Date: August 11, 1930
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
All of the central part of the United States, and especially that region east of the Mississippi of which Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia are the backbone, is suffering from lack of rain. There has been nothing to compare with it since 1874. The damage is very great and destitution is threatening some sections. Probably there will be considerable reduction in agricultural products.
The national and local governments are already moving to relieve present and future distress and prevent further loss so far as possible. As they always do in every emergency, those great public servants, the railroads, are responding to the resulting needs of the people. But there is yet no prospect of general food shortage or distress. This is a large country. When it is dry in one part, there is moisture in other parts. Seed time and harvest have never yet failed us.
This experience shows that no one can foretell what crops the weather will produce in any specific season and clearly demonstrates that if acreage is reduced so that production is not excessive, prices will be higher. A temporary surplus or temporary shortage that might then result can be remedied. It is the permanent surplus that becomes unmanageable.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of John Sullivan III who prepared this document for digital publication.