FARMERS: Idea

Of all farm organizations none is so potent as American Farm Bureau Federation, and of all farm leaders few are so influential as the Federation’s burly president, Alabama Cotton Grower Edward Asbury O’Neal III. Last week to the Federation’s convention in New Orleans went Ed O’Neal’s farm-minded neighbor, Senator John H. Bankhead of Alabama, to propose a plan for disposing of an estimated cotton carryover of 13,600,000 bales. The plan: to get farmers to reduce their estimated 1939 production of 12,000,000 bales by 4,000,000 bales, in return for being given 4,000,000 of the 7,000,000 bales the Government now holds for cotton loans. This maneuver, according to Senator Bankhead. would leave only 18,000,000 bales on the market for 1939, give cotton prices a salutary shot in the arm.