NFO-22 (AV10430): Midwest Farm Report: Democracy in Action

[music] Midwest farm report series brought to you by NFO the national farmers organization now documents democracy in action action is the commitment of the NFO at the end with America's farm marketing system be modernized farmers have a right to price their products every thinking person recognizes how to bring farmers into a broad consensus of agreements act and still maintain democracy within the NFO the Jeffersonian phrase is from the consent of the governed during the next half hour NFO will document this democratic process from scenes from the Minneapolis Convention of the NFO just as 1965 was about to begin this convention was attended by seven or eight thousand farmers who came from vast 24 state area and paid their own expenses some even travelled the whole day others took twice as long many saw for the first few Minneapolis at night the 24 state area is a lot of geography then NFO County organization stretching almost from coast to coast some came by special train as these from Kansas did others chartered buses still others drove their own automobiles it was time for making new acquaintances and greeting old friends if there were no other contribution made by NFO history would still note this that farmers were taught to communicate with each other better what is little understood by town or city people is that the folks who now survive in agriculture are the toughest the most efficient and the best managers and it stands to reason these farmers also communicate better with each other only about three and a half million farmers left but these still produce 100 percent of America's production and in the NFO they know this fact is their power the first act of a convention delegate is to register to get hotel rooms and to learn directions the business of just being friendly may not look important but it creates the most potent byproduct of the convention that spirit of cohesiveness after all it's easier to break up and scatter of people who have not seen each other it's another thing when you're dealing with folks who are friends even though their homes may be separated by thousands of miles they will remember to hold together in collective bargaining each knows that the other knows that the problem is mutually understood members of the NFO like to identify themselves the buttons and badges which sell by the thousands are not merely a measure of the convention delegates well-known taste or lapel decorations all year round NFO people show their pride and letting the public know that they're active in the fight to save the family farm a woman's view of the farm problem is a view that deprived family agriculture also means the deprived family and as they rest in the hotel lobby they talked about the future of the family farm the process of democracy in action begins seriously as the various standing committees meet in rooms off the mezzanine of the famous old Nicolette Hotel in Minneapolis the resolutions committee chaired by Vic Host of Austin Minnesota is in the process of getting the thinking of its members on some questions affecting agriculture there were several sharply worded resolutions urging that federal market reporting services be overhauled to make sure that the reports don't merely reflect what certain buyer interests want farmers to think is the supply situation the resolutions committee is perhaps the best barometer of the conventions thoughts because these resolutions will have to be submitted to a vote on the whole floor democracy in action begins with an idea pounded out in a committee chaired by Vic Host of Austin Minnesota and the resolutions committee gets a show of hands and the bylaws committee chaired by Glenn Utley of Indiana considers ideas for making the NFO's ground rules more suitable to the ever growing size of the organization the NFO constitution and bylaws are an excellent study in the art of checks and balances to make sure that only farmers can control the policies of this farm organization a good example of the NFO attitude toward the consent of the governed is the famous two-thirds rule it's the requirement that such major decisions as the approval of a binding contract with the processor can be consummated only when it is certain two-thirds favor the deal the NFO bylaws also stipulate that those who hold posts of responsibility such as members of bargaining committees make most or 51 percent of their living producing that commodity a most important aspect of democracy in an organization is how it chooses its officers our representative is the NFO the National Board consists of three members usually from each of those states where NFO membership has reached a certain level other states have perhaps smaller population smaller membership had one or two directors on the national board these policymaking officers are nominated at state conventions and are confirmed by the National Convention itself this is a powerful body the NFO board it alone has the authority to call holding actions it advises and directs the President and other officers including the great area bargaining committees and the skilled staff people the National Board meets at least once a month at Corning Iowa through this board American farmers are no longer an ineffectual mass incapable of concerted action the incumbent 1964 board members faced the camera James Merritt of Illinois Wayne Miller of Indiana Don Everson of Kansas Elmer Slimmy of Iowa Felix Dieterding of Nebraska Chris Walker of Kansas Robert Manky of Wisconsin Merle Willard of Illinois Leo Bueller of Ohio Horace Kanerva of Minnesota Edie graph of Wisconsin John Hoster of South Dakota William Lastmut of Illinois Lloyd Fairbanks organization director Missouri vice-president Pfingsten of Sergeant Bluff Iowa secretary Harvey Sickles of Fontanella chief negotiator Gordon Shafer of Missouri Arnold Wilhoit of Kentucky Fred Deardorff of Missouri Robert Server of Missouri John Cook of Unionville michigan Clarence Dutlinger of Indiana Ray Heckler of Missouri Clarence Ewart of