Show 1 Very Funny Legislation S the senate 56 20 passed the stopgap W iv farm bill Saturday it was with virtual certainty cery y t that at the hou house e would follow suit It is cf Very ry funny legislation legislation funny funny no end from Whatever ii angle angl it is viewed Its fathers couldn could n not even pretend that it offers anything like permanent formula for solving the farm arm p lem It carries a subsidy against which there will be no loud outcry Farmers will chortle overt over over over-it it and members ot of congress ss who must stand for reelection this fall will not fear to face their agrarian constituents l 1 The act seeks to do exactly what the supreme court urt said must not be done when it d dAA A AA A but the taxes to be raised to effectuate it will go into the treasury for public pur pur- poses ses It seeks to retire between and acres of farm land under the conservation conservation con con- program it Jt sets up and in that it is isen yen en to be a crop control law which h the su supreme su- su preme preme co court rt also holds is not cricket under the C constitution Ils Crop control is the h heart art o of ot the bill else it not ot have be been n writt written n or passed No- No 1 bod tody will tell just yet what is to be taxed but 1 there ere will be a processing tax Jf if f Secretary Wallace Wallice Wal Wal- lice lace has his way That this tax will not be ear- ear for farm faIm subsidy is the only difference between tween the old and the new Washington ex- ex who have ave scrutinized the new act say SlY it w will l be hard to overthrow before th the supreme t. urt Politicians say that at if it can be overtown over- over town disaster cannot come before the elec- elec ar are over so its chief purposes as far as ast asty t they ty y are concerned will be achieved The The measure will hold until January 1 1938 Iff the meantime e the plan is that the states will willup sj up 48 little A AAA's A A s so as as' as to get out from t the he problem of twisting the interstate c commerce clause of the constitution to cover er it Compliance with the act is to be wholly volun- volun y bt no compliance no subsidy checks Jig o compliance will b be both voluntary and Cheerful y So o it isn't what the new neW v law says S but how Jt- Jt says it that counts Under the pretext of erosion and and the plan for conservation S farmers ers will receive benefit checks for tor limiting acreage creage for planting soil crops rather than an marketable crops for changes in their f farming g practice which will prevent surplus Deduction od and for maintaining a ratio between individual and national commodity production t f l U Under der the little A AAA A A state setup federal benefit pa payments ments will go to the states on a quota The states in turn will allot quotas counties and the he county setups will deal with the individual farmers All of this this' is calculated ted to erect an insurmountable barrier between be be between tween the new law and the constitution This t J y be one of the things the president had in ind ind when he told congress in his annual mesag message mes mes- sage ag g that The congress has the right and can cand can ikid tL d the means to protect its own prerogatives fl Utah's vote didn't count Senator Thomas f Doting ting for and Senator Kings King's no una being paired V th th Senator Mintons Minton's yes Five Republican votes for the bill 11 against 9 Democrats against the th bill 49 for it pairs almost all for and against on party lines lines newsworthy newsworthy exceptions ns n's he noes of f Wagner of New York Glass of Virginia Vir Vir- ginia and Tydings of Maryland S Prediction The G. G 0 O. P. P will have a hard ti time e to think up anything smarter than this f fth program for its Cleveland platform It ci scarcely point with pride to anything h hatched h for the H Harding d g Coolidge or Hoover re reg regimes re- re g ginis s and everything else was prewar stuff th that t wont won t lit fit these times imes |