Show 0 0 y national topics interpreted by william bruckart 1 D C Fat national lonal press building washington washington the wide sion over the increasing cost ot of food and the prediction new problem by secretary wal for AAA lace 1 of the department of agriculture that food prices will ascend something like 11 per cent more before july 1 has given rise to a new problem for the agricultural adjustment administration tra tion it threatens to be serious as foot food questions always are serious and as this aspect of the situation becomes better understood its political importance Is becoming greater there can he be no doubt that the new deil deal program for raising places has had its fullest effect on the food prices and thereto therein lies iles the basis for the trouble now brewing to make the problem more serious from the political standpoint increased food prices are felt first and most etten shely in the metropolitan areas it Is in these same areas that the greatest number of unemployed live and must be cared for it becomes plain then that increased food prices are directly interwoven bilth the problem ot of relief and it Is difficult to predict what mass psychology may be developed from such a circumstance there are two sides of the problem from the political standpoint one of them relates directly to tile the plans for providing lood food and affects directly those persons whose employment has been small and who have only limited amounts of money with which to maintain lire life the second phase involves the future of the agricultural adjustment administration and affects directly the political situation that has for some time revolved about the focal point of the principle of attempting to mannge manage prices as Is being done under the AAA connected with the latter phase and likely to suffer from hard riding politicians tic ians Is the movement within the AAA to broaden its power it will be recalled that last year prof rexford guy tugwell undersecretary of agriculture and a lending leading brain truster sought to force through congress a series of amendments to the adjustment act which in the lew of many observers would make the regimentation of farmers a compulsory instead of a voluntary proposition as Is now the case in other words according to critics of the tugwell plan the amendments that were offered and defeated in congress last year would make the department at af agriculture a veritable dictator oer the aarl agricultural industries in this country although mr tugwell does not figure to in the picture so go much this year the same amendments have been put forward and a considerable amount of pressure Is being exerted to obtain an enactment as law having defeated them last year critics of the program headed by senator byrd dem va are mustering in full strength to squelch the amendments again welle it Is yet too early to hazard a guess concerning the results of this battle attention may be called at this time to some of the potentialities of such a legislative fight in these debates lies iles real danger to wb whatever ateer good there Is in the adjustment act according to the best information information I 1 can get the danger is to be in this direction those who criticize the tugwell amendments though they do not now dow bear his name are not going to confine their verbal fire to th those use proposals they will go as they did last year considerably beyond the scope of the proposed legislation they will attack any and all features of the whole adjustment program and it Is not unlikely that their criticism will result in tearing down some of the admittedly good features of this phase of the new deal 0 0 0 I 1 have bare beard co considerable comment to the effect that if the brain tr usters who lie are now dow pramot question wg ing the new or re of politics politic AAA amend ments would use good political judgment they would not press for action on their proposals at this time in other words political comment commentaries arles are to the effect that the brain trustees tr usters are diving headlong into a whirlpool in which they may in ny find themselves unable to swim it Is plainly a combination of circumstances with which they are confronted those were nere enumerated above to many observers therefore it appears most fo foolhardy olli ardy for the supporters of this extreme legislation to go further in their attempt to strengthen the adjustment act at a time when plainly mr roosevelt does not have complete control of congress and at a time when the strongest tide of opposition to regimentation Is running it Is to be remembered with respect to the legislative itlie situation that there will be opposition as indeed there already has been opposition developed from among the processors it should be explained that the reused amendments would place all of the processors under tinder licenses from froin the department of agriculture without such licenses they become the of bootleggers in the prohibition dass anis and no one can foretell nhat hat the reaction would he be to this my aly understanding is that there are something like one hundred then of these processors in the various of commodities corn com ing under the jurisdiction of 0 the adjustment net act in addition to the proe processors about nine hundred thousand retailers handling these products A are subjected to control directly or indirectly by AAA licenses consequently we see more than a million who could do business only it if the department of agriculture saw fit to grant licenses and when I 1 say the department of agriculture in law it simmers down to tile the secretary of agriculture secretary wallaces policies and his personal attitude I 1 believe are not such as to give cause for alarm respecting administration of these pro proposed PO s ed licensing provisions yet let it has been freely suggested that a time may come when the secretary of agriculture will be neither as good nor as wise as mr wallace you can make your own guess as to the possibilities under the regime of a secretary of agriculture who was not big enough for the job those these circumstances and conditions in the minds minda of many observers here point only to one thing now the adjustment act and the program drafted Is not as popular as it was before it went into operation judging from correspondence received by representatives and senators the adjustment program Is actually repugnant to some sections I 1 believe it only fair to state however that the adjustment pr program Is not blamed wholly tor for tho the increase in prices but always in tl almea es like these and under circumstances like those to which attention has been directed there has to be a goat ap AD parent patently ly that goat Is going to be this the department of agriculture and its stepchild step child the agricultural adjustment administration 0 0 0 while all of the newspapers are printing many columns in review of 0 two years of the garner roosevelt overlooked tion and much attention Is being paid to president roosevelt it seems to me that one stalwart of the administration vice president john N garner is being somewhat overlooked it seems to me also that this should not be the tha case because all observers agree that sir mr garner has placed the vice presidency of the united states on some thing of a new plane much levity always has been directed at any man holding the job of ace ilce president it Is true that the vice pies ident Is seldom if ever out front as the expression Is with sir garner however it has been decidedly different I 1 bellee from all of the discussions that I 1 have heard since his election mr air garner has filled and Is filling a very constructive post in this administration although str mr garner weighs about the same and Is no taller while he dresses much as he did before had his wit and humor Is much the same it certainly can be said that he it fit a much bigger man in the eyes of the people of this country than he wan a few years ago in other words glien ghen the opportunity sir mr garner has performed in a way that probably will III record him in history as among the outstanding individuals who have bare filled that second ranking elective post 1 in our government it Is not generally known I 1 thlik how much influence mr garner wields in the roosevelt administration he sits with mr Roose roosebelt Roo Nelt and the other members in the cabinet meetings and there Is no doubt among observers here that those men lean upon the long experience 1 peri alu ence vt which the vice president has bus had the port of baltimore md witnessed an unusual sight the other dal da arrival of a we import of corn from argau corn tina it was the first full cargo ever to at ai rive in that port and caused some ot servers to remark that it appeared to t be carrying coals to newcastle this would have been true under cor such as we used to haie base in thlu country before tile the inauguration of tin thil agricultural adjustment tion the AAA has made the differ ence last year the AAA set about abou reducing the lie corn acreage in this country because it was the conviction of the new deal that production had been too great twenty per cent cur curtailment tall was decreed to accomplish that end the AAA offered to pay farmers at the rate of thirty cents per bushel for not growing corn the plan worked as 88 it might naturally be supposed to have worked and there was the expected curtailment of production but nature took a hand and the drouth settled down over the sast last corn producing areas of the middle west so great was this disaster that there Is not now sufficient corn to meet do bestic requirements importation of 0 corn resulted and the port of bale more hid had the novel experience of see ing corn shipped in instead of 0 out ut secretary wallace lins lias defended the AAA AA policies on the ground that they were exceedingly flexible and could be ba used to increase or decrease p production doduc as conditions required it seems however that corn has a habit of grow ing only during the summer monteiz and if the production in that period 19 I 1 in sufficient insufficient the winter months must witness a short shortage 0 western union |