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Show England May Get Food Under lease-Lend' Bill Increasing Shortages Now Appear Likely; Roosevelt Opposed to Censorship Of 'Defense' Information. IaALI Bv BAUKHAGE I'utionul Farm and Home Hour Commentator. seas will last no one can say. It is impossible to predict how long the emergency will last or what the fortunes of war will be. But the effort ef-fort of the New Deal planners is to build up an increasing demand at home for the things the farmer raises. As Secretary Wickard says on every occasion when he gets the chance: "Whether they lose or keep the foreign markets, farmers must try to increase consumption in their best market the domestic market" President Discusses News Control With Reporters Imagine the head of a European state sitting for half an hour while he was questioned by a group of newsmen on any subject they chose, including the government's confidential confi-dential transactions! And, yet, that happens twice a week in Washington at the White House press conferences. There the President sits at his desk covered with papers; members of the White House staff sitting about him, two secret service men standing inconspicuously incon-spicuously behind him, between the stars and stripes and the presidential presiden-tial flag. To us in Washington, the White House press conference is routine. But a recent meeting was so democratic, demo-cratic, so unlike anything that could possibly happen abroad, that it stands out clearly in my memory. Mr. Roosevelt started it. The question ques-tion which the American public ought to think about, as he put it, had to do with the ethics, morals and patriotism of making public, matters which might be injurious to national defense. First, should a member of congress divulge testimony testi-mony before a secret committee session; ses-sion; second, should a newspaper publish or a radio station broadcast such information. The issue was raised by the publication publi-cation of testimony given by the chief of staff, General Marshall, before be-fore an executive session of the senate sen-ate military affairs committee in connection with a shipment of army bombers to Hawaii. Censorship Not Desired. The President said he had neither the desire nor the power to censor the news, but he wished us to consider con-sider whether it was ethical, moral or patriotic to publish any information informa-tion which the heads of the army and navy believed should, in the interests in-terests of national defense, be kept confidential. The newsmen did not question the advisability of withholding from the public important military secrets, but they showed plainly that they resented re-sented any suggestion that the freedom free-dom of the press be interfered with. One correspondent said frankly that the chief of staff ought not to tell things to congressmen which he did not want to get out because such information always leaked. The President replied, quietly, that naturally, nat-urally, one did not like to withhold any information asked for by congress. con-gress. Another reporter asked how the press was to know what information, once they had received it, ought to be withheld, and what could be printed. The President answered this could be determined by what the heads of the army and navy felt would be injurious to national defense. de-fense. The President admitted he had no specific proposal to suggest. No definite conclusion to the discussion dis-cussion was reached at the interview. The incident had one effect. Shortly Short-ly after the meeting, a writer who is usually excellently informed, stated stat-ed that the President had turned down flatly a plan to place all information in-formation concerning defense under what amounted to a censorship board. It had been long known that such a plan was placed on the President's desk at the time war broke out abroad. The President turned it down then. When it came up the second time, he again turned it down. Later, Lowell Mellett, administrative ad-ministrative advisor to the President, Presi-dent, said no plan of censorship was being considered. If war comes, some method of regulating the publication of military milita-ry information will probably be put into effect But until that moment, the press and radio will fight for freedom of speech, the spoken word, or the written. WNU Service, 1305 National Press Bide;., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. In the past few weeks the tall figure of a Hoosier farmer has been seen frequently entering en-tering and leaving the White House. This was not so strange to us who watch the busy portals because the man was Secretary of Agriculture Wickard. Like other members of the cabinet, he is called in for frequent fre-quent conferences with the President Presi-dent these days. Cabinet officers and other government officials have been helping the President plan the concrete con-crete steps to be taken to aid Britain Brit-ain under the lend-lease bill. But what a lot of us did not guess was just what Secretary Wickard was up to. The purpose of those visits has not been officially announced, an-nounced, as I write these lines. But it can be safely predicted that he was working out plans with the President Pres-ident to include farm products among the first supplies to be loaned or leased to England. Secretary Wickard was able to achieve his purpose partly as a result re-sult of his own persuasiveness, and partly for other reasons that I will explain later. Here is the tip-off on the plan the secretary discussed with the President, Presi-dent, in Mr. Wickard's own words. It is pretty cagily expressed but if you know how, you can read between be-tween the lines. This is what Secretary Secre-tary Wickard said in a public speech during the congressional battle on the lend-lease bill: Overproduction Held Unlikely. "Frankly speaking, there is little likelihood that we will produce too much meat, butter, cheese, milk and other dairy products in the months to come. I have an idea that all we produce in the South and elsewhere else-where will be needed. "The reports about the British food situation are not too encouraging. The British have lost their sources of food supply on the continent. They are handicapped still further by their shipping losses. The English Eng-lish may want some of our food and want it pretty soon. If they call on us, I think we will answer the call." Almost all of the products to be sent to Britain under the lend-lease plan will be proteins (meat, milk and milk products and eggs). There will be, however, some cotton, wheat and tobacco, but these commodities will constitute a minor part of the shipment's. The practical arguments for sending proteins are obvious: 1. The extra physical demands on fighting men require a greater protein pro-tein diet. 2. These products up to now have been shipped to England all the way from Australia, New Zealand and the Argentine. Two trips can be made from New York to Britain while one is being made from these distant points. Unfortunately the protein commodities commod-ities which are needed by England are not the ones we most want to sell. They do not constitute our great surpluses, disposition of which has caused the biggest headaches in the department of agriculture since the farm problem was tossed in the government's lap. Surplus Produce Unaffected. Furthermore, they are the products prod-ucts which, later on, when the defense de-fense industries expand, we will need at home because if all our unemployed un-employed were working full time and eating three meals a day, we would not have enough proteins at the present pres-ent rate of production to satisfy them. The things we do want to get rid of the things of which we have enough and to spare are not as greatly affected by increased employment. em-ployment. Department of agriculture agricul-ture experts here will tell you any day that in prosperous times there is not an important increase in the use of cotton, tobacco and wheat But as far as the British go, they have to consider first things first, and they have all the cotton, wheat and tobacco they need, or they can get these products as conveniently from their own dominions as from the United States. So this new "lend-lease" market won't solve the problem of farm surpluses. sur-pluses. Nevertheless, it will absorb some of them, for the government is insisting that along with the proteins, pro-teins, some of the surplus products will be included in the commodities we dispose of under the lend-lease plan. How long this new market over- |