NFO-83 (AV10489) US Farm Report: What's Happening to Our Nations Wealth?

[music] welcome to us form report presented by members of the National Farmers organization in a fall presents what's happening to our nation's well with today's special guests W.W. Butch Swaim NFO national promotional director and Arnold Paulson rural business man from Granite Falls Minnesota who heads Minnesota business and industrial promotional agency family farm agriculture the grassroots of America my name is Butch Swaim promotion director for the national farmers organization it carries out the educational program work with the universities of our nation to find out what's going on departments of agriculture and departments of government and I have with me today Arnold Paulson Granite Falls businessman and president of the business and promotional investment agency of Minnesota Arnold and I just got back from a trip to Washington short time ago and we were down there to see what was happening we were having meeting with economists top economists of the nation determined what's happening what's bringing it about and what we can do to stop this erosion in rural America as well as the eventual destruction of our way of life in America Arnold why don't you give them a brief rundown on what's really wrong what brought this thing about and what you see the solution is well thank you Butch we spent a very interesting week in Washington DC visiting with many of the congressmen and Senators and we also had the privilege of meeting one of the nation's most charming personalities Esther Peterson the assistant secretary of labor and we also met with one of the most respected and leading nations economists and as we were interviewing him and discussing our national national economic problem he said that the only way we're going to solve the problems of rural America and to correct our nation's economy is if the people in rural America will create a loud enough noise so that they can hear it all the way to Washington because he has tried desperately for too long a time to try and create an awareness in the hearts and the minds of the people down there that there's something wrong and as we visited with many of the congressmen and Senators and the key people both Butch and I became aware of the same situation now they're not all blinded but I would say that the majority of the congressmen and Senators that we met with actually feel that there's nothing wrong with our economy now their basic reasoning is this they are thoroughly convinced that the John Maynard Keynes theory of economics or as we call it the new economics is almost infallible that the economists now can take all of the wrinkles out of the economy at will and as we met with several of the aides of the various congressmen and Senators they kept referring to the economic indicator of the United States government and they refer to the various statistics in here and they'd say man you don't know what you're talking about we'll turn to the pages and showing where we have 559 billion dollars in deposits in our private and public bank- in our private and commercial banks they also point their fingers to the fantastic increase in the national income of the country and say that labor is earning more money than ever before in history and then they also point their finger to the fantastic increase their growth of our gross national product and this they rely on as all of the facts that they need that our economy is stable now I would like to challenge some of the thinking of the new economics or the Keynes theory of economics which believes that they can take the ring goes out of our economy at will and that there is nothing wrong with this fantastic spread credit spending that is keeping our economy going because they say the wealth is still here it doesn't disappear and I think it would be very interesting to draw a diagram on the blackboard and show you people exactly what is happening to the wealth of this country it is true the wealth does not disappear it's true that all 559 billion dollars is still within our national economy it is true that our national income is increasing and it's true that we're purchasing more goods and services today than ever before in history but the fact remains that the purchasing of these goods and services is increasing each year with additional credit buying I would say that approximately 50% of all of the goods and services that will be bought by the entire national economy this year will be purchased with credit now I would like to move over to the blackboard and and draw a very simple illustration showing you people exactly what happens as interest rates increase as taxes increase and as increased credit buying is stepped up the wealth is still here but let's see what happens to it if I may I'm going to draw a line across the board such as this this line will represent the hundred and ninety five million American people this is the population a hundred and ninety five people within the confines of the United States hundred 195 million 195 million people right thank you but this also will represent the five hundred and fifty-nine billion dollars that they are telling us about that the wealth does not disappear it's still here it's within the confines of our economy that we shouldn't be- we shouldn't become alarmed about the the fantastic increase in spent and credit spending well now as we draw a line across the entire economy this represents all of the people and all of the wealth when we have a well balanced well distributed supply of money within our national economy but here is what happens every time the consumers have to pay more money for interest or the taxes go up and take a bigger bite out of the purchasing power of the people or as the population or the consumers have to resort to more credit spending to buy the goods and services that are necessary to live as the economy inflates it's true that the wealth is still here it doesn't disappear but you will notice now that the wealth is owned