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Show OBJECTION TO PRICE FIXING OF PRODUCTS , Outline of Opposition Being Made by Farm Bureau. Reasons for the farm bureau's opposition op-position to governmental price fixing of farm products, especially wheat, I are enunciated In a statement just Issued Is-sued by II. W. Moorhouse, director of research for the American Farm IUi- j reau federation. I In his statement Mr. Moorhouse said 1 in part : The American Farm Bureau fed-, fed-, eratlon has considered the wheat question an economical problem call-I call-I lng for an economic solution. Legis-i Legis-i lation can help and has helped by laying lay-ing the foundation upon which to build ! the economic solution. The farm bu-j bu-j renu took the leadership in demanding storage and credit legislation at Wasli-! Wasli-! lngton that would permit farmers to I store their products, If in their judg-J judg-J ment thnt was the profitable thing to do and finance the selling of them over the consumptive period Instead of "dumping" them at harvest. The farm bureau has been Instrumental In the passage of laws removing tho of Its purchases at a loss, the deficit would be met by taxation. A price satisfactory to the high-cost producers would be high enough that these producers would continue to produce pro-duce wheat and the low-cost producers would plant additional acreage when It Is generally ngreed that the world supply of wheat Is too large to sell at a prolit to large numbers of farmers. Acreage which ought to be devoted to other purposes would be used for wheat and higher taxes would be necessary. nec-essary. Some proposals include provisions fulling penalty for excess supply upon producers. This Is proper if workable. It may be pointed out that under the present arrangement, without a fixed nice, the penalty for overproduction falls upon the growers. I'rice fixing, once started, would naturally extend to numerous commodities. com-modities. There Is no logical stopping dace. Heretofore, price regulation in the United States has been held In the field of monopoly ns In the case of railroads or has been subject to voluntary vol-untary arbitration as In the case of milk (war measures excepted). I'rice fixing would subject economic relationships to politics. Production and distribution would be controlled by government commissions. We would have a kind of socialism. With prices under political control, the farmer would find himself outvoted three to one. The American Farm Bureau federation federa-tion considers the wheat question an economic problem that enn best be solved by economic measures. Legislation Legis-lation can and should be and has been used In removing obstructions in the way of the economic program. This Is all that should be expected from it. On farmers, and not on political representatives, rests the responslbll ity for profitable farming. .y-yK ru ! mi 3 H. W. Moorhouse. legal obstruction in the path of co-operative associations. Thus, through legislation, the way has been opened for farmers to use their own Initiative, and intelligence in making farming profitable. The responsibility for success suc-cess rests on them and not on political representatives. The American farm bureau believes that the responsibility Is resting where It belongs. The situation -might be illustrated thus : The government builds the concrete con-crete highways upon w hich merchants, bankers and furuiers may operate their automobiles, but it does not presume pre-sume to operate the automobile of any of these individuals. It maintains the highways and enforces the traffic rules equitably to all. The government govern-ment also builds the economic highways high-ways along which the business of the merchant, and hanker and farmer is carried. The responsibility of the government gov-ernment is to see that the business of each may be transacted on a basis of equality. There its responsibility ends. To summarize : A price, fixed by the government, Is here taken to mean a guaranteed minimum price. Iufthe supply was so large that the natural price, set by supply and demand, de-mand, would be lower than the guaranteed guar-anteed price, the government would buy in the surplus. If the government had to dispose |