ROOSEVELT GOES WEST

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 231, 30 September 1935, Page 7

ROOSEVELT GOES WEST

Agriculture Administration

Defended.

OLD-TIME YANKEE DEMOCRACY

(Received 9.30 a.m.)

NEW YORK, September 29,

President Roosevelt halted on his western trip at Frcemont, Nebraska, a small community in the centre of the farm belt, to make an important speech on agricultural policy before '20,000 listeners. He defended the Agricultural Administration Act, including its curtailment features, although he admitted that the law contained some imperfections which were being revised from time to time as experience dictated.

Mr. Roosevelt recalled that 011 liis campaign tour in Nebraska three years ago wheat was .30 cents and corn 20 cents a bushel. 111 the past three years under the Agricultural Administration Act tlie farmers had gained an additional 5,300,000,000 dollars and to a great extent tlieir debt burden had been lifted.

Answering allegations that agriculture was under dictatorial control, the President said the Government was merely facilitating co-operative action among the farmers. The Agricultural Administration Act was democracy in the good old American sense. He said lie did not consider it merely an emergency measure, but the basis of a permanent national agricultural policy.