Elmer F. Kruse

by Andrew Kay (published December 10, 1949)

“Take Care of the Land and the Land Will Take Care of You,” Elmer F. Kruse Declares

We interviewed him at his farm. He was dressed in overalls. His grandchildren were climbing all over him, and over Andrew Kay, and Andrew Kay was glad to have them do so. He is manager of a corporation which is incorporated at six billion five hundred million dollars. He just came back from London and is on vacation. (We are not speaking of Andrew Kay!) His official title is “Assistant Administrator of Production and Marketing Administration”—and “Manager of The Commodity Credit Corporation Inc.” of the U.S. Department of Agriculture at Washington, D.C.

We are speaking of Elmer F. Kruse of New Knoxville. Seventeen years ago he took a leave of absence from his farm two miles east of New Knoxville, six or eight miles southeast of St. Marys. He’s home on vacation. And there, in the quiet of farm surroundings, punctuated by the occasional bang of a squirrel hunter’s artillery and the purr of the tractor with which his son, Curtiss Kruse was plowing, he was pondering the problems of humanity. His leave of absence has grown into a 17-year period, but he looks forward to the day when he can return to his farm and home community “for keeps.”

“Agriculture is and always was my first love,” Mr. Kruse said, while comforting his granddaughter over the fact that her wad of chewing gum had fallen to the ground and attracted itself enough particles of mother earth to make it unfit for further mastication. Briefly, Mr. Kruse was graduated from the New Knoxville High School (2 years) and Wapakoneta. “I took Normal Training at Ohio Northern and then taught school at New Knoxville for 3 ½ years, beginning when Mrs. Herbert Holl resigned.” Then he took up farming and was active in various types of farm organizations. In 1935 he was appointed fieldman for the Department of Agriculture by Henry Wallace, then Secretary of Agriculture. In 1936 he was made chairman of the Triple-A,—(Agriculture Adjustment Administration) with headquarters at Columbus, which position he held until 1946. Then he became executive assistant to the secretary of agriculture and travelled for 2 years in connection with the farm program of the Department of Agriculture at Washington. In June 1948 he was appointed to his present position.

His present official responsibilities are three-fold. 1—The disposition and sale of agricultural commodities to Foreign Governments. 2—Administration of price support program for agricultural commodities. 3—Delegate of the Department of Agriculture to foreign conferences on agriculture. His headquarters are in the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D.C., and they have nine area offices, plus an office in every state capital and in every county in the U.S.  He has just returned from an International Wheat Conference and an International Sugar Conference, both held in London.

“There is little excuse for American housewives to get excited about sugar or wheat shortage. There just isn’t any. The U.S. Government is getting 675,000 TON of sugar from Cuba, which is about 500,000 ton MORE than is needed for U.S. consumption. The U.S. has the first chance to buy Cuban sugar. That puts into the hands of the U.S. the main sugar reserves of the world. As regards wheat, we have a surplus of 475,000,000 bushels from last year and this year’s crop was one BILLION bushel. In short, we have about a billion and a half bushels—a two years’ supply,—on hand right now.”

Speaking of international relations and reactions, Mr. Kruse said, “The foreign countries for the most part look to the U.S. for leadership, not only financially but otherwise. At present there are varying reactions of other nations toward us. We have surpluses, but they don’t have the dollars to buy them. But giving away food is not as simple as it sounds. We DO have large surpluses of dried eggs, milk, and butter, larger surpluses than we need. In view of our own large surpluses and the human need prevailing in certain parts of the world, we naturally inquired about giving food away, by the government. But reaction thereto is typified by Nehru of India who said in essence: ‘We could use it and we would like to have it, but we won’t take it.’ And these are the reasons:—If the U.S. gave it, and India accepted it, that would raise India’s standard of food consumption so that the U.S. surplus would disappear in 30 days. When the U.S. reserve would be up, India could not keep up that new standard. Even if India could pay for it, the U.S. couldn’t afford to keep up that standard of production. To raise India’s standard of consumption for 30 days, and then drop back to the former level would be disastrous and would make India ripe for communism.” This, Mr. Kruse said, is typical of the reaction of other countries. Other countries accept sufficient private and government relief to prevent starvation and to enable their people to have the standard of living to which they are accustomed. The aim of the governments of these countries is to build up their own agricultural economy. In short, to help themselves. They do not wish to be pauperized, which attitude is most commendable. The Chinese Minister of Commerce in speaking of food had said “It would be fatal to try to raise the Chinese standard of living up to that of the United States. It would take a hundred years of continuous progress before China would know what to do with all the U.S. abundance.”

“What about our American surpluses? What will happen to them?” we asked. The reply—“The potato surplus will, in part at least, be converted into industrial alcohol and be used in the manufacture of rubber. But here is the strange part of the potato surplus picture. THE POTATO CONSUMPTION IN THE U.S. IS GOING DOWN. This is common in every country as the standard of living and the diet increases. It is the same with wheat consumption. The U.S. averages 387 eggs per person per year. Our egg production is higher than that. We export some powdered eggs but American firms also IMPORT some powdered eggs from China.” “Why?”—we asked. “Because private industry can make money on it. Coolie labor PLUS transportation, costs still less than we can produce eggs for, here. I believe that the time is coming when our surpluses will find their way into either food or feed—when powdered eggs and milk will be on every grocery shelf and be used for baking and when powdered milk can be reconstituted.

