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Show i j Washington, I). C I BIG VS. tini K FARM KIIS I Forty years have elapsed betweer Uie bfg-busines battles of Teddj Roosevelt and Cousin FDR. but on issue which plagued the former it also plaguing the hitter and is now before congress. It is the questint whether government irriRation. gov i eminent water, and government reei i lumatior) shall benefit the big land owner or the small. The issue is now one of the hottest fights both in California and In congress, con-gress, where Secretary of the Inte rior Ickes has been called to testify ; on rider which Congressmen El-i El-i liott and Carter of California havt skilfully smuggled Into the riven and harbors bill a rider permitting big landowner! In California's ceiv tral valley to benefit from government govern-ment low-cost irrigation. The question In Teddy Roosevelt's day was whether any farmer holding hold-ing more than 160 acres should benefit bene-fit from government Irrigation. The Issue arose when the land kings ot the Far West wanted to develop their ranches and speculative holdings through Irrigation at government ex- pense. The West was for it, but the East objected. Eastern states claimed they would be footing the tax bill and that Western Irrigation would come out of their pockets. The West replied that the Irrigation projects of that day would provide benefits for small Eastern farmers who migrated mi-grated westward tomorrow. After terrific battle, Teddy Roosevelt won out. Congress ruled that government irrigated land tracts must be limited to 160 acres. That law still stands. But Republican Repub-lican Congressman Carter of Oakland, Oak-land, 'Calif.,' and Democratic Congressman Con-gressman Elliott of Tulare, Calif., have ganged up to change it with a rider exempting the central valley irrigation project. Their amendment, already passed by the house, would mean that big ranchers in the central valley could benefit from the new irrigation project proj-ect no matter how extensive their holdings. Even more Important, it would mean that a lot. of new land, not extensively cultivated at present, would be subjecfed . to cut-throat speculation. Ickes for Small Farms. Secretary of the Interior Ickes, who has supervised the expenditure of $150,000,000 on central valley irri- gation, is determined that the benefits bene-fits shall not go to land speculators and big ranchers, plus some of the big liquor companies which have bought up California wineries. The issue, according to Secretary Ickes, is whether the U.S.A. is going to become a nation of large landowners land-owners hiring Okies and tenant farmers, or whether the nation will feature medium-sized farmers operating oper-ating their own land. NOTE Business men In the central cen-tral valley are split over the issue. Many merchants believe that medium-sized farms rather than poorer farm labor make for better business in neighboring towns. The Fresno Chamber of Commerce calls 60 to SO acres of figs an economic unit for a family, or 80 to 120 acres of alfalfa. al-falfa. The Chamber has sent out booklets urging settlers to take up small land tracts. e FOUR-Fs, Despite all the army howls for 4-Fs to get into war plants, it remains re-mains a fact that physical examination examina-tion in many plants is so stiff that they can't get in. In fact, the physical physi-cal in some plants is stiffer than in the army. Many a patriotic 4-F has worn out shoeleather making the rounds of war plants, only to find that he can't get in. A punctured ear-drum; for instance, is considered just as important im-portant in a war plant as in the army. TIn recent weeks, ' belated steps hav"e been taken to relax some of these physical restrictions, but much still remains to be done So you can't blame a lot of the 4-F-ers if they aren't in war plants. Another difficulty which the War Manpower commission might well dig into is the fact that anyone can quit work in a vital war plant but, without a certificate of availability, cannot transfer to anbther war plant at least, not until after a 60-day period. In other words, yoif can step out. Of an aircraft factory or a synthetic rubber plant and go to work-in a barber shop or at a bootblack stand, or just loaf at home. They are"! not essential industries. But if you-Want to switch to a munitions plant, you can't without a certificate of availability avail-ability (which you probably can't get), or without waiting the required cooling-off period of 60 days. a e MERRY-GO-ROUND , C Busy as he is, President Roosevelt Roose-velt will soon be called upon to settle set-tle the problem of whether rail worker's vacation week is six days or seven. Railroad workers were granted a week's vacation as part ot the wage compromise last year, but the railroad executive! now contend that FDR meant the-vacation should be six days, not seven. If the railroad rail-road workers get seven days, they can stay away Sunday, which is a holiday anyway, plus Monday, or an actual total ot eight days. ' m |
