NFO-73 (AV10480) Ministers View of Agriculture

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Happy to come into your homes this afternoon. My name is Al Holzbauer and I'm a minister of the Cedar Lake Church of Christ in Waterloo, Indiana. This afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk with you about the National Farmers Organization. Now, some of you out there, I'm sure are already aware of the organization, and you're surely aware of the fact that in rural America, we're facing a very, very serious crisis. In the last year, I've travelled several hundred thousand miles, I've had the privilege of speaking to about 60,000 farmers. Most of us in rural America, like myself, a minister in the rural area, for the last seven years, began to appreciate some years ago, perhaps, three to four years ago, the plight of the American farmer. Now actually, in the American economy today we have just two types of structures as far as farming is concerned. One is the family farm and the other one is corporate farming. It is true, I'm sure, of all of you we recognize that this is a fact of life. There are three things that each one wants to do. We want to have, we want to do, and we want to be. Many times we are asked- "well, why is the ministry involved in the National Farmers Organization?" First of all, let me state this, that Christ, you who acquainted with the gospels, realized that the master of men was a throughly integrated personality. And there were- there wasn't another group of people that Jesus spoke more to and more about than the farmer. Yet he had words for the businessmen, for the banker, and the others alike. Now, this is an issue not only for the farm. When we speak concerning the National Farmers Organization, we are talking about an issue that touches every aspect of American life. This is truly a moral and a spiritual issue. When we have the opportunity to talk to the ministry, we try to point out to them simply, as ministers, as men of God, regardless of their religious persuasion, that we as ministers have something more to do than just stand behind our pulpits on Sunday morning and preach. We, too, must be integrated personalities. This is a moral problem. May I express to you the great principle that the master taught and is taught in the book of Genesis. The thread, the golden thread runs not only from Genesis but clean through to the book of Revelations. The Bible teaches that God made man. And he made him out of the dust of the Earth. And he fused into man the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Now the great principle we're interested in this afternoon is this. God has stated, in his word, that is man is willing to use his physical, his mental capacities, his spiritual capacities, he's willing to work, he's willing to labor. Then he has a right to a just and fair return on that labor. Almost every 6th grader in the United States of America today, this afternoon recognizes this one great principle. That if you produce a commodity, and you expect to get some kind of profit from that production, you must out of necessity, regulate price. The National Farmers Organization has but one great dynamic and one great catalyst. And that dynamic is simply the idea of pricing the goods, contract selling. Now, neither one of us this afternoon, we can't imagine individuals producing important of all things: food. And then having to go to the market place, having produced it on their land, their barns, with their machinery, bring it to the market place in their trucks, then have to say: listen, carefully, "what will you give me?" You have never heard anything that is more asinine than that. Neither have I. You recognize this afternoon, as I do, that 97% of the economy of the United States of America, this great land of ours, 97% use collective bargaining. 3% do not. 10 years ago, a revolutionary concept was born in the hearts of men. And that concept was to give to the American farmer the right to bargain. Now the American farmer has the key because he has the key of production. And he desires in this day, and in this hour, as never before to go to that door that as been locked to him for so long, and unlock that door that leads to the collective bargaining table. He desires to be an honorable individual, man of dignity. But I suggest to you that there is little dignity connected with a man who works, and labors, month after month, and at the end of the year, finds out that the greatest need, is the need for more credit. He has been living on credit for year in and year out. And the American farmer today, and I must, I should tell you this and others have told you perhaps, that the American farmer today is dissatisfied. He is convinced that the American people are dissatisfied with his lot. We are in, what we call as our president refers to it so often, as the Great Society. And yet, you would know this afternoon, that 56 percent of the American farmers are in the poverty- they are in the category. And this is difficult to believe, in a land as great as ours. Now other farm organizations have been in existence, and we do not desire this afternoon to cut off somebody else's legs to make ourselves look taller. But might we just point this out to you, that never before has a farm organization simply said, dynamically state, that we are going to get priced, we want contract selling. We have to have contract selling if we are going to stay on the farms. Now the other alternative is to simply go into corporate farming. In the country of Russia, they till approximately 600 million acres, and they need 42% of their populace to till this acreage. And they are producing less than than 7% of the world's food. In the United States of America, in our land, we have 400 million tillable acres, and we are using today less than 7% of our population to till that land and we are producing over 17% of the world's food. Now oft times as a minister, and you clergymen who are listening this afternoon, oft time it's clear to many ministers we are told to tell the farmer to be willing and to be eager to help feed the starving millions of the world. And I'm- I appreciate this. And I realize that this is a definite moral issue. But I also appreciate this- that it's difficult, extremely difficult and unfair, to say to the American farmer, insistently, tell them to feed