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Show Bruckart's Washington Digest Congress Plans an Investigation Of Wallace's 'Must' Legislation House Committee on Agriculture Will Check Secre-tary's Secre-tary's Statement Regarding Loan Policies Of Federal Land Banks. I By WILLIAM BRUCKART VVU Service, National Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON. Those folks who have been around Washington any length of time cannot fail to recog- agriculture interpretation, legislation legisla-tion that would solve the farm debt problem that has confronted the American farmer over a period of very many difficult and trying cropping crop-ping seasons. It seems, however, that there are ""- u It. UE1I1CIIUUU3 yUVCl cised over congress. fvw&mv&zvvra and throughout the f " ' country, by officials ? ' in the executive 1 , branch of the gov- " rP. 1 ernment. It always v has been so. It ap- i I pears to be on the 1 increase, which is to f 1 say that it is grow- f j ing very dangerous r ' J because through the R - ; V j last few years we ta&a-aJ have had a great Wm. Bruckart deal of "must" legislation sent to congress from the executive branch of the government. While, as I said, there always has been pressure of a tremendous sort from executive agencies, it reached a new peak lately. Secretary Wallace Wal-lace of the department of agriculture agricul-ture headed the pack. He has set in differing views as to what the Jones-Wheeler Jones-Wheeler bill would do. Opponents of the measure insist that it is just another theory to supplant other theories the-ories that have failed. They charge it will make the borrowing of money so easy that presently an unsound basis will be established for all farm mortgages and that, ultimately, it will be almost impossible for farm- ' ers to borrow money anywhere. That is to say, the bill is another step in the direction that has ruined the farmers of land in the nations of dictators, for the reason that eventually the government will be telling the farmers when to eat and sleep. All of this is without reference refer-ence to what I regard as the worst feature of the legislation, namely, the further use of federal money in controlling national, or even state, elections because that end will motion a gigantic pressure machine to force through some legislation on farm loans. It is so far-reaching in its scope that if a private corporation corpora-tion or group of individuals had done it, they would have been characterized char-acterized as "special interests" trying try-ing to smother congress; they would have been lobbyists of the first water, wa-ter, and they would have been denounced de-nounced on the floors of the house and senate as brigands and highwaymen. high-waymen. But Mr. Wallace seems to have stuck out his neck. He was too anxious. The house committee on agriculture has decided to look into the matfpr v, u .- The secretary's action in sending the circular letters to 600,000 farmer-borrowers shows what can be done. Having been a farm boy myself, my-self, I think I can visualize the reaction re-action of hundreds, if not thousands, of farmers to that letter. A good many of them will be afraid that if they do not support the Jones-Wheeler bill, they will not get fair consideration con-sideration from the Farm Credit administration. ad-ministration. They will be afraid that some local representative of FCA will "tell on us." In other words, there is the danger of use of politics in the meanest way. And don't forget: when a politician is uicic ii, a statute that forbids officials or employees em-ployees of the executive branch of the government disseminating, at public expense, documents designed to influence the views of congress. That is, in short, the statute forbids lobbying by officials of the government. govern-ment. The statement would not be complete, however, if the fact were not added that this statute has been violated so many times it is impossible impossi-ble to accurately make a report on them. Secretary Wallace Disliked Land Bank's Loan Policies I expect that the house committee on agriculture will not punish Mr. Wallace and his subordinates at ah politics being what it is and the ne- seeking office, he is seldom restrained. re-strained. Two Leading Farm Groups Are Opposed to Bill . The best proof that I have of the unsound character of the Jones-Wheeler Jones-Wheeler bill lies in the fact that the National Grange and the Farm Bureau Bu-reau federation are opposed to it. Further evidence is that Mr. Wallace Wal-lace has been courting the Farmers alliance support of the bill. The Farmers alliance never has had a great following among those who seek sound farm policies. The National Na-tional Grange and the Farm bureau always have been respected and their views generally have been important im-portant with members of the house and senate. So, Mr. Wallace is found cessiry tor face-saving always being present. But that does not prevent me from setting down here what Mr. Wallace has done. It ought to be notice to all farmers to take the propaganda with a grain of salt, or several grains of salt. Recently, Secretary Wallace issued is-sued a statement harshly criticizing the loan policies of the federal land banks as those policies were carried car-ried out under the banks' former management. In the language of the street, he kicked those policies higher high-er than the well-known kite. Anybody Any-body who criticized the secretary's criticism at once became an agent of the special interests whn nursing the group that best fits his immediate purposes. There is another thing to be mentioned. men-tioned. The Jones-Wheeler bill, with all its trick phrases, probably will not get through at this session of congress unless all available pressure pres-sure is put behind it. It was to create cre-ate this support that Mr. Wallace and Governor Black sent out their circulars in criticism of the land bank policies. Since there is no probability of congress being called into extra session and since adjournment adjourn-ment of the current session is likely to occur sometime in June, the bill has to be pushed through now, or it will yield no political benefits at the election in November. I believe it is fairly clear from this what Mr Wallace's suggested program contemplates. ing to enslave the farmer. In other words, all of the world's knowledge on the subject of farm credit was I tucked away within the brain of the The new drive for additional authority au-thority for the secretary of agriculture agricul-ture comes at a time when the cash farm income picture is not pretty The last figures issued by the de' partment of agriculture show that cash farm income for the months of Tcy;ebrUary and Mah totalled to-talled $1,696,000,000, whereas it was $1,581 000.000 for the same thTee months of 1939. That looks, like a gam, but wait! According to the department of agriculture, farm subsidies for the first three months of this year were $291 000,000 and for the same thre" month, of 1939, the farm subsides totalled $192,000,000. The cash in! come reported for this year was roughly. $115,000,000 more than a year ago, and the subsidy paid ,o rVar,Trs,was almost si0 ooo 000 larger than last year. Which in my book represents just no gain atM current United States secretary of agriculture. But Mr. Wallace did not stop there. With the assistance of one Governor Black of the Farm Credit administration, Mr. Wallace sent his statement about the terrible federal land bank policies through the mails to something like 600,000 farmers who are borrowers from the land banks. The letters, of course, went through the mails, free under the federal government's franking privilege. priv-ilege. Jones-Wheeler Bill Results Are Subject to Debate To get back to the secretary's criticism crit-icism of the former land bank management man-agement and the circular letter sent out at public expense: As I said the secretary appears to have stuck out his neck. He included in that letter a thinly veiled appeal for the tul "rm program I cannot enthuse, therefore k . the policies that hav been caTd -best ' by Secretary Wa lace He has tried too many ..best.,. "e doubt whether'th eXper,:ginnthngrit0 ouu.uuu tarmer-borrowers to write to their representatives and senators in support of a piece of legislation known as the Jones-Wheeler bill Mr Wallace said this legislation would I make it much easier for the farmers j to borrow and it would make their debt burden easier to carry through a reduction in interest rates and through revision of other terms It was. according to the department of Now, there seems to h to criticize Mr. Wallace fo to change the loanPo, ie' r President HK'-reorganization HK'-reorganization placed ,h nent Credit administration withi partment of agriculture. So, wh1Ie one may disagree with the sic "ys program, his right to thce polices is not open to debate Concerning the methods he is '!' owever, much can and shout 'Must' Legislation Secretary of Agriculture Wallace Wal-lace has been too anxious to impress im-press his view regarding current farm loan legislation onto congress, con-gress, according to William Bruckart Washington correspondent corre-spondent The house committee on agriculture will look into Mr Wallace's statements on the subject sub-ject and will report the findings to congress. Farm politics is behind be-hind all of oie stir and fuss, says Bruckart |
