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Show Norris Backs Move to Hike Beet Acreage WASHINGTON Anounccment; by the agriculture department that; it, was reconsidering 1941 sugar beet acreage allotments fo'dowed a request by Senator Norris Und.) Nebraska, that such action be taken. ta-ken. The senator's plea was contained in a letter to Secretary Wickard, with which Norris forwarded an outline of the situation confonting farmers by Charles M. Kearney ot Morrill, Neb., president of the National Na-tional Beet Glowers' association. Kearney's organization vigorously vigor-ously protested reductions in acreage acre-age annuonced by the department last December. In renewing the protest Kearney wrote Norris that the burdens the deductions would place an tens of thousands of farmers dependent upon sugar beets were as "needless as they, are unwise." They did not conform, he said, ; to the idea of an "all-out" national nation-al defense program. Furthermore, the growers' repesentative stated, thee was a question whether sugar ; imports could continue in view , of the war.caused scarcity shipping ship-ping bottoms and increased cargo from insular and off shore areas. "Assurance of a domestic sup-1 ply of sugar which does not re- j quire ocean transportation," Kear- i ney wrote Norris, "should be a dis- , tinct help to those dealing with the ; problem of assigning merchant ves- sels to convey goods to and from i this country, and it should also be of assistance in the maintenance of a desired price level." He asked the senator to use his influence to obtain an expanded acreage quota, and expressed confidence con-fidence that increases would not upset the stability of the sugar beet program. In forwarding Kearney's letter,, the senator repeated that freight charges and dificulty of obtaining ships might make it imposible to ship in sugar from off-shore areas. "We are straining every effort now to supply England with all the shiping facilities possible," he told Wickard, "and if we continue to do this, I think we should, it' will only tend to increase the price of sugar from foreign countries, and indeed, it may mean, that we may be unable to get it all from these sources." Such a condition, he said, might prove "very embarrassing because we have in our own country farmers farm-ers who are very anxious to produce pro-duce this additional sugar and have been prevented thus far from doing so by government action." Dr. Joshua Bernhardt, chief of the agriculture sugar section, disclosed dis-closed that the department had under consideration the question of lifting the quotas, but had made no decision. The 141 planting allotment was set at 820,000 acres, a deduction of 16.2 per cent from 1940. Kearney said it was not the desire of his association to have the restriction removed entirely, that he thought the department should retain "some measure of control," but that the organization felt general, order. There was need for haste, he said, because sugar beet planting is starting and soon will be completed. |