the starving millions, when we are unable even in this very hour to get a price for it- for what he is producing so he can live like the rest of society lives. Let's look at a few facts and figures. In the fiscal year of 1965, just imagine this, think, I'm asking you to do the most difficult thing you've ever been asked to do. on any television program, I'm going to ask you to think. In the fiscal year of '65, the dairy farmer of the United States received an hourly wage of some place in the area of 52 to 62 cents an hour. Labor, in the mean time, ranged some place from $2.80 to $3.20. Now, I'm happy that labor is getting that price. I'm thrilled. And everyone else should be thrilled. But I need ask the question and you need to ask the question to yourself this afternoon. Why, then, is the farmer being treated as a second class citizen? Does he have a right to bargain? Is it a right as far as God is concerned? You know if you read in the book of Leviticus, you read a passage there in the thirteenth chapter, wherein it states that it is an evil for a man to withhold another man's wages. And for almost forty years now, this is precisely what we have been doing to the American farmer. The National Farmers Organization has an organization that's feasible. It's workable. It's utilitarian in concept. And it's revolutionary because for the first time, it's saying to the American farmer - yes, you do have a right to bargain, and here is the help yourself program or a self-help program whereby you can learn to bargain and be taught to bargain. A few years ago in the state of Indiana, Some of you may have had this experience, in the state of South Dakota and the surrounding states, but three years ago, in the state of Indiana, hogs were selling for 12 dollars and 25 cents to 12 dollars and 75 cents. In the church where I minister, a congregation that has an attendance of 300, strictly rural. We had we had three men at the time go bankrupt. I set up a meeting on one occasion, when a man said, simply, that if hogs would go beyond 17 or 18, the American people would refuse to buy. He said it was impossible to think of hogs selling at $22.75, which incidentally, was the contract price that the National Farmers Organization was then asking. And yet today, everyone in America realizes that hogs have been selling from 25, 26, 27 and only about four weeks ago, up to $30.25. The American people are still eating hog. They're still eating their ham, with their eggs and their bacon with their eggs. We have been told, the farmers of America were told repeatedly, that the reason they could not get price was because of the immense surplus at they believed it. They thought this was the absolute fact. And yet today, we know from Washington, the USDA, we do not have a great surplus. Now at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin just recently we heard professors state that land that's not tillable or it's in the soil bank today, in the next five years will have to be made tillable to feed the American people and others in the world. So this is a real problem, to you, those who are the housewives, you recognize and appreciate, I'm sure, the farmer. You realize, today, that you're paying perhaps, $0.19 on the dollar for food. And this is, this is hard to believe. But this exactly what you're paying out of the dollar, about $.19. And who's making this possible? The American farmer by working his 14, 16, and 18 hours a day. This is- this is a wonderful land, we all appreciate it. And yet I think in this afternoon, we need to think seriously Upon this, that maybe the thing that's happened in America today, we've gotten just a little bit too placent. We've reached a place where, we have a, sort of, what I call, an ostrich philosophy. We just don't care anymore. We're not as concerned as we ought to be about other fellow. We ministers, the men who call themself, the men of god, we stand behind our pulpit, and we preach that we are our brother's keeper. I cause you to think upon this. Yes, we are our brother's keeper and we are even more than that, if I can paraphrase it, we are our brother's brother. And every house wife, every small businessman, as I travel in 18 states and talking to some 60,000 farmers. I know something about the rural area, and I know something about the small towns. I'm not so naive that I don't realize that the small businessman is there in that town because of the farmer. Now when the farmer fails, the small businessman is going to fail. And I have here on my desk this statement, by the Independent Banker's Association and that statement, without any equivocation, it states without any reservation, that unless the farmer can get off of credit, the Independent Banker's Association will no longer be able to help as they have in the past. The farmer has been literally living on credit. Now the National Farmers Organization wants to do something about this. You know our greatest enemy, happens to be ignorance. How often I've head individuals say 'well, don't say anything about it to me, Al' 'Because you'll confuse me with the facts.' And then, of course, we have the narrow minded individual. And I often quip about them that they're so narrow minded their ears rub together. They're the type of individual that can zero in on a keyhole with both eyes. We have this to tolerate, we have ignorance. We have folk who know half truths. And that's unfortunate, because they usually know the wrong half. The National Farmers Organization desires, desperately, that all men of good will, regardless of what their present connections and organizations are, that is farm organizations. That if it desires individuals to work and labor with us, because this is the dynamic. Just collective bargaining. Contracting selling. We know now and we're aware of it. Most of America is aware of this. The National Farmers Organization, unlike any other organization in the entire United States, what a tremendous growth it has had. I remember when I started three years ago, and I share this with you, when I started three years ago as a spokesman for the National Farmers Organization and I had been in several things that people call crusades. They told me that some of the people in area said 'well, Al, you've made a serious mistake. Because, this organization, in the next year or two, will be dissipated.' Then I had the wonderful privilege of speaking to this, what they called a dissipated organization and I spoke to 11,000 delegates. 