The first distress of readjustment came to the farmer, and it will not be a readjustment fit to abide until he is relieved.
Warren G. Harding
The Public Record
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular presidents at the time of his death. After that, a number of scandals were exposed that greatly damaged his reputation.
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Agricultural ill fortune is a national ill fortune.
That one-fourth of our population which produces the food of the Republic and adds so largely to our export commerce must participate in the good fortunes of the Nation, else there is none worth retaining.
Agriculture is a vital activity in our national life.
It has its vicissitudes which no legislation will prevent, its hardships for which no law can provide escape.
But the Congress can make available to the farmer the financial facilities which have been built up under Government aid and supervision for other commercial and industrial enterprises.
It may be done on the same solid fundamentals and make the vitally important agricultural industry more secure, and it must be done.
But American agriculture needs more than added credit facilities.
The credits will help to solve the pressing problems growing out of war-inflated land values and the drastic deflation of three years ago, but permanent and deserved agricultural good fortune depends on better and cheaper transportation.
Here is an outstanding problem, demanding the most rigorous consideration of the Congress and the country.
Too frequently transportation failed while perishable products were turning from possible profit to losses counted in tens of millions.
In our complex and interdependent modern life transportation is essential to our very existence.