased four hundred and sixty percent over three hundred percent greater than any other segment of the economy in this nation and with that tremendous increase in profits something had to be basically wrong with the economy of this great country the small business share of the economic growth was 73% increased while during the same number of years net farm income took a drop of 16 and nine-tenths percent and yet we have people in America that are telling us that there is nothing wrong with agriculture over the 12-year period the total national income in this country increased an average of a hundred and twenty four percent now the total economic expansion in the United States during this entire period from 1950 to 1962 we are told increased to the amount of one trillion 136 billion five hundred million dollars but with all of this tremendous economic expansion in this country the American farmer did not benefit one penny neither did the multitude of small private enterprise businesses in rural America because the greatest stimulator or creator of new wealth in this nation took a 17% loss and this was an effect that was passed on to all segments of the economy starting at the very grassroots in rural America but how much money will it take to repay this tremendous loss that has been built or established by credit we are told that in order to pay off just the increase in private debt that occurred in this country during that same period of time in 1950 the private debt in this country was 200 billion dollars but by the year 1962 the private debt had increased the 671 and nine-tenths billion dollars this is an increase of almost a half a trillion dollars just in private debt we can take the federal debt and throw it out the window and just concentrate for a moment the effect that the increase in private debt has had on the economy of this country how much money must future generations earn to create enough profit just to pay up the expansion in private debt that occurred in the 12-year period in this time we are told it will require 1 trillion 124 billion dollars of future income just to pay off the expansion in private debt when we compare this to the economic growth throughout the entire nation during that same period of time we find that we have a net loss of 98 billion dollars in other words this nation must repay every penny of increase in wages that has been experienced or enjoyed by labor we must repay all of the profits that have been earned by every corporation in America during this 12-year period in fact ladies and gentlemen this is such a staggering figure that if we took all of the profits that has been earned by every corporation in the entire United States during this 12-year period that it could not pay off just the increase in private debt that took place in the United States during 12 years and this is what you and I the American public have embezzled from our children and our grandchildren this is almost one and a half trillion dollars that they cannot earn and use to support and stimulate their own economy because this money has been spent it is gone and it has been lost forever and this is money that our children and our grandchildren will not be able to earn to spend and to buy food, clothing, television sets, other luxury items to support their own economy but what effect has this had on the overall economy of the country and what effect is it going to have on our future well first of all the survey revealed that the corporation's of this country have been earning 60 cents net profit off of every dollar that has been paid to the American farmer now how does this happen this 60 cents is derived after these corporations have paid a 52% corporation tax now this seems impossible but if I move over to the blackboard maybe I can illustrate more clearly in other words the corporation's of this country have been earning 60 cents net profit off of every dollar that we pay to the American farmer now this is after they have paid their corporation taxes in other words before they have paid their taxes the corporations have actually earned a dollar and 23 cents off of every dollar that is paid to the American farmer how is this possible because every farm dollar is instrumental in generating $7 of gross national product in this country in other words the farm dollars starting at the bottom of the economy travels through enough hands to produce $7 of gross national product so in reality for every dollar that the American farmer has been underpaid ever since 1950 it means that the corporations of this country have lost 60 cents net profit had farm prices been a hundred percent of parity from 1950 up to the present day the corporations of America would have earned a 94 percent greater profit than they did but yet at the same time we have been living in a debt fueled economy and that every penny of expansion that we have had during this past 15 must still be paid off now how could this have been avoided and how did this originate or what caused it well very briefly with a few remaining minutes that we have I would like to show you in the year 1962 as an example this nation was 165 billion dollars short of producing a large enough gross national product to meet wages and interest in this country we only produce 63% of our gross national product that was necessary for our people to live but that isn't bad enough either because in 1962 we only produce 56 cents of every dollar that was spent by the people of this nation in other words 44 cents of every single dollar spent was borrowed money in the year 1963 it went up 45 cents of every dollar that was spent in this great nation was borrowed money and because of this debt fueled economy in which we have been living has brought on the responsibility in this fantastic increase in private debt and because of this we all every single penny of it plus an additional 98 billion dollars how could this have been avoided very simply because if farm prices had been 100 percent of parity by dividing the hundred and sixty five billion dollars that we were short to our economy by seven we come up with twenty three billion dollars that the American farmer received twenty three billion dollars more income in 1962 we would have eliminated this fantastic increase in the private debt it would have made it possible for this country to be paying