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Show Newsx Behind DvPaulMallon NO r.N.t i:. KNOWN l'OR KAKBI l'KOItl.l iM WASHINGTON. Mi; Tnminn's new foodn:istor, Andi'ison, put it mildly when ho nnncHim't'ii, upon taking up Ills Job, that be could not cure the food crisis with a magic wiuut All ho has been given Is a baton, with no discernible magic appendages. append-ages. His power has not been increased one-half of a whit In the new OPA bill and, .as food expert Herbert Hoover commented, congress con-gress wasted its time when It talked loudly for weeks i about helping him, then failed to do Anderson anything. This means Anderson's An-derson's unmagic wand will be only as long as Mr. Truman decides when Anderson tries to do something from now on. That Anderson cannot do much Is the common conclusion of Intimates of the problem. When the supply and distribution distribu-tion system is once broken down, as ours has been, long and powerful mending is required to get it going again. Anderson is working not only in a delicate price-help-machincry condition, con-dition, but to restore a system disrupted dis-rupted by years of abusive regulations. regula-tions. That is only half of it. The food system is not only war weary, and heavily laden with disruptive regulation; it is now dominated extensively ex-tensively by the black market, an invisible but powerful force. j For example, the corn-hog ratio has been fixed high enough now by Washington to stimulate pork production. pro-duction. But that result has not followed. fol-lowed. Pig production prospects are definitely down despite Washington pulling of the main spring which was supposed to send them up. These considerations furnish only a fast glance at how high the cards are stacked against Mr. Anderson. This is all anyone of authority really hopes for, although the publicity pub-licity mills are grinding out the daily prospects that everything is going to become better and better. CROP OUTLOOK MIXED Crop prospects are mixed. The wheat outlook is splendid, corn doubtful. So the publicity mills are playing the wheat prospects, ignoring ig-noring corn. Yet if you will look into the weekly farm, weather bulletins, bulle-tins, you will find much corn has not been planted at this late date, due to weather. Much has rotted and been replanted. Vegetables, outside the Florida area, are hopeful. Apples were ruined by March warmth and cold, which factor also hurt the citrus fruits seriously. Eggs are getting shorter and shorter. The increased civilian allocations of poultry for six border states will not solve the poultry situation for them, or anyone. Poultry deficiencies are really due to the meat shortage, and will continue as long as it does. The better June marketing figures for beef will not ease the meat situation, situ-ation, as the army is still taking 50 to 60 per cent of all meat available for interstate commerce. Beef, however, how-ever, will be somewhat more easily available, due to better local slaughtering slaugh-tering arrangements m some areas. Now as to wheat, the most favorable favor-able produce, one of Anderson's first acts was to keep acreage requests to farmers for 1946 about the same as now. Superficially this may appear ap-pear a doubtful move, especially as the government simultaneously announced an-nounced it expected to increase shipments ship-ments to Europe. The inner truth of the matter Is not much can be shipped to Europe, because ships are not available. Most bottoms alreadv have gone to the Pacific to supply sup-ply our armies. Secondly, we have a carry-over of 350 million bushels of wheat. Added to our expected production of 1,085 million bushels, this will give us more than 1,400 million bushels at the end of this crop year, and we need normally at home only 750 million bushels. So Anderson has played wheat reasonably safe. The increase in rye acreage for 1946 anticipates more for whisky and rye bread, the outlook for these two minor matters of living being exceptionally bright. As for corn (meaning hogs and to some extent cattle), no one will know much what we will have before be-fore fall and next year's acreage on that will be announced after a survey sur-vey of the marketing situation then. No new farm machinery (excepting (except-ing harvesters) will be available until un-til fall, and the greatest need is for planters and cultivators. The discharge dis-charge plans of the army will not be sufficient to solve the farm labor problem this year. Frankly, I would not want Mr. Anderson's An-derson's job. |