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Show Let'sTace Facts Farmer Organizations Organize Pressures To Clip Price Laws By BARROW LYONS WNU Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON, D. C. One of the hardest fought behind-the-scenes battles in congress in recent re-cent months has f',BTOW7''l been the fight to ' ' u I preserve price control to main- tain the Presi--1 dent's "hld-the- ' ??f toe" Ad-" Ad-" !y 1 ministration lead-J lead-J x ' i ers have felt that x,,s unless virtually Xirt 1 a11 changes to the v 1 emergency price Lt.. .' Jt ji i i control act were . . defeated, the dev-Barrow dev-Barrow Lyons u inflation would get his hoof inside the door; and that frbm then on there would be no stopping him until he had pulled down the house. This has seemed an arbitrary and dictatorial viewpoint to leaders of farm organizations. All over the country their clients, the farmers of America, have smarted from various vari-ous OPA rulings. They have been determined to find some relief from those which have irked them the, most. Farm leaders do not wish to j destroy basic price controls, how-' ever. But as a result of the combined com-bined attacks of business and farm interests, price control I faces today one of its recurring crises. Scores of amendments to the emergency price control act have been referred to the senate committee on banking and currency, and debates behind be-hind closed doors have been charged with fire and brimstone. Among the amendments which stand the best chance of acceptance are those proposed by Sen. Kenneth. S. Wherry (R., Neb.), Republican Whip. These amendments include elimination of the 60-day limitation on the time for filing formal protests pro-tests against inequitable prices, authorization au-thorization for organizations as well as individual sellers to challenge in the courts price regulations, a requirement re-quirement that civil enforcement: proceedings be brought in the dis-l trict where the defendant resides or; maintains a place of business, opportunity op-portunity for the defendant in price' violation proceedings to plead that the price at which he sold was no higher than parity price. Farm Group Support Recently a newspaper release supporting sup-porting the Wherry amendments was issued by the farm group and signed: "The National Grange, by A. S. Goss, national master; American Ameri-can Farm Bureau federation, by Edward O'Neal, president; National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, by John H. Davis, executive secretary, and National Cooperative Milk Producers' Pro-ducers' federation, by Charles W. Holman, secretary." When a combination like that gets behind a measure, something some-thing generally gives way. This time resistance is unusually stubborn. The administration is fighting with all its power every move to weaken price controls particularly proposals which would permit prolonged legal proceedings, and thus make a law that is very difficult to administer ad-minister virtually Impossible to administer. But it is on the legal front that the farm leaders make their principal princi-pal attack. Their joint statement declares: "The legal subterfuges that OPA has employed to prevent court tests of some of its high-handed actions are destructive of the people's respect re-spect for and confidence in government govern-ment ... The chief reason that price ceilings on food have been reasonably rea-sonably effective has been the fact that American farmers have continued con-tinued to produce at the highest level lev-el m history. "This production has been achieved in spite of serious handicaps handi-caps imposed by OPA as a result of inequitable ceilings, tardily announced, an-nounced, indefinite and unjust regulations regu-lations and widely differing and often contradictory interpretations. anT mstances' Wice regulations and other actions of the OPA have disregarded the will of congress. The agency has refused in instance alter instance, to make price adjustments ad-justments required by law, even though these adjustments would have made Utile difference in tte cost of hving and would have ma! tenally increased production " not. enou space in this column to go into all of the intricacies intrica-cies of this battle. The OPA has made so many blunders that it is hard to find an unbiased audience inBthVhere 3re ffiighty few people financial sac4ce 81 Consid"able tioTnhehasfflku!edfoflPrr tors Th fl two administra- .'.- |