off a big portion of our national debt but we didn't do it now in 1962 the American farmer was actually under pain 35 billion dollars as to what he should have had had he received his fair share with the other economic segments of this economy so even if he'd received the 23 billion which could have wiped out that deficit we still would have robbed the American farmer out of twelve billion dollars but because of this the expense that we the American people must pay because of robbing farmers is that now we stand on the threshold of losing our very basic way of life in rural America this is the price that people in a rural America must pay the elimination of two-and-a-half million farmers hundreds of thousands of rural businesses and thousands of communities will go down the drain with the farmer to cover up this fantastic mistake ladies and gentlemen I wish I had another hour to go through this whole program with you and to show you what effect low farm prices have had not only on the American farmer but on the economy of your community how it affects the support of your schools and your churches your county government and what effect it has on the tax structure of your state just as an example the state of Minnesota has been losing one-and-a-half billion dollars a year because of low farm prices our state legislature is having kittens trying to figure out new ways of means of raising taxes but yet they fail to take a close look at the thing that is causing these tax problems in Minnesota had Minnesota received its fair share of the gross national product just think of the amount of taxes that the Minnesota farmers would have been paying the state Treasury had this one and a half billion dollars come to our state think of the thousands of jobs that were lost because this one and a half billion dollars did not materialize but you Mr. Merchant think of the millions of business dollars that Minnesota business and industry lost because we did not get our fair share of the gross national product now this situation is true in every state in the agricultural areas this picture reflects the economic growth of rural communities throughout all rural America we are living in serious times unless those of us who are living in rural America and who cherished this way of life and appreciate and enjoy freedom become concerned enough to study the facts and see how low farm prices affect our very lives our business our community our family we can lose the basic freedoms that should be ours and that we want to preserve I'm very sorry that I'm running out of time and I thank you for your kind attention and Butch I think you can take over well Arnold what would you say that the solution is to this problem now you explained the problem now let's tell them what how to solve the problem just before take about a half a minute to sum up in your opinion as you put it the only group working to solve this problem that will solve eventually everybody's problem well Butch I've been real concerned about this and the only solution to the problem as I see it is one we have to restore fair farm prices to agriculture this is the only solution because regardless of how we look at agriculture the only problem that we have is price the large corporations and the economists of this country are trying to tell the American farmer they have to become more efficient they have to produce more and they have to be willing to sell their farm commodities for less money but yet at the same time they absolutely refuse to accept this law of the jungle philosophy in their own business and I know that many people think that government can solve the problem some people feel that supply and demand can solve it but we are living in serious times and we don't have ten or fifteen or twenty years to solve this thing and unless the American farmer becomes a businessman and concerned about what's happening to him and starts to run his business like a business organizing finding ways and means of marketing his products together and demanding a fair price at the market place we will lose rural America and this is the one reason Butch why I am sold on the national farmers organization because in my mind today it is the only farm organization that we'll be able to solve and save rural America in time and if you cherish this American Way of life and if you want to keep farmers on the farm let's make sure that we support farmers and endorse farmers and encourage them to band together and organize a business method in a business way so that they can market and get a fair price for their products because in reality ladies and gentlemen these farm dollars are the dollars that they want to spend in your stores in your community these are the dollars that they want to help support your schools and your churches your county government and your state government and these are the dollars that have been lost and these are the dollars that are causing all of the problems that we have with taxes and so forth today in other words what you're saying that everyone in rural America not only ought to support rural America but ought to support the National Farmers Organization because folks today the national farmers organization is the only real group that are working to get the farmers in position to get a fair price for their production Butch they tell us a lot of businessmen tell me that well I'd sure like to go out and support some of these these programs but you know after all I'm in business and if I take a stand I'm liable to lose a customer well Butch if they don't wake up and if they don't take a stand they won't only lose a customer they're going to lose their business they're going to lose their home they're going to lose their community because of it and we've got to quit worrying about a few customers and organize and fight to do what we can to preserve this rural American Way of life right to preserve what customers we have left now folks you know prosperity starts on the farm and it continues on through the economy in other words the farm income situation sets the prosperity level of the community not only of the community but of the nation the NFO is calling on the farmers in this area and the business people to join hands let's solve our problem in America today [music] solve our problem in America today solve our problem in America today