Editing Calvin Coolidge (section)

===Opposition to farm subsidies===
[[File:Coolidge-Dawes.jpg|thumb|upright|Coolidge with his vice president, [[Charles G. Dawes]]]]

Perhaps the most contentious issue of Coolidge's presidency was relief for farmers. Some in Congress proposed a bill designed to fight falling agricultural prices by allowing the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at lower prices.{{sfnm|Ferrell|1998|1p=84|McCoy|1967|2pp=234–235}} Agriculture Secretary [[Henry Cantwell Wallace|Henry C. Wallace]] and other administration officials favored the bill when it was introduced in 1924, but rising prices convinced many in Congress that the bill was unnecessary, and it was defeated just before the 1924 elections.{{sfn|McCoy|1967|p=235}} 

In 1926, with farm prices falling once more, Senator [[Charles L. McNary]] and Representative [[Gilbert N. Haugen]]—both Republicans—proposed the [[McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill]]. The bill proposed a federal farm board that would purchase surplus production in high-yield years, and hold it, when feasible, for later sale or sell it abroad.{{sfn|Fuess|1940|pp=383–384}} 

Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, saying that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis" and that "government control cannot be divorced from political control".{{sfn|Fuess|1940|pp=383–384}} Instead of manipulating prices, he favored [[Herbert Hoover]]'s proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. Secretary Mellon wrote a letter denouncing McNary-Haugen as unsound and likely to cause inflation, and it was defeated.{{sfn|Sobel|1998a|p=327}}

After McNary-Haugen's defeat, Coolidge supported a less radical measure, the Curtis-Crisp Act, which would have created a federal board to lend money to farm cooperatives in times of surplus. The bill did not pass.{{sfn|Sobel|1998a|p=327}} In February 1927, Congress took up McNary-Haugen again, this time narrowly passing it, and Coolidge vetoed it.{{sfnm|Fuess|1940|1p=388|Ferrell|1998|2p=93}} 

In his veto message, he expressed the belief that the bill would do nothing to help farmers, benefiting only exporters and expanding the federal bureaucracy.{{sfn|Sobel|1998a|p=331}} Congress did not override the veto. In May 1928, Congress passed the bill again by an increased majority, and Coolidge vetoed it again.{{sfnm|Fuess|1940|1p=388|Ferrell|1998|2p=93}} "Farmers never have made much money" he said. "I do not believe we can do much about it."{{sfn|Ferrell|1998|p=86}}