and controlled by a smaller group or percentage of the people and this segment of our economy is living in poverty as the economy continues to inflate or grow the wealth is still here but within a smaller segment or portion of our national economy and this is exactly what is happening today the wealth is still here but more and more people do not have the earned income necessary to buy the goods and services that they need to live and have to resort to increase credit until today our economy pattern looks something like this and yet the wealth is all here all 559 billion dollars what I am trying to point out is that the control of the wealth of this country is continually being collected into the hands of fewer and fewer people as the masses have to resort to more and more credit now this economy of ours can grow and can prosper just as long as we have enough collateral for the masses of people to extend their credit loans to keep the economy going but you can notice as this trend continues pretty soon the fine line will get down to the point where just a handful of people own and control all of the wealth of this nation in the situation that we find us in that we find ourselves in today is that the country is running out of money the country is running out of credit the country is running out of buying power because all of the money and all of the wealth is being collected and accumulated into the hands of the few and the trouble today is that the masses no longer have the collateral and the banks no longer have the credit to extend to keep the purchasing power of this economy moving and this is what we mean when we say that we are fast approaching the point of no return where the buying power of the country will collapse and where the interest factor will become so great that all of labor all of the consumers will not have enough dollars left in their paycheck to meet the installment payments on all of the mortgages and the installment payments that they have to make and still retain enough dollars left from their paychecks to buy the goods and services necessary to live and their credit has run out and as a result the economy will collapse but now the economists tell us that they have built-in measures that this will not happen again that we will not have another depression like we had in 1929 because we are smarter and we are wiser well some of the measures that they have they tell us that we now have FDIC insurance on all of the bank deposits guaranteeing your bank deposits up to $10,000 this is true but we have 559 billion dollars in bank deposits but we have less than seven billion dollars of insurance to back up the deposits so if we should have a repetition of 1929 it means that they could only pay off approximately one cent on the dollar this how sound in solving the FDIC insurance program would be in the event we should have another depression now they also have other built-in measures such as unemployment compensation and insurance and that they also have many WPA programs in the boiler house ready to go to work the moment the economy begins to slack but let's analyze the soundness of our national economy we have been led to believe as we read the magazines and the newspapers now for the last six years that we are living in the greatest boom prosperity that this nation has ever known but as we analyze it we will note that even the largest metropolitan areas in this country can't afford to clear their own slum areas they have to have urban renewal many of our large cities such as New York City is becoming the slum of America in addition to urban renewal we have to have manpower training and job opportunity programs which is a substitution of the CCC camps that we had in the 30s the economy is so booming that we must have anti-poverty programs because 36 million American people don't have the minimal requirements of food shelter clothing or medical care does this sound like boom and prosperity to you and one of the leading economists in a survey recently made available to the public shows that about 44 percent of the nation's population are just above the borderline of poverty and in addition to this the economy is booming to the point that we can't even pay our own medical bills we must have Medicare and that we can't even afford to educate our own children we must have federal aid to education we already have all of these built-in measures during the greatest boom this country has ever had and now they tell us that this 1929 cannot happen again because we have built-in safeguards that we have government programs that can go into action more WPA and other welfare maneuvers well I'd like to ask the American people to add this thing up what will the economy be like if we have to inject more measures to keep this thing moving now one of the nation's leading magazines and I'd like to point this out to you people because I read it every week every issue it's US News and World Report a very fine magazine very educational and I'd like to encourage you people to subscribe to this publication as well as another magazine Newsweek which gives you both sides of the coin now the headlines in the May 16th issue is "another '29 insight pro and con" now why would the newspapers and the magazines be writing about the threat of another depression if there wasn't something in the wind yes it is true the wealth is still here but the question is who controls it how much of it belongs to the consuming public how great is your debt and this year 1966 I wish you take your pencil and paper and jot some of these figures down this year 1966 the first 37 cents out of every dollar of national income will go for taxes federal state and local the next 20 cents out of every dollar of national income will go for interest on the public and private debt another 20 cents is already earmarked as payment on the principle of the debt which means that the first 77 cents out of every dollar of earned income nationwide is gone before you get your paycheck now some of you people may