Show D lg est F nal topics in ted IM n B WILLIAM 4 r washington there was a aress press statement sent around to newspaper offices significant the other day that decision failed to attract any attention it failed to gain any publicity at all and nd yet it seems to me it was one of f the most significant announcements ants to come from any government ent department in months the statement tat ement issued by the agricultural adjustment administration said aid simply that a decision had been breached reached against making effective n potato marketing agreement and order program covering interstate shipment of potatoes grown in 13 early arly and intermediate states the AAA announcement explained that chat the overall vote was sufficiently bently large to make the marketing agreement gre ement operative under the law but it it was the conviction of officials that at it was not feasible to place the e program in effect in the light of the he character of the vote taken in ome borne areas of the 13 states and indeed eed in some of the states stater as a whole there was actually a major aty ty of the producers of potatoes who P voted ted against the agreement thus for the first time a market ag bug agreement sponsored by the agricultural ri adjustment administration is rejected perhaps to be technically correct I 1 ought to say that for the first time there was ach such lack of public support that a marketing agreement has been abandoned before it was started certainly if the folks charged with official responsibility deem a plan unlikely to succeed there must be a quite evident lack of enthusiasm for or it the tendency heretofore has been to cram rules and regulations and marketing agreements and contracts and what have you right down ithe farmers throats as a means of educating them to the benefits eventually accruing recognition of this lack of support therefore constitutes utes something of a change in the attitude of the AAA but the significant ant thing as far as I 1 am concerned continues to be the fact that the farmers f again are asserting their e ir independence it amounts to a ag sign n that agriculture has begun to desire less of washington meddling lin management of farms I 1 there are obviously two schools of thought about governments rela eions with agriculture in this country there is the philosophy represented by secretary wallace and his followers who favor crop control it was they who argued for the program aarn of scarcity of supplies as a means to the more abundant ii life fe for athe he farmer and it is the same sam e mr hwallace lW wallace allace who now is promoting what he is pleased to call the ever normal granary idea the other group of friends of agriculture take the position fundamentally that the farmer should have some form of government lern ern ment assistance but they object strenuously to any program that contemplates regimentation washington control over how the farmer operates his farm and what he produces I 1 suppose that the marketing agreement idea is a proper one to be carried out if the crop curtailment adea 1 ea is to be paramount as a national a i policy it is an historical fact of course that adoption of one type of regulation begets other regulations vo no man ever lived who could conceive ceide at one time all of the feces sary rules to control a set of circum distances le in which natural laws figure figlure and natural laws figure in any question aest on of production of farm crops so when and if there is to be national crop control there must be these subsidiary and district programs gr s to carry out the broader aspects of a plan 0 0 ithac I 1 since I 1 never have been convinced that a national crop control program was sound it was rejected no surprise to me by farmers to learn of what amounts to a plain rejection of the theory by the farmers or one segment of them the wonder to me is that these same farmers waited so long to rea reassert assert themselves as bosses of their business it may be an incident however that proves the statement of one farmer who wrote to me saying we may be slow in learning learn ing but when we learn we usually are aright right one of the reasons given privately ifor ifor the rejection of the potato agree ament was that the educational work in advance of the vote by eligible ible producers was not of a very high order but why I 1 ask is it necessary for our government to use propaganda at any time there might be an emergency such as came with the world war when propaganda can be justified otherwise I 1 feel it is not a function of government and one of the results lis is bound to be a government by men and not by law the government ament is not salesroom aur congress and the legislatures of states are elected by popular vote of the citizens they are the fellows who create policy not officials fici als appointed to office there might be some interest in an examination of the states concerned in this proposed and now abandoned marketing agreement they are alabama arkansas california florida georgia louisiana maryland mississippi north carolina oklahoma south carolina texas and virginia the AAA announcement no said there were producers voting on the adoption of the agreement my information is that this number is a pitifully small proportion of potato growers even the growers of early and intermediate potatoes as distinguished from fall potatoes yet there was not a sufficient number of these to warrant the AAA in making the program operative what happened to the other growers well I 1 can make only one guess namely they just did not have any interest in it of course it may be different with growers of other crops it must be recalled however that there has been a multiplicity of evidence that the corn farmers are dissatisfied and there have been howls from the cotton growers and from the tobacco growers and the wheat sections are the source of other complaints I 1 have no way of knowing what proportion of the growers of these crops are represented in the opposition already voiced there can be no doubt on one point however the independence pen dence of the farmer is bound to be shown and if lie he is becoming disgusted with bureaucratic direction of his affairs it is a condition that is more likely to spread than to decline in scope and speaking of regulation I 1 heard a conversation the other day that I 1 am going case of to record here as corrigan faithfully as I 1 can recall the words it took place at my favorite table in the national press club a large table at which men gather for lunch usually all 12 places are filled and the types of work and means of livelihood represented are interesting of themselves some lawyers some government officials some trade representatives some writers on this particular day douglas corrigan flying west from new york to california had landed in ireland without a permit from the department of commerce the question what could or should the department part ment of commerce do about the violation of its sacred rules of course said former sen C C dill of washington the department must take away his license it has to do it if it there will be any number of foolhardy lads try the same thing well now observed H 0 bishop famed student of george washington 1 I just wonder whether right here we have a government department telling one and all of us that we must not fly across the ocean unless we get their permission mission what are we coming to in this country presently we will have to have a permit to walk across the potomac river bridge it may come to the end that we have to have ave a permit to buy food as they do in russia senator dill oh but not the point there is a question of safety involved human lives mr bishop the railroad engineer licensed he is responsible for hundreds of human lives this whole thing of the government getting tangled up in everything we do is silly we dont have a democracy mo cracy any liberty any more it was the spirit of adventure that made this country great senator dill true take the corrigan incident however and think what the government would spend looking for him if his crate had fallen in the atlantic ive an idea that the cost of looking for amelia earhart mounted to several hundred thousand dollars if the government made an effort to look for her or for corrigan if he had fallen the newspapers of the country would have burned up the officials responsible mr bishop wheres it going to stop year after year we see rattle braids brains get into congress and immediately promote some new regulation or create another political bureau or commission and so it went on and on some finished their lunches and left others came and the argument was continued A few days later the national pre press club entertained howard hughes and his round the world flyers ei at a luncheon mr hughes was praised and his aides commended they had made all preparations for their flight in accordance with department of commerce requirements they were successful in their effort and what do you think the success of the hughes trip subsequently was used by the same two men as a means of renewing their argument the moral it if any it proves why a democracy is a good form of government ern ment if you have an opinion express it 0 western newspaper New paper union |