Minnesota Roland Waters of Wisconsin Glenn Utley of Indiana Kenneth Stofferahn in the South Dakota Al Herman of Ohio treasurer Earl Thompson of Blair Nebraska promotion director Butch Swaim of Iowa Gene Potter of Illinois and Vick Host of Austin Minnesota the national convention is also a modern administrative office a little scene part of the workings is the experience group from the headquarters staff who come to the convention city several days ahead of time and work virtually around the clock to make sure the delegates and the committee people have copies of the many matters under discussion they also prepare ballots and keep records and tallies and credentials the first side of the convention itself as NFO delegates converge on the auditorium from all over the country the parking lot show quite a collection of state license plates a newspaper reporter said of these NFO conventions that they rank in size with political party conventions that nominate a candidate for president of the United States this is an active news story newspaper publishers and radio and TV stations send their biggest byline writers and announcers to cover it they know that this is where the action is there's a scurrying to get credentials in order and get seated properly with the home delegation big decisions are to be made here and the delegates know it they're aware of the fact that no state federation screens out dissenters as happens in some other farm organizations these men are elected in home counties with full voting power seven or eight thousand delegates will need lots of room and so they file in and find their places so they can act with or if they choose independently of their delegations they have already received full authority from their counties yes and women vote as duly elected on exactly the same basis as men getting their credentials in order the various states come to this convention the auditorium looks pretty enormous as it is about to fill up it will take a pretty big haul to see this many delegates remember they come from 24 states practically from coast to coast there's a visitor's gallery in the balcony but most to attend our voting delegate there's a delegation from Idaho though they came from a long way they're proud of how many made the journey perhaps a bit of rivalry with other distant delegations from nearly 3,000 miles come some from New Jersey and there is a New York delegation almost from coast-to-coast they're proud of their attendance and the NFO is proud of them Erhard Pfingsten NFO's vice president acted as chairman because as 1965 was about to begin the president of the NFO Oren Lee Staley of Rey Missouri was in the Idol hospital in Minneapolis recuperating from an appendicitis operation reports by department heads and by the chairman of the various standing committees or first order of business the crowd hears from Lloyd Fairbanks of Missouri director of the organization department this is the division which has most to do with the phenomenal growth of the NFO Bill Weissman of Illinois heads the NF O's meat bargaining division he gives a report to the NFO delegates attention is keen because they recognize the crucial importance of the battle for livestock prices and the power of the packers in the chain stores Ed Helen of Iowa gives a report on soybean bargaining a complicated business involving nationwide processor combines area price differences and a growing export picture Roland Waters of Wisconsin reports to the convention on the marketing of edible beans in various aspects of grain bargain Gordon Shafer of Kingsville Missouri NFO's chief negotiator reports on some NFO gains and techniques for meeting with processors and negotiating pressures available to farmers dairy bargaining gains also are among the highlights of 1964 as the NFO expanded into the dairy states Butch Swaim who heads the promotional department meetings publicity public relations which says the only people who don't belong are the people who don't understand and so it goes as the delegates crowd around the snack bars and eating places in the convention hall others buy more buttons and stickers help advertise the NFO and they get set for the afternoon session as vice president Pfingsten bangs the gavel for the afternoon session one thing is noticed the tempo is increasing the feeling you get is that we have in the making a gigantic consensus of American farmers you find your eyes moving around the hall the spot a number of distant states represented just technically to seat so many people so they can be heard when they speak it's quite a study in modern communications remember NFO's most important speakers president Lee Staley is several miles away in the hospital how can he address the convention from a hospital room actually that room is a jamup of television radio and recording equipment not the usual sick room with bouquets plus a sad patient Staley smiles and kids back and forth with the cameraman mrs. Oren Lee Staley, Ruth Staley, her husband seems to be on the job for the NFO sick or well this is the first for any sort of farm organization to hear their president speaking from flat on his back in a hospital cot vice president Pfingsten introduces President Staley Thank you Pfing certainly I'm at an unusual position this afternoon you know usually I'm in the position of dodging the darts of the opposition and I've been dodging the darts the penicillin needles and such over here in the hospital for the last few hours I hope that I'm able to focus some attention on some of the things I had in mind to say. I hope that we understand now is the time to turn up the steam. this battle will not be won on the highways of this land it will not be won on someone else's property I'll tell you where it'll be won it'll be won at the lack gate with the use of persuasion and education of the people that are selling it's a battle between the buyers and the farmers and the farmers will realize and the sooner they realize that that each other is farmers that each other farmer is his best friend and that buyer is