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Show CAPITAL A i r-'6LEANINGSA S -Henry Dworshaki t g; ' I YOUR CONGRESSrAAN jjjMLilMM 111! i lie liohoc on February 7 approved approv-ed a;,j,, o, rial ions totaling $1 4-0 ! UUd.OuU lor the Department of Agri-i culture during the 19-13 fiscal year This included $500,000,001) for soil conservation benefit pavm.-.nts to farmers, if212.000.0O0 for parity payments, and authorizes loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporal ion of $100,000,000 for rural rur-al electrification; $50,000,000 for farm tenant loans, and $100,000,000 for rural rehabilitation loans under the farm security administration. The appropriations committee re-I re-I ported that improved economic conditions con-ditions in the .country lead to the conclusion that a smaller amount will likely enable the department to carry on the necessary relief program, although the disparity between be-tween agriculture and uon-agricm-ture pri-ees is gradually increasing. During debate on the measure, Congressman Dirksen of Illinois, a member of the appropriations committee and one of the most astute as-tute observers in Uie, house, made some pertinent comments, stressing that, despite the expenditure of huge sums during the past eight years, farmers today are in a more serious plight. He then produced pro-duced from the committee hearings some statistics to prove this, showing show-ing that farm tenancy is growing at the alarming rate of 40,000 annually. an-nually. Mr. Dirksen stated that 3,792,876 crop, feed) and seed loans had been made for $464,000,000, of which only 61 per cent has been repaid. The Federal Land Bank reported that during 1940 it sold 10,328 farms wliich, had been foreclosed, ana on which it lost $14,000,000. The Federal Fed-eral Farm Mortgage Corporation sold 5,996 farms in, 1940, on which it lost $8,000,000. On December 31, 1490, the Federal Land Bank' had 136,165 delinquent loans, while the Farm Mortgage Corporation 108,000 delinquencies. Although appropriations of the Agriculture Department have jumped jump-ed from $79,000,000 in 1933 to $1 -607,000,000 in ,1940, and despite the fact that almost four billions of farm benefit payments have been made, prices are far below parity. In December, 1940, corn was 66 per .cent, of parity; cotton was 59 per cent, and wheat 63 per cent. The defense program, bringing higher prices for industry and labor, la-bor, threatens to aggravate' farm situation, so that American producers pro-ducers are wondering just when they may expect to share in the prosperity which the new deal program pro-gram has been promising for the past eight years. Representatives of 16 states convened con-vened recently to plan for a greater great-er share of the domestic sugar market for cane and beet growers, if the Philappines are unable to ship their quotas here. Jlepresenta-tive Jlepresenta-tive Coffee has introduced a bill to allocate such unfilled quotas to domestic growers instead of Latin-American, Latin-American, producers, but Secretary Hull has requested to be heard Dy the agriculture .committee, and op position is also coming from refining re-fining interests in the East, which favor an undiminished flow of raw cane sugar into the port of New York. Thus it appears that beet growers face stiff opposition in their efforts to prevent a curtailment curtail-ment of their acreage while foreign producers continue to enjoy administration admin-istration sympathy. |