Mr. Kruse believes that the U.S. must either keep up with the present system of gifts of food and assistance, sufficient to prevent starvation and to maintain the present dietary levels of those countries,—OR—engage in the trading of commodities. He feels that we as a nation must carry food reserves in order to maintain world leadership, that we must work out a better system of distribution or else learn to keep our production down to need. He said that in some lines we now have all the reserves we can carry.

Mr. Kruse expects the rice situation to be acute this year because of the Korean situation and its contingent disturbances. Japan, for instance, was refused admittance to the international trade agreement on wheat. The result is that Japan will buy more rice and less wheat, which in turn will curtail her wheat buying, but will aggravate the rice situation in Asia, Egypt, and Africa.

We asked if he had any advice to Auglaize County farmers. He answered—“Take care of the land and the land will take care of you. Watch the changing needs of agriculture. Once wheat and corn were the major agricultural commodities. The type of hog that goes to market today is a leaner bacon hog,—instead of the lard type. Then too, marketing your hogs at less weight gives leaner meat. Watch the changing market needs.”

There are some phases of the picture regarding which he is not at liberty to speak. Of Russian diplomacy he said, “At all international conferences, Russia is the most difficult to deal with and their word is least dependable of all nations. THEIR figures must be accepted or they walk out on the conference. You can have reasonable conferences with the representatives of any nation except Russia and her satellites.” Mr. Kruse has no doubts whatsoever about as regards the ultimate intention of Russia. “Except for the faith in the proposition that ultimately right—in the form of respect for human rights and freedom—will triumph,—the outlook for the future would lead one to stark pessimism.”

Of America he says,—“The more property owners we have, who, because they own property therefore have a physical interest in our land, the better for America.” His observations of other lands include: In England agriculture is more mechanized than in the other European countries, thanks to American machinery. In Belgium and Holland you will still see the finest Belgian horses imaginable, and lots of them.” He made a side trip to Maastrick and Maargraten Holland. At the latter town is a large American cemetery “which is more beautifully kept even than cemeteries in America. At one time 17,000 Americans were entombed there, but some have been brought back. But of the graves that remain, over 8,000 have been adopted by individual residents of Holland who place flowers on them on all holidays and special occasions. The Dutch really went through a food famine during the war.” He visited in a home wherein a Dutch family hid their two prospective sons-in-law for a year and a half, in spite of the Gestapo’s visits and searches at least once a week. The floor of their pantry had been converted into a trap door leading to an under-the-house hideaway. This family bartered every article of clothing that they were able to spare, for food. A neighboring resident hid his automobile, a new Studebaker Roadmaster, by building a straw stack over it. It was brand new, had only 200 miles on it at the time. But hunger became so intense that the owner bartered it for 150 pounds of wheat,—to keep himself and his family from starvation. Of course the car had to remain under the straw stack till the war was over. The Hague was twice bombed. It was an open (unfortified) city. So the Germans erected a rocket-launching platform there. The Dutch underground communicated the information to the R.A.F. The next night the R.A.F. bombed the area. But an error of one half of one degree had been made in computing the location of the rocket platforms. So they missed the mark. This error was corrected the next day and that night the R.A.F. put an end to the rocket menace issuing from The Hague. The Dutch are exceedingly thrifty and cleanly. They have cleared away all their wreckage. At Le Harve, in the harbor, there is a channel through the war wreckage through which the ships pass. In Rotterdam harbor, all wreckage has been cleared away and the only evidences of the destruction left there are the NEW installations on shore along the harbor. The Dutch have foresight. They realize that their harbors are their life line so have quickly put them back in order.”

A good sign for the future, Mr. Kruse believes, is the fact that today, Luxemburg, Holland, Belgium, France, and Western Germany are proposing a West European trade union for the purpose of freely exchanging food and supplies. This would be a great step toward self-sufficiency in food production. He had occasion to visit some old European castles—“built to keep someone from coming in. But those walls never kept others out, no matter how high you build the walls. They’ll always get over or under or through. You can’t wall people out. The only thing to do is to wall them in. And the only wall that will keep them in is the wall of love,—active good will. For, the world today has become so small.” As an illustration of the foregoing, Mr. Kruse left London by plane on a Saturday evening and had Sunday dinner with his family the next day at his home at 114 E. Cameron Road, Falls Church, Virginia, just across the Potomac.

His grandson Mac Kruse, 3, was begging him to come and play ball with him, begging for the umpteenth time. “Any plans for the future?” we asked in parting. “Yes, definitely. Those plans include coming back to my farm here and sharing in the life of this my home community. That now, is the height of my ambition.” They expect to return to Virginia on Friday of this week.