Salt Lake Telegram | 1931-08-17 | Page 10 | The Day in Dollardom

The DAY IN Sentiment in favor of or restraining oil oU production at the point of a gun 1 If l necessary seems to have made considerable progress among the oil oU men The fe federal farm tarm board goes gocs so 50 far as to coax the cotton Plant planters to plow under every third row of ot cotton in order to keep down the supply on the market Neither of these propositions is ex exactly exactly ex comp comparable rable to lo the dumping of foodstuffs into the Restraint on the production of oil is the con conservation rather than the destruction of wealth It can be defended on the ground that what is kept in the ground today will be available for tor use hereafter The plowing under of oC a part of the cotton cotlon planted would also have havo a aj conservation angle to it It would serve to postpone the exhaustion of ot the soil Expenditures for fertilizers would be curtailed Moreover cotton I at its present s stage ge of growth is to riot not nota a a. finished commodity More than half the labor and anti expense of oC producing ing it would be bc saved sa b by eliminating it before it is picked and ginned 5 11 4 4 5 But though permissible on economic eco ceo economic grounds the suggestion of or the farm arm board is open t to attack on the ground of or impracticability Unless all the planters complied with the regulation regulation reg and all nil would not 1101 the bootle bootleg bootleg boot boot- le leg growers would Rould profit at the ex expense expense ex- ex pense of the tile altruists The altruists probably would retaliate by white white- capping the bootleg bootleggers ers In the tile indus Indus- try Then we C would witness a p ps- ps nod of disorder and violence Furthermore Fur Fur- it must be remembered that cotton Is for tor us an export crop We cannot control the price in Liverpool Liverpool Liverpool Liver Liver- pool by tariff legislation For every row of cotton plowed under in the United States some Eg Egyptian or Hindu Hin- Hin du grower would plant an extra row rov IThe The world orld supply then would be as big as if It the American crop had not been reduced The sole effect of the curtailment gesture would be t to take the money payment away from the American planter and give it t to a for for- eigner Oil C Curtailment of production is the tile natural remedy for an excessive output output output out out- put of anything So far the farm board is right in m its efforts t to lestrain restraIn ic- ic strain the activities of the farmers But the farm boards board's way is not natures nature's natures nature's na rim- tures ture's way When nature applies re restrIctions restrictions re- re she begins with the producer producer producer pro pro- ducer whose cost of or production is highest She is careful to preserve the enterpriser whose efficiency or natural advantages enable him to supply the tile market maret at the least ex ex- ex pense Such arbitrary schemes as the elimination of or a crop or commodity on JR n a percentage basis discriminates against the efficient and well situated situated situated situ situ- and find for the Inefficient and poorly poorly poor poor- ly b situated producer Any reduction of or cotton crops wheat crops or any staple commodity ought to be aimed particularly at the producers whose participation In the business does doea not profit them or ot- anybody else Probably the feeling that low cost producers shouldn't be debarred from tho the advantages their skill or facilities give them is the principal reason for forthe forthe forthe the opposition to the cotton curtailment curtailment curtail curtail- ment plan A jI W a If government agencies should Undertake undertake undertake un un- to apply appl restrictions on a production cost basis they would not only stir sUr up a hornets hornet's nest mst but they 1 would be attempting something that economic loss left to itself will do doa I Ia a great deal deni better I