Show 0 national topics interpreted by william bruckart D C press building washington washington there are many occasions on record where several important I 1 issues s s u e s ever normal have engaged the granary attention of congress and frequently one of these issues has roused aroused such bitterness and developed su such h a controversy that it overshadowed all others that has been the case in recent weeks during which president Roosevel ts plan to add six justices of his own choosing to the supreme court of the united states completely subordinated everything else but the crushing defeat received by the president through refusal of the vast majority of democrats in congress to support his court reorganization scheme suddenly has directed attention to other major questions outstanding among these is secretary wallaces aces farm biu bill and the so called wages and hours bill which is claimed to contain complete protection for the laboring classes it is of the farm bill that I 1 shall write now since it is much snore more imminent as far as congressional action is concerned than is the case with the wages and hours proposition the basis of secretary wallaces aces program is what he calls the ever boimal granary there are other provisions included in the bill but the idea of a maintained supply of farm products is the heart of the plan now it seems that if the words ever normal granary mean anything they must be accepted as meaning a continuity of supply at a level which government agents ar determine as the proper rate of accumulation or sale of such supplies tup plies the house of representatives has been muddling along with the question for several months it has been under much pressure from secretary wallace and his associates and from some of the farm leaders whom the secretary has convinced of the value of his scheme echeme the farm leaders as a whole are far from unanimous on the proposition despite the fact that secretary wallace and the tremendous propaganda machine within the department of agriculture has been exceedingly active in an effort to sell the plan to the country as a whole and thereby b bring cr additional pressure on congress I 1 shau shall not attempt to give all of the details of the wallace proposal here it is too complicated for explanation in the limited space available indeed I 1 have found quite a number of members of the house of representatives who are unable to give a complete explanation of how the plan would work and they admit it it is a piece of legislation that must be complicated in order to accomplish things its proponents claim for it and my observation of government agencies leads me to the conclusion it is so complicated that the chances of it succeeding are almost nil in the first instance as I 1 have said the ever normal granary idea comprehends a constant level of supplies at first blush it would seem that storage of wheat or corn com or cotton or other farm products in a big crop year to be sold in years when crops are small should work out to keep prices at a satisfactory level that is the theory on the other hand in times past this same sort eort of scheme has worked out to depress prices instead of maintain maintaining them and the farmers have been the losers included in this legislation are provisions for benefit payments to farmers under certain conditions when the price level falls below parity this injects into the problem again the influence of the general price level of au all commodities in the united states whether from the farm or from the factory and it also forces upon the united states additional influence wielded by the level of prices in foreign countries where the law of supply and demand continues to operate without impossible amendment at dictation no doubt the wallace walla ce proposal would boost prices at present this is true because we have had bad several short crop years and there is no surplus now but with indications that the current wheat crop lor for example is going to be exceptionally tio nally large it is entirely possible that the nation as a whole will have a 2 surplus ot of wheat this fall in addition there will be wheat crops grown in other countries as usual some of our wheat must be besold sold in foreign markets and compete with wheat grown in russia or in south america it is is easy to see therefore that the lack ot of a wheat surplus in this country is exceedingly temporary the ever normal granary it if it works as the theorists claim would if sounds sound store or keep off of the market that great grear portion of the crop which is not needed for current consumption that sounds fine great users of wheat must buy their supplies far ahead if they do not take this precaution they stand a chance always of finding their bins empty and are faced with the necessity of closing their mills it is this feature that causes long range buyers to resort to what is called hedging that is they sell on option nearly as much as t they hey buy on contract they are thus able a to offset losses whether the price of wheat goes up or whether it goes down and the losses or the gains are distributed throughout the industry it is the only way by which the industry can protect itself mr wallaces scheme proposes doing away with that sort of thing not directly but through the effect of the ever normal granary in other words the net result of the ever normal granary would be for the government to hold these stocks and feed them into the market as demand for supplies requires this sounds feasible and it probably would be except for the fact that we have no means of controlling production in the other wheat producing countries and I 1 repeat that I 1 am using wheat as illustrative of all farm products in fact the wallace plan provides no control of production in this country and that question is vital As far as I 1 can see nature is going to operate to give us rain or give us drouth in accordance with the judgment of the higher power no human is going to be very influential in that regard to get back to the question of the price level it should be said that th at while the wallace plan provides what appears to be an insurance against fluctuation it is more likely to have the opposite effect because of the influence of world prices great storehouses of wheat in the country will hang over the market like an epidemic no one can tell when it will strike and since markets are made up of individuals who are human a portion of the markets is always going to be frightened by the uncertainty of when government wheat will be offered for sale it is a perfectly human reaction because it involves the pocketbooks and humans naturally want to buy as cheaply as they can and sell as high as they can one of the things that happened in the administration of president hoover t that h a t is tried once sure to be kemem and failed bared is the utter failure of his farm policy that farm policy centered at one time in what wash was called the federal farm board it if you will go back a few years and recall the operations erat ions of the federal farm board I 1 think you will agree that the things it undertook to do were exactly comparable to if not exactly the same as the scheme set up by secretary wallace in his ever normal granary idea the only difference that I 1 can s see and I 1 watched the operations of the farm board from close at hand is a change in the name it must be admitted that the phrase ever normal granary has a pretty sound but when it comes to a question of an attractive expression one that is soothing and one that should convince is us all that every problem is solved I 1 submit those favorites which mr wallace used to use when professor tugwell was with him in the department of agriculture who does not recall the more abundant life and who has forgotten the doctrine of scarcity to ta assure plenty As far as I 1 know neither the house nor the senate committee on agriculture has held hearings on this ever normal granary phase of the wallace legislation thus far the discussion has been largely on questions involving benefits and subsidies and means of marketing no attention has been given to the ever eve r normal granary threat and I 1 regard it as a menace if this discussion were devoted to only the consumer phase of our economic life I 1 think I 1 should be selfish enough to urge enactment of the wallace plan I 1 believe I 1 can see where the ever normal granary id idea ea will make bread cheaper where it will make cotton textile goods cheaper and when cotton is cheaper other textiles are cheaper and where other food and necessaries of life that have their origin on the farm will be reduced in price by such a legislative policy but that is not my idea of a sound economic structure it is just as necessary for the consumer to pay his fair share toward the maintenance of a living agriculture as it is for farmers to pay their fair share to a living commerce and industry of whatever kind it may be the senate democrats have elected a new leader to succeed the late senator joe robinson of arkansas he is senator alban barkley of kentucky in a previous column I 1 mentioned the split among the senate democrats and suggested that it would be difficult to replace senator robinson because of the qualities ties he had in holding the various factions together in the senate it was no not t a forecast it was a statement ent of fact 0 western newspaper union |