OCR Text |
Show TEMENATORLEADS FIGHT FOR HOME PURCHASES WASINGTON, D. C. (Special) Senator John Thomas of Idaho was a leader in a. successful fight made on the floor of the United Stales Senate last week in behalf of the farmers and livestock growers of the west. The controversy occurred when an amendment was offered to an army appropriation bill that would remove the provision requiring that domestically produced articles of food and clothing' be given preference pre-ference in military purchasing. Declaring that this was of tremendous tre-mendous importance to the producers produ-cers of the west, Senator Thomas took the floor in, opposition to the proposed amendment. "I.'can see no logical or justified reason," he told the senate, "why the government, in buying materials materi-als and supplies for its military forces, should go outside the boundaries boun-daries of the nation for articles, either food or. clothing, so long as there is an abundance produced and available in the United States." The Senator called attention to' the fact that the bill appropriated nearly two billion dollars for the war department. The senator called attention to the fact that the bill appropriated nearly two billion dollars for the war department. "The condition of the American farmer has been so desperate for more than a decade that we have tried to devise ways and means to help him, even to the extent of granting him government subsidies," subsi-dies," Thomas said. "Now, for the first (dme during that period, we have a situation that will assist the farmer in regaining his financial feet. Our government needs these materials for immediate consump-ion. consump-ion. Could anything be more fitting fit-ting than for the government to ecure these articles from our own people rather than to go to foreign sources for them? |