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Show NEWS REVIEW Farm Budget Cuts Hit; Train Fares Increased FARM FUROR: Stormy Weather Possibly the most violent storm of the year, according to the economic eco-nomic and political barometer, is the one which was raised when the house appropriations committee recommended a 32 per cent cut in department of agriculture funds for the coming year. Slashing more than 383 million dollars from the amount asked by President Truman, TRAVEL PAY: Train Fares Up To offset increased operating costs, Interstate Commerce commission com-mission authorized an approximate 10 per cent increase in basic passenger pas-senger fares for 60 railroads operat-' operat-' ing east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. The change will boost one-way passenger rates from 2.2 to 2.5 cents a mile in coaches and from 3.3 to 3.5 cents a miles in sleeping and parlor cars. There will be an : increase of about 15 per cent in coach round-trip rates and about S four per cent in Pullman round-trip : fares. I In granting the increase, ICC I noted that those railroads which re-' re-' quested the new rates incurred a ; deficit of 54 million dollars from ; passenger train operations last i year. the committee opened the floodgates flood-gates for a deluge of protests from Clinton Anderson, secretary of agriculture, agri-culture, and Demo-c Demo-c r a t i c congressmen, congress-men, who claimed they would fight the action right up to next year's elec- Anderson tions, if necessary. Declaring that the reduction "directs a sharp cut at the interests of the American farm family and the general welfare," wel-fare," Anderson said that the "greatest harm" would be to the soil conservation program, the farm price support program and programs designed to help veterans and low income families become better established. The 32 per cent cut would eliminate elimi-nate the Agriculture Adjustment administration by July 1, 1948. Currently, Cur-rently, the AAA is carrying on its basic program of promoting soil conservation on 3,500,000 cooperating cooperat-ing farms by paying farmers for following practices intended to increase in-crease soil fertility and, hence, to increase production. The proposed fund slash would mean that farmers farm-ers this year would be paid about 50 per cent of what they previously had been promised. In answering the criticism, the house appropriations committee said that its recommended cuts are "selective" and reasonable based on actual farm needs. j ;IT'S WONDERFUL: ! Long Time Peace i Announcing the immediate abolition aboli-tion of capital punishment in Rus- - sia, Soviet authorities explained the move on the grounds that it was made possible by Russia's growing strength, the people's patriotism i and the certainty of peace "for a I long time." I Said the Moscow radio: "The in-i in-i ternational situation during the j time after Germany's capitulation j and Japan's capitulation shows that the cause of peace can be considered consid-ered secure for a long time in spite of attempts by aggressive elements to provoke war." Meanwhile, Herbert Hoover looked on the other side of the mask to charge Russia with attempting to bleed the United States through relief channels and blaming her for the economic paralysis of Japan and Germany. He declared that futher relief will remain necessary as long as the Soviets continue their obstructionist tactics and demands for reparations, repara-tions, thus blockine Deace treaties with the two countries and keeping their economies paralyzed. HOUSING: Unfounded Hope Popular belief that any substantial substan-tial reductions in the cost of new housing will occur in the near future fu-ture is not founded on realities. That assertion was made by James C. Downs Jr., president of the Real Estate Research corpora- j tion, who explained that besides being geared to a high national 1 debt, housing costs, like prices of I other hard goods, are directly affected af-fected by the large demand for American capital and production by other countries. "The housing shortage today Is worse than a year a-go," he said, "and it will continue to grow progressively pro-gressively worse for some time." He pointed out that increased earning power has put a greater number in the market for new homes, but at the same time builders build-ers are afraid to start new construction con-struction because of high costs. The ' theory that prices would drop kept many persons from buying or build- ' ing homes last year, Downs said. |