1946-52: Years of Trial and Hope by Harry S. Truman

Author:Harry S. Truman [Harry S. Truman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography and Memoirs/Presidents and Heads of State
ISBN: 9781612308166
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
Published: 2014-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

I was raised on a farm, and even as a boy I helped my father there. My home state of Missouri is primarily a farm state, and my brother Vivian farms to this day. I know what the farmer’s problems are. I learned early, when I worked in a bank, how important the farmers’ prosperity is to the welfare of the country.

When the crops failed, two things happened to the bank; the farmers withdrew their deposits, and later many farmers came to borrow money on their land. When the farmers were hurt, merchants and tradesmen suffered. To see this happen was a basic lesson in economics. It was a practical demonstration that prosperous farmers make for a prosperous nation, and when farmers are in trouble the nation is in trouble.

In 1921, the bottom fell out of agricultural prices, and throughout the twenties the farmer was barely able to hang on. Then came 1932 and the victory of the Democrats. Sound policies followed, restoring farm prosperity, for the New Deal knew that farm income had to be stabilized if the national economy as a whole was to be stabilized. Soil conservation, the Triple A, Farm Credit Administration, rural electrification - all these and other measures contributed to the return of farm prosperity.

Then World War II gave this trend a strong push as American crops were shipped overseas to help feed our allies and as greatly increased employment at home increased domestic food consumption to an all-time high. Even after the war, relief shipments and Marshall Plan aid continued to demand the products of American farms.

Throughout these years, the government had guaranteed the price of farm products at a fixed level, but the continued high demand had kept the government-guaranteed surplus at a minimum. The result was that in 1948, the American farmer had reached an economic position better than he had ever known before.

Cash farm income was up to more than $30 billion a year from less than $5 billion in 1932, and the farm-mortgage debt had dropped 25 percent since 1941. Bank deposits and savings of farmers were $22 billion, the highest in our history.

While this agricultural prosperity was due partly to special factors in the postwar situation, the sound farm legislation which had been adopted since 1932 provided a much better basis for sustained farm prosperity than we had ever had before. In 1932, for example, we had had no soil-conservation program, no price-support program, no school-lunch program, and only a limited agricultural-research program.

But the farmers still had reason to be fearful. A sudden change, such as that of 1921, might cause the bottom to fall out of agricultural prices, and I intended to do everything I could to prevent an agricultural depression from happening. The farmer, I felt, was entitled to real protection against a postwar slump, and the nation as a whole had to be protected against a farm depression. I wanted a program of action to insure that the gains made since 1932 would be held

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