11,000 delegates. In the city of Minneapolis, state of Minnesota. Now this is not a dissipated organization. This is not a organization to supplant other farm organizations. It is merely an organization that desires for the farmer collective bargaining. Who can accomplish this? You know, oft times, we hear, well, who's going to do the job? When I gave the speech at the National convention, I read a telegram and I read the telegram and it stated merely, that George had died. Let George do it. Well, folks, George isn't with us anymore. And there's never been anything accomplished by just sitting back, and waiting and saying something's going to happen. We create the circumstances. And we make things happen by our efforts. We are the magnificent minority. You preachers who are listening and you clergymen, regardless of your faith, you know, of course, from reading that great book of life, that you believe, as I believe, in the book of Genesis to Revelation, that that book shows it was always the minority, they were the ones who fought the great battles. And so, it's been not only in Christendom, in the Old Testament days, but it's been in every nation. Professor Strudermen wrote the very fine book, Philosophy of the Soil. It has taken a number of nations, some 7 nations, and he has shown that in every case, when that nation has said to the farmer, get off the land. Or when that nation has decided for corporate farming, that nation started to decline. We're not interested in corporate farming. We are interested in preserving the family farm. And preserving Rural America. You can have a part in this. Yes, you can align yourself, with the magnificent minority. Now there's one fact, that I want to show you here by a very simple demonstration. Every democracy that has ever existed, has had for its base, agriculture. Therefore, it follows, that if there are 6 segments of our economy, and that major segment failed, then what will happen? Let me show you by this simple demonstration. Here's 6 dominos, representing the 6 categories of our economy. We push the first one. And what happens? All of them fall. And it is true today, just as true as it was in the days of Rome and Egypt and Assyria, and Syria. And every other Empire that when agriculture fails, that's the end of that particular nation. The rural people in the United States of America are proud. They're a proud people. They're a very, very independent people. I say of the farmers, of times when I speak, that they sort of remind me of a hog on ice. And sometimes I even refer to them and use something a little bit more graphic. That they remind me of a herd of jackasses, they're very, very backward about going forward. Up until a few years ago, they were illiterate as far as economy was concerned. And now the farmer, in the United States, must wake up. He must rise to the occasion. Because this in truth, is the moment of truth, this is the opportunity that the American farmer has been waiting for. Ministers, pastors, priests, throughout the land have taken a stand with them. To the Catholic clergy, I say this, few people, few people of the United States of America, have done as much and been as desirous of helping the farmer, as have the Catholic Clergy. And you are Catholics and are listening, you can be proud of your clergymen. As some of us have been a little bit reluctant. Because we've been afraid, perhaps, there would be pressures put upon us, that we would not be able to withstand. I learned some years ago, in fact, I learned it in the first part of my ministry. And I've been ministering for twenty years. That you have to learn to accept criticism and that he who intends to do something that's revolutionary, he who intends to do something that has never been tried before will get criticism. But he must be big enough to accept it. He must rise above it. We must have a kindly attitude. Now, I don't just believe in a lot of soup and sentiment, but I do believe that God loves all mankind. And I believe that as we work into framework the National Farmers Organization, an organization that desires, that I say this will all sincerity of heart, an organization that desires, honestly desires that every single individual should have a fair and an honorable opportunity. An organization that desires that all should be heard and have a right to be heard. An organization that desires its framework, it's organizational framework will be permeated with Christian principles. Now there's other ways of solving the farm problem. And I've heard some of them. And you've seen some of them in print. And sometime ago in one of our magazines, the answer was simple as far as some people were concerned. Just tell three and a half million farmers to get off of the land. However, I will have to say this. Those same people who are parroting that remark have changed somewhat in the last month. Another way we could just buy out all of the farmers. Here's another way to do it. Or we could just double all the prices. And this would be, this would be a tragedy. And we know that this is not going to work. And I suggest to you, then, this afternoon- that you give serious consideration. Serious study to the National Farmers Organization. I challenge you to get their literature, to read it. Not only to read it but to attempt to understand it. Then to go to the meetings and with an open mind, not with a closed mind, with an open mind, with honest questions, and honest suggestions, and they'll be glad to see you there. And they'll welcome you there. They'll be happy for your presence. You know, one of the hallmarks of our time has been violence. And this is sad. And one of the reasons there has been so much violence, I believe is because there has been a degree of injustice. And I want to see the American farmer, and I feel that you do too, just as much as I do, I know that you want to see the American farmer live on the same plane that you live on. I know that you desire for him the very, very best. And I ask you, then, ask you to- to attend the meetings and to become aware of what's going on. This is- we talk about the accomplishment of it. We know, certainly, that it's going to take united action. It's going to take a degree of dedication, perhaps, that