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Show Natidnal Topics Interpreted j-'t by William Eruckart r'llTVs National Trent riulUIng Waxhlnglon, P. C. y-i--j-r Washington. There are many occasions oc-casions on record where several important im-portant Issues "Ever-Normal have engaged the Granary" attention of congress con-gress and frequently fre-quently one of these Issues has aroused such bitterness and developed devel-oped such a controversy that it overshadowed all others. That has been the cac in recent weeks during dur-ing which President Roosevelt's plan to add six Justices of his own choosing to the Supreme court of the United States completely subordinated sub-ordinated everything else. But the crushing defeat received by the President through refusal of the vast majority of Democrats in congress to support his court reorganization re-organization scheme suddenly has directed attention to other major questions. Outstanding among these is Secretary Wallace's farm bill and the so-called wages and hours bill which is claimed to contain complete com-plete protection for the laboring classes. It is of the farm bill that I shall write now since it is much more imminent as far as congressional congres-sional action is concerned than is the case with the wages and hours proposition. The basis of Secretary Wallace's piogram is what he calls the "ever-normal "ever-normal granary." There are other provisions included in the bill but the idea of a maintained supply of farm products is the heart of the plan. Now, it seems that if the words "ever-normal granary" mean anything, any-thing, they must be accepted as meaning a continuity of supply at a level which government agents arbitrarily ar-bitrarily determine as the proper rate of accumulation or sale of such supplies. The house of representatives has been muddling along with the question ques-tion for several months. It has been under much pressure from Secretary Wallace and his associates asso-ciates and from some of the farm leaders whom the secretary has convinced of the value of his scheme. The farm leaders as a whole are far from unanimous on the proposition despite the fact that Secretary Wallace and the tremendous tremen-dous propaganda machine within the Department of Agriculture has been exceedingly active in an effort to "sell" the plan to the country as a whole and thereby bring additional addi-tional pressure on congress. I shall not attempt to give all of the details of the Wallace proposal here. It is too complicated for explanation ex-planation in the limited space available. avail-able. Indeed, I have found quite a number of members of the house of representatives who are unable to give a complete explanation of how the plan would work and they admit ad-mit it. It is a piece of legislation that must be complicated in order to accomplish the things its proponents propo-nents claim for it and my observation of government agencies leads me to the conclusion it is so complicated ; that the chances of it succeeding are ; almost nil. In the first instance, as I have ' said, the ever-normal granary idea comprehends a constant level of supplies. At first blush, it would seem that storage of wheat or corn or cotton or other farm products in a big crop year to be sold in years when crops are small should work out to keep prices at a satisfactory level. That is the theory. On the other hand, in times past this same sort of scheme has worked out to depress prices instead of maintaining maintain-ing them and the farmers have been the losers. Included in this legislation are provisions for benefit payments to farmers under certain conditions when the price level falls below parity. This injects into the prob lem again the influence of the general gen-eral price level of all commodities in the United States whether from the farm or from the factory and it also forces upon the United States additional influence wielded by the level of prices in foreign countries where the law of supply and demand de-mand continues to operate without impossible amendment at government's govern-ment's dictation. No doubt, the Wallace proposal would boost prices at present This is true because we have had several sev-eral short crop years and there is no surplus now. But with indications indica-tions that the current wheat crop, for example, is going to be exceptionally excep-tionally large, it is entirely possible that the nation as a whole will have a surplus of wheat this fall. In addition, ad-dition, there will be wheat crops grown in other countries as usual. Some of our wheat must be sold in foreign markets and compete with wheat grown in Russia or in South America. It is easy to see, therefore, that the lack of a wheat surplus in this country is exceedingly exceed-ingly temporary. The ever-normal granary, if it works as the theorists claim, -would store or keep off It Sounds of the market that Great portion of the crop which is not needed need-ed for current consumption. That sounds fine. Great users of wheat must buy their supplies far ahead. If they do not take this precaution, they stand a chance always of finding find-ing their bins empty and are faced with the necessity of closing their mills. It is this feature that causes long range buyers to resort to what is called hedging. That is, they sell on option nearly as much as they buy on contract They are thus able to offset losses whether the price of wheat goes up or whether it goes down and the losses or the gains are distributed throughout the industry. in-dustry. It is the only way by which the industry can protect itself. Mr. Wallace's scheme proposes doing away with that sort of thing, not directly but through the effect of the ever-normal granary. In other words, the net result of the ever-normal ever-normal granary would be for the government to hold these stocks and feed them into the market as demand de-mand for supplies requires. This sounds feasible and it probably would be except for the fact that we have no means of controlling production in the other wheat producing pro-ducing countries, and I repeat that I am using wheat as illustrative of all farm products. In fact, the Wallace Wal-lace plan provides no control of production pro-duction in this country and that question is vital. As far as I can see, nature is going to operate to give us rain or give us drouth in accordance with the judgment of the Higher Power. No human is going go-ing to be very influential in that regard. To get back to the question of the price level, it should be said that while the Wallace plan provides what appears to be an insurance against fluctuation, it is more likely to have the opposite effect. Because Be-cause of the influence of world prices, great storehouses of wheat in the country will hang over the market like an epidemic' No one can tell when it will strike and since markets are made up of individuals who are human, a portion of the markets is always going to be frightened by the uncertainty of when government wheat will be offered of-fered for sale. It is a perfectly human reaction because it involves the pocketbooks and humans naturally nat-urally want to buy as cheaply as they can and sell as high as they can. One of the things that happened in the administration of President Hoover that is Tried Once sure to be remem-and remem-and Failed bered is the utter failure of his farm policy. That farm policy centered at one time in what was called the Federal Farm board. If you will go back a few years and recall the operations op-erations of the Federal Farm board, I think you will agree that the things it undertook to do were exactly comparable to, if not exactly the same as, the scheme set up by Secretary Sec-retary Wallace in his ever-normal granary idea. The only difference that I can see and I watched the operations of the farm board from close at hand is a change in the name. It must be admitted that the phrase ever-normal granary has a pretty sound. But when it comes to a question of an attractive expression, ex-pression, one that is soothing and one that should convince us all that every problem is solved, I submit sub-mit those favorites which Mr. Wallace Wal-lace used when Professor Tugwell was with him in the Department of Agriculture. Who does not recall re-call the "more abundant life," and who has forgotten the "doctrine of scarcity to assure plenty?" As far as I know, neither the house nor the senate committee on agriculture has held hearings on this ever-normal granary phase of the Wallace legislation. Thus far, the discussion has been largely on questions involving, benefits and subsidies and means of marketing. No attention has been given to the ever-normal granary threat, and I regard it as a menace. If this discussion were devoted to only the consumer phase of our economic life, I think I should be selfish enough to urge enactment of the Wallace plan. I believe I can see where the ever-normal granary idea will make bread cheaper, where it will make cotton textile goods cheaper and when cotton is cheaper other textiles are cheaper, and where other food and necessaries neces-saries of life that have their origin on the farm will be reduced in price by such a legislative policy. But that is not my idea of a sound economic structure. It is just as necessary for the consumer to pay his fair share toward the maintenance mainte-nance of a living agriculture as it is for farmers to pay their fair share to a living commerce and industry of whatever kind it may be. The senate Democrats have elected elect-ed a new leader to succeed the late Senator Joe Robinson, of Arkansas. He is Senator Alban Barkley, of Kentucky. In a previous column I mentioned the split among the senate sen-ate Democrats and suggested that it would be difficult to replace Senator Robinson because of the qualities he had in holding the various factions together in the senate. It was not a forecast; it was a statement of fact. Western Newspaper Unton. |