[126]

Opposition to farm subsidies
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.[127] Agriculture Secretary 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 elections that year.[128] 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.[129] Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, declaring that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis", and said that "government control cannot be divorced from political control."[129] Instead of manipulating prices, he favored instead Herbert Hoover's proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. 