not be paying any interest or installment loans that means that the neighbor living next to you then is paying your share and his share because this is the average for the whole United States which leaves only 23 cents out of every earned dollar in the entire national economy available to spend to buy food clothing shelter and medical care and is that any wonder that the American people have had the resort to credit buying to buy the goods and services necessary for living and as the result of the fantastic increase in credit spending we have created a fantastic debt fueled economy and the gap is getting narrower and narrow narrower the wealth is being owned by more and more people and the masses are becoming poorer and poorer as a result today 1% of the banks in this country control 50% of all of the wealth in the entire nation that's the banking assets the banking wealth the banking assets right thank you Butch for correcting me the other 99% of the bank's control the other 50% I think I have explained by this diagram how this is coming about and if this insane program is not stopped very soon this can very easily end up 1/2 percent 1 4 percent and these figures can go to 80 percent and a 90% but it can't get that far ladies and gentlemen because our economy won't collapse now this is what's happening when they tell us that the wealth is still here it cannot disappear it still belongs to someone I hope Butch that I have painted this picture clearly enough so that the audience can understand what we have been talking about let's explain for just one moment the wealth is still here but supposing you're a farmer out here and you're paying on a farm we're supposing you're a working man and you're paying on a house in town the wealth is still here this sounds fine but when you get laid off in your job or your farm prices are so low that you can no longer make the payments on that farm or that house in town and they foreclose take it away wealth is still here all right and using the theory that's being taught down in Washington you're not supposed to complain because it's still here you're not supposed to feel bad because they took it away from you and let somebody else own it now let's talk just for a minute what's brought this about what caused this to get in such situation it was lack of earned income on the part of everyone in their economy and this started out that right out at the grassroots level on the farmer level I have here and I wish the camera would come in close a little diagram a little cartoon so to speak it will show you what brought this about and this has been going on since the harsh and buggy days but the farmers have been going to town one of the time we're sending their produce to town and saying what do you give me and in later years with more competition on the top end they don't even go anymore the truck hauls it to town what the mule explains it very well Jack says my boss says he don't have to go along to town market because I can get just the same price he can but to correct this situation the farmers are going to have to organize and get together and go to town and bunches and say not say what will you give me but say this is ours it cost so much to produce we must get this much in order to stay in business and earn enough earn national income to keep our economy going red I know you've got another point there you want to bring out what are you're holding there in your hands well Butch I have with me a Farm Tempo magazine which I consider to be one of the finest farm publications in America today anyone that's interested in subscribing to this publication can write to Farm Tempo magazine Marshall Minnesota that's all you need Farm Tempo Marshall Minnesota the subscription rate is two dollars a year and I encourage businessmen and everyone living in rural America to subscribe subscribe to this fantastic publication but what's one thing I'd like to refer to is an article on the inside cover of the last issue which is referring to a statement that says here is why farm programs get a bad name and here is why there's so much miss much misunderstanding in agriculture in the rural areas is because it's hard for many of the rural people to believe that there is actually a depression on the American farm and i'd like to read this very briefly because it's quite short this article says that in Holt County Nebraska farmers last year drew something over 1 million dollars under the federal farm program there was a total of 1356 farms of agriculture units in Holt County in 1965 according to the county ASC office six large farmers in Holt County received almost 50% of the total paid under the farm program these six farmers amounted to less than one half of one percent of the total number of farmers in the county but they got and listen to this very clearly they got four hundred and sixty one thousand five hundred and forty nine dollars and sixty cents in 1965 and Butch I believe this is one of the reasons why so many people are fighting the program of the national farmers organization it's because not because they don't believe that the farmers must correct their own problem at the marketplace but they are blinded by greed because of the fantastic payments that some of these people are getting from the federal government and rather than surrender these payments in lieu of a fair and honest price at the market price because of their greed they would just as soon see all of rural America go down the drain as long as they themselves are doing all right what do you think well they think that it won't be so bad let the other fella go and then they'll have all the pie but it won't work out this way folks because when more and more of those go and the price continues to stay low there won't be enough earned income to keep our total economy going and this is the fallacy in the whole thing that they need to get together such as we are doing here with other farm groups to get together get the farmers educated that they bargain together and sell together