| Show 0 national topi topics cs interpreted t T by Wil william liati bruckart DC P j I 1 atlant press building washington the old mother hen congress has settled down prepared to hatch batch what will some something ln g f from r 0 M it hot hatch ch the nest s I 1 0 of crop at control eggs hla chis stage of the proc proceeding beding no one can make a guess as to the brood that congress will produce any better than a farmers wife can tell what will be hatched by a real hen in her chicken house about all that can be said for sure is that president roosevelt called congress into special session to enact crop control legislation and therefore there is likely to be crop control legislation of some kind it may not be hatched in the special session cession the chances are that the many frailly differences of opinion and the many demands cannot be reconciled to in the six weeks which the special session assion may occupy before the regular session of congress convenes tn n january in addition to the lack of time in which to maturely examine crop control questions a rivalry has developed between the house and the senate enate over the honor of drafting and putting through the law which will tell the farmers what they can and what they cannot do as farmers let me say just here that sue such h a rivalry may work to the benefit of agriculture because it is bound to mean a compromise between the house and senate on the legislation that finally is enacted in other words extremists for and against any proposal will have to yield and this may possibly result in some workable program for crop control the main question before congress is the type of crop control law to be enacted there are two kinds control may be compulsory or it may be voluntary most of the powers that be in the department of agriculture seem to favor the compulsory kind a law that will tell the farmers they can or cannot do certain things and if they violate the decree they can be punished many groups of farmers however do not want that sort cort of thing in consequence we find in congress now proponents of both the compulsory and the voluntary programs and each sida side appears to be determined in its position we have seen both types used potato growers will remember how the potato control law laid down the rule that a quota of production should be imposed upon every farmer and that he must pay 45 cents per bushel above the value of his potatoes for every bushel produced above his quota these growers will remember also the agricultural adjustment administration requirement that all potatoes sold must be packaged in a certain way that was prescribed for the grower by the AAA in this connection it will be recalled how there was a penalty in addition for those who failed to properly package the potatoes they sold beyond these requirements there was vas also a penalty prescribed to be invoked against any person who did not properly package his potatoes and place a government stamp thereon besides all this there was an informer section in the potato control law it provided something of a bounty for any person who relayed to the authorities any information info r he had respecting failure of any farmer to comply with the law and the regulations issued r it was reminiscent of pr prohibition 0 hibi tion days when informers were paid to squeal on bootleggers the compulsory cotton control law was less stringent but it had penalties altac attached hed cotton go 60 that any cotton cotto n control f farmer armer who failed to comply with the regulations had to pay a tax on cotton produced over and above his allotment this tax was so high 50 per cent of at the value that 7 it amounted to a fine as punishment the other kind of cotton control la law W the voluntary pla plan n had no penalty provisions this control was exercised by issue of subsidies or payments to farmers for raising various crops provided they limited the amount to the dictation of 0 the AAA thus under the voluntary control the farmer could take the governments money moisey and limit his crop cr OP to what the AAA said was his quota and thus be paid for compliance or he could refuse the govern ments subsidy and raise what he pleased now in addition to these propositions propos secretary wallace of the department D part ment of agriculture is pramot ling what he calls his ever normal granary plan this is to serve as supplemental to the crop control on the production side the secretary has an idea that the federal government can take the surplus of good years off of the hands of farn far n ers and hold them through the lean years when poor crops have failed to produce the amount required for american home consumption the secre ever nor normal mal granary plan is a red hot poker and id there will be plenty of sparks lying flying off of the handle as well a as the hot end when this thing is debated opponents of the in congress secre s scheme contend that this program is straight out regimentation and that it goes as far in this effect as anything done by either the fascist mussolini or the communist stalin it takes no stretch of the imagination therefore to see what is just ahead in the matter of a controversy for crop legislation for the reason that each of the programs that has been thus far advanced contains political dynamite 0 0 0 chairman jones of the house agricultural committee began work on drafts of bills for jones crop control long drafts bills before the session convened several weeks prior to the opening day of the special session mr jones appointed six subcommittees sub committees each was charged with drafting legislation applicable to a specific commodity in doing this mr jones threw the door wide open he included six she farm crops to share the alleged benefits of crop control legislation including the ever normal granary surplus control program the subcommittees sub committees were directed to work out legislation covering cotton wheat corn tobacco rice and dairy products inclusion of rice and dairy products came as a surprise heretofore there had been little talk about including rice and none about dairy products the information that filters into washington in agton is that a majority of the dairy people have no particular hankering for govern government me nt dictation in their r business chairman smith of the senate agricultural committee likewise has been busy throughout the summer he has been attempting to get a line on farmer sentiment by a number of hearings in various parts of the country from all indications chairman smith who comes from South Carolina and is a farmer in his own right is not enthusiastic about too much government dictation in the field of agriculture over on the house side of the capitol secretary wallace has many followers obviously he will coop co op erate with them very closely indeed some of the house members who do not like mr wallace or his ever normal granary meare referring to the wallace supporters in the house as henry wallaces boys that indicates better than anything I 1 can say how deep seat ed the feelings are to add to the complexity of the job facing congress president roosevelt has said definitely that if there are subsidies paid to farmers in connection with crop control legislation that legislation must carry additional taxes to take care of the bounty payments authorized simmered down therefore what mr roosevelt has said is that it if the farmers want that kind of crop control legislation they and all consumers must pay for it with added taxes I 1 have heard general commendation of the presidents position it surely represents a straightforward policy by the chief executive in this regard he has told the country now that he is willing to support agricultural subsidies through control of the crops if the whole country which has to pay the bill is willing to bear the extra taxes that are required having presented the picture as I 1 see it it seems almost unnecessary to add that two big there will be two lobbies enormous lobbies bearing down on congress in the special se session as well as proba probably bly in the regular session that convenes in jan january uary I 1 think I 1 foresee now how secretary wallace and those who believe with him are going to operate both within and without the administration that tha t is to say there will be administration pressure and when n anyone says that there is admi administration ni pressure the they Y are saying nothing more or less than that the administration is lobbying it has always been that way and it is no exception that the roosevelt administration does the same sort of th thing ng the other lobby will embrace embrace a considerable represent representation atio n of farmer sentiment that is opposed to washington dictation and which feels that additional taxes will have to be absorbed in part at least by agriculture this hap happened itene d in the case of a processing ta tax x which was thrown out as unconstitutional will happen in it every case for t the he reason that no one is going to absorb taxes when they can be pa passed ased on when they are re passed on to the farmers that is the end because the farmer has no place to send them fix the co consumer isumer is in the same in addition t to this farm sentiment the lobby in opposition to 1 te wallace program likely will tind find certain phases of other industry aligned with it it will in all probability f ind find a certain share or segment of consumer opposition on be cause the consumers will h have ave 1 it pay in higher prices 0 newspaper tri union aloo |
