Show W washington D 0 PRESIDENT LISTENS the president did the listening instead of the talking when he be conferred on farm manpower and food with three prominent farm leaders albert S goss master of the national grange H E babcock vice president of the national council of farmer operatives cooperatives co and ezra T nelson its executive secretary the farm spokesmen spent about 30 minutes of the 37 minute conference expounding their views on what caused the food shortage now facing the country and what has to be done to remedy it the president confined his remarks chiefly to asking questions he began by telling his visitors that the food situation was extremely serious why I 1 invited you gentlemen here hare today to get your opinions on what has to be done the president said go ahead and be as frank as you like the farm leaders accepted the challenge they charged the administration with shortsightedness in dealing with farm labor deferments and cont contended ende d that government price policies also had bad contributed tri buted to the farm manpower shoT shortage tage local draft P problem if you wan want t my views I 1 ill 11 give them to you mr president spoke up ezra nelson two things have to be done and done immediately first ot of all someone in authority here in washington must tell these local draft boards where to head to in they must be told that they h have ave a almost as much responsibility to see to it ft that we have sufficient manpower to produce food tor for the w war ar effort as they have to provide m men en tor for the fighting forces food la is j just cis as important as munitions in my opinion we cant fight the war without it and we cant let our civil lans fans starve A lot of these local draft boards still feel that they must fill their induction quotas nelson continued the boards have been assigned quotas but they dont have to meet them at least not in sections where there is a crying farm labor shortage you or someone else should tell them this the president pointed out that many young farmers dont want to be deferred this the fault of the draft boards he said the young men themselves are so patriotic that they do not want to remain on the farm while a war is going on it was agreed that steps would have to be taken to convince se that they could serve their country as well on the farm as in the army goss suggested that one way out would be to induct farm hands and then 4 furlough them back to the farm at prevailing farm wages instead of army pay this would require legislation but the president said it was an idea worth considering stop selling cows the second thing that has to be done is for the government to step in and stop the widespread selling of dairy cows and other stock and farm arm equipment by farmers who are unable to continue in business at present farm price levels nelson continued im as much opposed to inflation as you are mr president he added but we have got to make it possible for farmers to operate at a fair profit it if we are to lick this threatened food shortage they have got to be assured fair prices in order to pay wages that will keep their help from migrating to jobs in industry the operative cooperative co official contended that farms had lost two thirds ot of their manpower to war industries because of low farm arm wages the president said that he be too was deeply concerned about this factor suggested to his callers that they get together with secretary of 0 agriculture and map out a program embracing their recommendations ions then come back and see m me ia again urged the president 1 I want to continue these discussions CAPITAL CHAFF call C althe the super cabinets careful con s Ide ration of how big our armed forces should be was actually a sham battle has the old dutch up over the size ot of the armed forces and take say so on this point except the ardys own plan conceived way back in 1938 the army in 1938 had no idea whether we would have the ships in 1943 to transport troops abroad but is sticking to its original plan just the same and Is no per cent behind it 41 john mcclintock assistant co ardi of inter american affairs is off to the amazon to inspect food and health programs for rubber rubbe r tappers a when general marshall turned down the rank of field marshal he also knocked over a carefully laid plan whereby admiral king would become admiral of the fleet to date only three men have won the title admiral of 0 t the he fleet dewey F farragut and porter on the pr proposal osal to make king admiral of the F fleet beet w was as so he could outrank admiral leahy |