for a fair price because each dollar that American agriculture is shortchanged in the marketplace creates a shortage of $7 of earned income international economy and this is the thing that these government programs with just a few in the hands of a few getting all the payments or the bulk of the payments this is going to ruin our entire system and I think Arnold but you know how we're working together with the National Grange and as the caption says they're on the magazine the nation's two most respected farm organizations and I think this was very well put because the Grange has been respected for years it's celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year because they started back in the days when there was no farm organizations as such at that time and they've come a long ways they've been on the side of rural communities and rural people all the way through and then the national farmers organization the youngest of our farm organizations has come along with the collective bargaining program that will solve this problem The Grange recognizes that just because they're a hundred years old is no sign that they're going to stand the way in the most dynamic farm organization that there is today they realize that we have the bargaining talent the bargaining personnel and the ability and they're recommending that we do the bargaining for the members in their group and this has been a very fine cooperation we've cooperated in legislation and other groups and what do you think this will lead to Arnold well Butch I hope everyone in this listening audience or viewing audience realizes that I'm not a farmer I'm a businessman but I had the opportunity to attend a joint meeting of the national farmers organization in the grain that Defiance Ohio a month or so ago and I thought that this was possibly the healthiest sign that I've seen in agriculture because here you do have two of the nation's most respected farm organization joining hands and working together for a common cause both recognizing together that this problem must be solved by the farmers through the joint cooperation and effort of everyone that wants to save our rural way of life and I think which that this is the healthiest thing that's happened and if these two organizations can continue to work together harmoniously I think that this will be the answer in solving the problems in rural America and will help save save this way of life that we cherish the Grange's plus is the oldest farm organization in America they are very highly respected and I think it's a credit to the national farmers organization which that they're willing to join hands and pitch in and help win this battle that must be won there's more and more signs Arnold other groups are beginning to show interest and beginning to realize that we have the only program that will save rural America as such the business people are beginning to back us up in ever-increasing numbers the rural newspapers realize if the family farm structure of agriculture disappears that they will no longer be needed out here in the rural towns USA and more and more church groups are beginning to catch on and see the light too Arnold well the reason for this Butch is I agree the tide has started to turn but the reason for this Butch is more and more people are thinking and more and more people are are reading and studying and digging and looking for facts rather than listening to the gossip and the rumors that are floating around the country that's being spread by people who don't want the farmers to get a fair price and I think that the signs are healthy as you said that more businessmen more ministers and more of the educators in rural America are beginning to realize that collective bargaining for agriculture is the answer in the solution that we're going to save agriculture in our rural community I think this is absolutely right and every day now we get calls from interested people position of leadership throughout the nation wanting more information on our n fo collective bargaining program that will put the farmers in position to put a price on his production not only to protect the farming industry but to protect all of rural America because folks rural America has been living on less than a 50-cent dollar in comparison to the rest of the nation less than half what they're entitled to receive and this has brought about the underpayment to the agriculture at the marketplace this situation when corrected will double our dollar flow through rural America will double the job opportunities in rural America will make profit clear along the line so that no longer will we need this debt fueled economy this immense immense spread of borrowed money and this is what ruined us in 1929 this immense borrowed money and speculation and if the trend continues the way it's been going I've got a little article here out of a magazine that's in the Sunday issue it's about one third of the newspapers of the country and it says it is just a question of time if this trend continues until a few corporations own all the productive farms in America we made that statement which in that article who made this statement I'm not sure but it's talking about higher up and the article about President Johnson but nevertheless folks we're calling on the nation's farmers and all over all America to join this effort of collective bargaining for the American farmer through the National Farmers Organization thank you for listening [music] the US farm report was brought to you by members of the national farmers organization the NFO with interests and purposes of maintaining America's agricultural welfare which benefits the national economy is brought to you what's happening to our nation's well with W.W. Bush Swaim NFO national promotional director and Arnold Paulson rural business man from Granite Falls Minnesota for more information on the NFO attend meetings in your area or contact the national farmers organization Corning, Iowa family farm agriculture the grass roots of America