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Show National Topics Interpreted : . by William Bruckart Rm. down live stock production so that those who devote their land to live stock will get a fair return. Such Is the story all through the list. It Is not easy, and I think any fair-minded fair-minded person will admit It No professor, however learned, Is going go-ing to solve that problem without careful thought and exceedingly cautious moves. Admitting my own inability to forecast the result and an equal lack of capacity to find anyone who has suggested the answer, I cannot refrain from calling attention to one possibility: the new deal has set out upon a policy that cannot avoid revision of our entire economic eco-nomic structure and, it now appears, ap-pears, It may lead even to a resettlement re-settlement of the United States. That means, of course, that folks who devote their lives to live stock raising will have to move to the areas where they can do that, and the corn growers will have to get Into that bailiwick, or some such new alignment I confess I do not know what drastic changes can be accomplished without dislocating the lives and the hopes of farmers, but to me It Is a decidedly interesting interest-ing question over which to ponder as tne long winter nights wear on. Washington. I believe the question ques-tion most frequently heard In Washington these Important days is: "Now Question that we hare this new deal, how is It going to be untangled?" And It occurs to me that It Is about the most Important question before the government today. A chemist can mix constituent parts of a formula or a prescription, but he never can undo what he has done, Thus, while the new deal has not changed the physical characteristics of things, as a chemist would do In mixing a formula, tho Job of getting thi3 country settled down la one of such magnitude that the untangling of tho skein Is going to require something some-thing more than patience. Consider the farm adjustment program. Or the NBA. Or look into the uprooting of commerce and Industry In-dustry by the various banking changes and currency and' gold maneuvers that have taken place. And last, but by no means least, examine ex-amine the rapidly growing pile of obligations that constitute what we know as our public debt With reference to the public debt, '- It should be stated that this country, coun-try, after the World war and Its devastation and animosities had been shaken off, proceeded to pay off Its public debt at an amazing rate. After the end of the war when the debt was at its peak, the government owed a total of 2G,550,-000,000. 2G,550,-000,000. It stands today roughly at $23,400,000,000. In between those two dates, when the country was prosperous and Income taxes and other taxes were yielding their fullest, full-est, the debt once was whittled down to about $10,500,000,00. So those who watch over the public debt say they entertain no fears; that when conditions are prosperous prosper-ous again there will be taxes to - pay off the debt and that no one will complain about the vast sums now being spent If the result Is prosperity. This payment of the public debt, however, Is to my mind considerably con-siderably less of a tangle, a problem, prob-lem, with which to deal, than the . farm adjustment scheme on which Secretary Wallace and his Agricultural Agricul-tural department folks are laboring. labor-ing. It seems likely, from Mr. Wallace's Wal-lace's calculations, that the country's coun-try's acreage of harvested crops next year will be at least 30,000,000, and may be 35,000,000 acres below the average acreage of crops planted plant-ed and harvested annually In recent years. Emergency adjustment plans are responsible. They are predicated upon a basis contemplating control of production, a restriction against a surplus that would force prices down. Mr. Wallace Is profoundly con- - vlnced that this course will be extremely ex-tremely helpful to the farmers." He sees better returns to them and he sees greater peace of mind, which after all is not to be dismissed lightly, among the farm folks of the country. But that Is the Immediate picture. What of the future? Or to quote again the oft-repeated question: "how Is It going to untangle?" My own conviction Is that In the urge to get some relief out to the farm belt, too little attention has been paid to the future status of the entire en-tire commodity production areas of the nation that can be called farm land. The country still seems to be trying try-ing to figure out what was the cause of the re-The re-The Big cent drastic treas- Puzzle u r y reraDjza-tion. reraDjza-tion. The change came so quickly and without any warning note that It was a move amounting to lightning from a clear sky. And now the observers here