Dan

Dan Lindsey Ms. Schiding US History 10 16 December 2009 Fireside Chat – Agricultural Adjustment Act I come to the American people today to spend a few minutes on our nation’s current agricultural situation. I come to you in order to inform the unaware masses of how dire our agricultural conditions are in these difficult times, and what we as a governing body are attempting to do in order to soothe the situation for our nations’ farmers -- farmers whom are instrumental in maintaining a healthy economy, and have been hurt the most by our national depression.

After the end of the Great War, something that seems so distant now, the agricultural industry continued to provide a surplus of unnecessary goods that consumers would not purchase. Thus America’s farmers saw crops go to waste, lost millions of dollars in a market with too low demand, and went into large debt due to equipment purchased on credit that need to be paid for. Before this nation had even entered this economic depression, our farmers were struggling to stay afloat. As our nation went tumbling into this Great Depression, farmers nationwide went bankrupt and their land was foreclosed by the banks. Many were forced to leave their homes to move to cities, while others became workers on farms that gave them just barely enough to get by. And, as if to add insult to injury, the Midwest farmers are suffering through one of the worst droughts seen in our country’s history.

So great has this drought been, the ground cries out in thirst, becoming a sea of sand and dust. Storms throw dirt high in the air and cause sandstorms unheard of outside of the great Nevada desert – mile-high storms so great they have left the Midwest in shambles. America, our farmers and our entire agricultural industry are mere shadows of their former selves. What this nation needs now is this new legislation, an act to help the common man who has been scathed by man and God alike. We as a nation have come together to discuss how to solve this nation’s agricultural woes. We come together to help the common man.

The House and Congress have just approved the Agricultural Adjustment Act. With this new legislation we can began the steady march to improvement. The AAA will began giving benefits to farmers, and in return they will began more careful procedures, began crop rotation, and be restricted to growing a decided amount of crops per year. With this we can simultaneously reduce surplus and increase income.

We indend to pay for this with a slight increase on taxation of the food produce industry. Workers of this industry should gladly welcome this, as you are dependent on our farmers, as we all are. With this new act we project that the average farmers income will increase by nearly 50 percent. America, I urge you to be patient in this national crisis, I urge you not to give up. With this act and others to come, we will slowly but surely march forward out of this crisis, and shall emerge a stronger nation for it. Thank you for listening.

Work Citied //The Franklin D. Roosevelt Administrations.//Presidential Administration Profiles for Students. Kelle S. Sisung and Gerda-Ann Raffaelle. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.