only a friend as long as he can get the production that he wants at the price he intends to pay this is the issue Staley returns again and again and his charge to the convention to a theme he doesn't let the farmer forget that farmers will have to solve their own problems they've got a big laugh from the crowds when he referred to a plan of some group to try to buy a chain of grocery stores Staley said let them sell the ribbons and we'll solve the farm problem it was a serious speech one which dwelled on the weaknesses of the farm price picture Staley urged farmers to forget past differences and work together to bring their production together into a position of bargaining we must use a holding action as our main weapon we may use it in several ways but less bill between each action to make the holding action more effective in the next action and less prepared and these educational seminars must be the preparation to get more people to understand and realize what we're doing so there are more people that are willing to say we've done our job or producing now we are going to finish up the job of pricing together we're going to win this battle and god bless you I'm glad to have visited with you [clapping] the TV stations carried that dramatic scene on their night newscasts one person at the auditorium commented that Staley horizontal or perpendicular he's still the most dynamic leader in agriculture today as the night session got underway there was a feeling of enthusiasm and even gay the delegates were there to hear the Honorable Orville Freeman Secretary of Agriculture and what they didn't expect was the introduction of two farmers who might be the forerunner of NFO's organization into the deep south one was a cattle farmer from Florida who told him a trip that he had made on his own to Georgia to hear some farmers discuss starting up an NFO organization he made a big hit with the crowd and his friend also from Florida was introduced the NFO had penetrated into the South before with accents from Kentucky Oklahoma Arkansas Missouri Tennessee but this was the deepest thrust so far into the populous southeast coastal region when the Secretary of Agriculture was introduced to the crowd the applause was warm and genuine for two reasons here was a popular Minnesotan back home and it was known to the convention that Mr. Freeman thought enough of president Staley that he had visited him in person that afternoon at Idol Hospital in his address to the NFO Secretary Freeman spent most of his time those in the auditorium expected he would in describing the Johnson administration's farm program accomplishments he emphasized the increase in farm commodity exports and the beginnings made by the USDA during the Kennedy and Johnson years of ending the farm storage problem and he dwelled on increased farm income the night session produced one of the most interesting comparisons and points of view these delegates who knew Secretary Freeman was to be followed by Vincent Rossiter president of the Bank of Hartington Nebraska Vince Rossiter adviser to the governor of this state for the Agriculture Department being interviewed by a magazine US News he pulls no punches when he asserts that both business and government leaders have made decisions deliberately to shrink agricultural income while the rest of our business economy doubles and triples Rossiter pointed out that these delegates he pointed out to them that even in Agriculture Department releases a news hand outs they've started using the phrase per farm income Rossiter noted that this is an expression which tries to convey the idea that income is on a par if you gloss over the fact that fewer farmers got what they got from a total of farm income that did not grow Rossiter urged that agriculture fight for a bigger pie the second day of the convention produces what newspaper reporters call hard news who was nominated who was elected what resolutions passed this is also a day of NFO intramural politics Lynn Beau of Elk River Minnesota is campaigning for president handbills argue his case too many outward appearances this day and the convention is just like the first one and the vending stands where they sell NFO buttons and badges and stickers are still doing a land office business but inside the convention hall there at the serious business sometimes tedious of amending the bylaws this is one of the facts of life about a growing organization to accommodate new dimensions and size and experience and geography the ground rules get it going over from the floor vice president Pfingsten at one point in the second afternoon session got absolute attention when his name was placed in nomination for president mister Pfingsten declined and turned his refusal into a second seconding speech Oren Lee Staley as Pfingsten put it amid great applause let's don't break up the team the mood of the delegates was to get on with the business of building the power to bargain Lynn Beau who ran against Staley for president addresses the whole convention he asserted the wholesomeness of having a choice of candidates and raised some issues which have been debated before at these conventions and will probably be debated again the relative scope and responsibilities of County structures and Area bargaining and for a close-up of the machinery of democracy in action here are the tellers and the staff people preparing the ballots because the moment the voting is now closed at hand and an NFO voting procedure strict attention to the secret ballot is maintained the actual ballots are brought into the convention hall and as the voting is about to begin it is already noted that only those who are accredited to vote have been admitted to the floor delegates identification badges have been scrutinized when the vote tally is underway and is finally announced it is apparent to the convention that Oren Lee Staley of Rey Missouri has a clear majority over Lynn Beau of Elk River Minnesota again the art of electronic communications is necessary to get the acceptance speech because Mr. Staley had to hear