are trying to figure out Its meaning in the fullest sense. I watched the country's leading newspapers closely for several days after the Tresldent announced that Secretary Woodin was going on a long leave of absence In search of health, that Dean Acheson was resigning re-signing as undersecretary, and that Henry Morgenthau, Jr., was being moved over as undersecretary of the treasury, from the post o governor gov-ernor of the farm credit administration. adminis-tration. Being undersecretary, he Immediately became acting secretary secre-tary when Mr. Woodin left for Arizona Ari-zona In his search for health. The newspapers were at wide variance on their views. Some of them held, editorially and In their news columns, col-umns, that Inflationists had taken the treasury under their wing and that we were headed straight Into the grievous mistake that Germany made on her currency. Others took the position that Mr. Woodin was not a "yes" man and that Mr. Acheson was not in sympathy with the various" maneuvers to which Mr. Roosevelt was lending his support, sup-port, and that the President simply cleaned house. Whatever the reason was, It remains re-mains as much of a secret as ever. The one thing upon which Washington Wash-ington observers seem to agree and the feeling was reflected In many large newspapers, was that Mr. Acheson was the "goat" Mr. Roosevelt wanted Mr. Morgenthau In the treasury and wanted him to run the place while Mr. Woodin was awny, and the only way to accomplish ac-complish it was to get rid of Mr. Acheson. That certainly happeneQ. The President, in announcing the changes, said it was necessary to have a man of more experience In the treasury than Mr. Acheson since Mr. Woodin was going to be absent To show how far-reaching the farm adjtment program is, it Is only necessary to Like a Game state that every of Chess cron thus far considered is one constituting a "key" In commodity structure. These key crops cotton, cot-ton, wheat, corn, etc occupy more than 1,900,000,000 acres. To change that layout, Secretary Wallace admits, ad-mits, Is Just like a game of chess. When you make one move you are j immediately faced with another, and so on. By removing wheat as a production produc-tion from one square mile or one - portion of a county, attention must Immediately be given to the question ques-tion of to what use that land can be put. It Is obvious that It cannot can-not be allowed to grow only weeds. So there must be a stop-gap crop of some kind, some crop that will not compete with wheat, or with corn or with cotton or the other crops on which production control is being be-ing attempted. , - As an example, out In western Kansas, they have developed after years of trial and experiment, a new kind of sorghum cane. It Is DO longer the tall, slender stalk of yore, but a short stalk not unlike wheat that has a heavy head of grain, or seed, as you choose to describe It . It . can be produced for about 14 cents a bushel, and f&rmers are flocking to Its use. It l&kes care of the land made vacant by withdrawal of wheat, but it pre-; pre-; sects a competitor for both wheat and corn. Or, If the vacant land Is turned to grass, you at once start live stock industry expanding there and the government is trying to hold The President is seeking to develop devel-op the government's work relief program so that Make Millionslt will be operator operat-or Jobs ins on lt3 most extensive scale coincident with what Is logically expected to be the peak of unemployment unem-ployment this winter. His program to sdd $400,000,000 to the public works funds and take Idle persons off the relief rolls for those Jobs Is well under way. It no doubt will make several million Jobs available for a short time at least. It Is the President's thought that where persons have been on relief rolls, they will gladly take a Job and work regularly if they are paid a little more than the relief doles they were receiving. He contends that people prefer work generally to being fed on a charity basis. And as far as I can learn, no one disputes the Idea. Certainly, the person who is working and Is being paid for It regains self-respect which so many times Is lost when charitable organizations have to care for him and his family, There is one aspect of the program pro-gram for making work, however, that seems to have been generally overlooked. The proposition contemplates con-templates wide development of roads and highways In all parts of the nation. State road supervisors are going to make and, Indeed, are now making, plans and listing projects proj-ects In the numerous counties where work of a worthwhile nature na-ture can be done. This plan places the Jobs close to the source of need, right In tho locality where men are out of Jobs. O, 19X1, Western Nwpa.pr Union. |