we've never before have had to have. Perhaps, the dedication like we're having there in as we fight the battle in South Vietnam. This is a battle here. This is a battle at home, that effects every area of society. And then it takes something else, and this is paramount in all of our lives. I've find in my life that I can do what I desire to do if I really honestly desire to do a thing, I find myself accomplishing it. And I cannot forget what Napoleon Hill said on occasion when he mentioned whatsoever man can conceive, that he can believe it with all his heart, he can achieve it. And I believe that we can achieve our goals. And I think we're very, very close in achieving those goals. And we desire for you to work and to labor with us. And nothing is as we mentioned before, is over going to happen unless we make it happen. But all of this summed up, to have, sure the farmer wants, he has a right to a fair return. He wants to have things. He wants to do. And he wants to do the very, very best that he can. And there cannot be a quibble or this remark cannot be disputed when the American farmer has out produced every other farmer in the entire world. And then he wants to be. Will we give him back his dignity? Will we give him something more than credit at the end of year? Will we let him live honorable and bargain as the rest of society bargains? Or will we relagate him to second class citizenship? Now, we know what happened in the Civil Rights Movement. Most of us who are thinking people know why it happened. We know what can happen when injustice continues. And we ask you to recognize this. We cannot refuse to help one another. We're here as our brother's keeper and our brother's brother. And we will work, we will labor. And we will be united in this one effort. That the farmer, in particularly, the family farm in America will be preserved. And we have a saying at the National Farmers Organization- And I like it, I think it has a great deal of merit, and that saying is simply this: those who are in the know, learn about NFO. And I suggest then, once again, to you, if you're a Christian individual, you consider yourself a Christian, that you pick up that old book, and you read it once again and as you read it, you recognize and recognize very definitely, that God intends that those who will labor have a right and a fair return on that which they have labored for. And then I'm going to talk about one of things this afternoon. I wanna talk to you about involvement. This is a subject that comes up often in the ministry and in other places where I talk. The matter of involvement. To what extent should I be involved? Almost like a plague in the United States of America, sweeping the land, is this apathy. This complacency. This nonchalantness. And yet we know that as human beings, we ought to be and we have to be involved. Many times when we talk to the ministry, they agree with us in principle. And then they'll say, but I'm afraid to get involved. Sometime ago, you recall in the city of New York, a lady lost her life. And in an apartment building only a short distance away, a number of people could have come and aided her. In fact, the murderer returned the second time to the life of this woman. When they were asked, simply, why didn't some of you go down and help that lady? The response was, well I just didn't want to get involved. We no longer cannot enjoy it, ladies and gentlemen. We, in America, no longer can enjoy the luxury of non- involvement. We are involved.You are involved where the farmer is concerned. You're a house wife, you're a businessman, a banker, whatever your job is, you are involved in this. We're all involved in it together. And Christ was involved with life. Do you remember the story of Amos in the Old Testament, the farmer from Tekoa? Remember how God called him to preach to the people? Now, Amos could have said 'now, I don't want to get involved, God.' But God told him to preach and preach he did. And Paul, the apostle, was involved in every stratus of society, like his master was involved. And the ministry is involved. The bankers are involved, the housewife is involved. And one of the major dynamics of life and ones all of us are aware of from the time that we've been very, very young, is the fact that most of us want to be appreciated. Most of us want to be appreciated. There isn't anything that thrills the human soul any more than to have someone just say to them, 'well, I appreciate your efforts'. The farmer wants to be appreciated. The National Farmers Organization desires appreciation, as do all organizations desire. And then there's another 'a' in that. Not only appreciation, but all of us desire approval. Now we're not naive, we know that we have to earn approval. And we desire approval, we want you to investigate and to learn. And then if you can approve of the organization, if you believe that it's a step in the right direction, we do not offer a panacea. None of us have said that, that this is a panacea. We- we know that's not true. But we know that these are giant steps in the right direction. And then we have acceptance. How difficult it is in life to just be accepted. For a number of years, I've counseled in martial counseling and also in teenage counseling. And one of things that we find most of the problems in marriages as with the juvenile, with the teenager, is that he isn't accepted. We ask you, as you think of the three A's of life: approval, appreciation, and acceptance. That before you say I don't believe this, I don't believe that, not interested in this, give due time to study. And if you're a prayerful person, then I suggest to you that you do spend some time in prayer over it. If you're listening and you think, I've appreciated what's been said, and I wish that my priest or my minister could hear this, then I'm going to ask you to do this for us, would you attend a meeting and get literature for that priest of yours, that minister of yours, would you ask him to read it and then to give his judgement and his opinion on it? And, you know, many of us, as we go through life, all, in fact, all of us, need to recognize that we are involved. And that we need appreciation, acceptance, and approval. And as we close this afternoon, we want you to be in the know, and learn about the NFO. Thank you so much for letting us come into your home.