news of his reelection from the hospital room in his acceptance speech Staley urges the NFO to close ranks expresses his appreciation to the thousands upon thousands of NFO members over a 24 state area who have given so much of their time and energy to build bargaining power he does not minimize the tasks that lie ahead but urges farmers not to lose sight of their objective one gets the impression watching this that America has in these times one of the greatest of its farm leaders in the whole history of agriculture new members of the National Board are brought forth to the stage to be introduced to the crowd the business of making introductions of the new directors to the convention goes on most of the National Board were re-elected to new terms as Erhard Pfingsten had said earlier let's not break up the team one gets the feeling watching all this as the NFO board stands on the stage that this is more than democracy in action this is the last great fight for a family owned land system in America the last night session of the convention makes a frank play for the attention of the press with well-known speakers professor John T Schlebecker of the Department of History at Iowa State University professor Schlebecker demonstrated the schoolteachers skill at compiling facts and dates he described in complete detail and provided some amusing comments in his rye manner about past holding actions of the NFO and the response of the press and of other farm organizations which had had to watch as the NFO kept growing larger and stronger while they had predicted less confidently that the NFO would fade out of the picture some corpse as one observer put it when the death of the NFO had been predicted by a rival farm organization professor Schlebeckerr has made a specialty of the study of movements and organizations he is noted that those which have survived are the ones which have clearly understood and limited objective Republican congressman Alvin O'Konski Wisconsin also addressed the convention during that final night session Alvin O'Konski is a gadfly not only to his fellow Midwesterners but from the sounding board of Congress and such gatherings as this convention Mr. O'Konski reminds us of the embarrassing fact about how little representation farmers have gotten in the deliberations over tariffs and trade he reminds his audiences that agriculture is involved and yet that export-import decisions are mostly made by business corporations outside agriculture the congressman an experienced showman brought down the house with a story he told about a lawyer he said he reminded the attorney that lawyers name their fee scales and that the Bar Association acts as a common front for attorneys so why shouldn't farmers name their price the last big function of the convention is the adoption of resolutions in some groups the resolutions are the most important act of the convention I'm speaking now of organizations which believe problems can be solved by lobbying NFO an action group has resolutions they are debated hotly in committee and on the floor but the delegates know the National Farmers Organization will succeed or fail because of its bargaining actions not its thoughts and opinions on various questions the signs are unmistakable now that this is the closing phase of the convention and that the delegates are tired after continuous session for two days and nights we have tried during this past half hour to document the truth about this movement which has captured more and more of the attention of those who think about the farm problem this is the movement this NFO which first openly used the phrase collective bargaining for farmers the phrase was a real shocker when the National Farmers Organization first started up them down the country roads selling the idea that farmers should go into the marketplace asking not what am I going to get but instead asserting to the processors we want this price for these products which we own yes the phrase may have been a shocker but the idea is the authentic hope and aspiration of all farmers throughout our history and incidentally the phrase has now become respectable as one member of the clergy from the state of Nebraska puts it when he addresses farm meetings attend the NFO meetings in your area learn the facts about the NFO and you'll want to become a member for more information contact the NFO members in your area or write to the headquarters office of the NFO at Corning Iowa that's all the address you need NFO Corning Iowa everyone will belong to the NFO as soon as he understands the fact it is evidenced in the phenomenal growth of this organization some facts about the economic system farmers are now producing 40 percent more than they did the 1950s began and they are selling the whole total of their production for 15% less processors profits just in the meat industry alone shot up forty seven percent nineteen sixty-four over nineteen sixty three these are times when cattlemen have lost an actual two and a half billion dollars these are times when beef steaks in the grocery store cost more not less and yet the unusual thing about all this is that you farmers hold the power your power is in your production this farm production was first owned by you it may not have occurred to many well-meaning farmers who have a wait-and-see attitude toward the NFO that there is no neutral ground either your production will be used on the side of farmers in getting a better price or if you go in alone unattached your production will be used by the processors on their side to beat the price down the members of the NFO are calling upon their neighbors farmers everywhere in America to join in this all-out fight to solve this farm problem the time to make yourself effective is now the time to join the NFO is now the time to put your production on the side of your neighbors is now this program was produced by WW Swaim photographed by David McCullough was scripting narration by Phil Howard we invite you to tune in next week at this hour for another Midwest farm report brought to you by NFO