To the Farmers and Ecclesiastical Winners of the 8th National Competition of Grain
By Benito Mussolini
Comrades!
It is here among us that Comrade Darré, Minister of Agriculture of the Reich, came specially to Rome to participate in this traditional ceremony exalting the forces and efforts of Italian agriculture. The applause of acceptance which you have given him is an expression both of your feeling and of my own: a feeling of sympathy and friendship.
The work that Minister Darré has to perform in his country is especially difficult and he puts all his passion for rural life into it. Also in this field a collaboration between our two peoples is possible and useful.
Soon comrade Minister Rossoni will read you the figures that represent the final agricultural year of 1937. We can consider these figures as satisfactory. It was a good year. Excellent grain harvest, which is always the basis of a harvest.
The 1936 harvest deficit of 61 million forced us to import 19 million quintals of wheat, valued at 1.5 billion lire. The 1937 harvest eliminates this item from our imports.
It would be over-optimistic to expect the 1938 harvest to be equally plentiful. This is the main cause for the introduction of mixtures which, in the modest proportion of ten percent, have been accepted everywhere without any inconvenience whatsoever.
Comrade Rossoni will tell you that the Regime's policy was aimed at increasing the prices of agricultural commodities. We are proud to have done so, and we are pleased to have avoided the ruin of agriculture, which is the foundation of the Italian economy.
Naturally the most necessary increase in the wholesale prices of wheat, maize, rice, milk, meat, etc., could not help but be reflected in retail prices. But the Party's initial price-control measures, followed later by the Corporations, avoided such spikes. Prices that are too low ruin production, prices that are too high contract consumption and therefore affect production. Fascist policy tends to achieve a balance between the two elements that are mutually dependent.
The 1937 grain harvest is the same as the 1934 harvest. This means that an average of 80 million quintals can be reached. The Battle of Grain continues and its aim is to move all of Italian agriculture towards its maximum production.
I know the feelings of the rural Italians, I know their hard work, and I know that they are determined to achieve total victory and will reach it.
