Show HOME TOWN REPORTER long range farm plan pa an to take effect eff act by WALTER A SHEAD INSOFAR as the so called 1 long range farm program adopted by the congress is is concerned farmers ranchers and truckers can forget it until about january 1 1950 or thereafter for the crop will not be affected by the new act These hese crops still will be largely marketed under the present support price system with afew a few changes the important change is that prices received by cooperating producers of the mandatory commodities including irish potatoes harvested before january 1 1949 milk and its products hogs chickens and eggs marketed bea before ore despite widespread support for ratification of the international wheat agreement the special session denied positive action preferring leaders said to wait until the new congress convenes next january the agreement would have assured U S wheat growers a million bushel export market for five ve years at guaranteed graduated scale of prices joining farm organizations in pressing for approval were sen arthur and sen alben W barkley january 1 1950 are to be supported at 90 per cent of parity in other words on these commodities the parity price cannot go over 90 per cent as under the old law on other mandatory commodities including flaxseed soybeans dry edible beans dry field peas american egyptian cotton potatoes of the 1949 crop sweet potatoes and turkeys marketed before january 1 1949 prices are to be supported at not less than 60 per cen of the parity price or more than the 1948 support level so on these commodities the parity price as compared to the old law can drop from not less than 90 per cent to not less than 60 per cent on basic commodities the parity price is the same as the present law except that parity for cotton is dropped from avi 92 to 90 per cent on wool the price is to be at the 1946 support level about 42 cents a pound until june 30 1950 support price for non cooperators on basic commodities is to be 54 per cent of parity and only on as much of the commodity as would be subject to penalty if marketed as under the existing law 0 costly support while the solons talked long and loud about doing something about the waste in potatoes they did nothing to take the secretary of agriculture ri iture off the spot the law still requires him to support the price of irish potatoes and so go into the market and buy them when they reach the support price this policy adopted by congress Is costing the government about four million dollars per month it was pointed out in debate that the early and intermediate potato crops c could not be shipped abroad a as s food under the european recovery program because of the perishable factor the late potato crop much of it from northern states can be shipped but even tt if sufficient refrigerated ships could be obtained for shipment there is insufficient cold storage in europe to keep them once they arrive there consequently the government sells them to distillers to millers to farmers for feed to all sorts of institutions and takes a heavy loss debate on inflation during the debate on inflation in the special session some senators sat openmouthed open mouthed others looked warily at one another as they heard this exchange between sen joseph C dem wyo and sen robert A taft rep ohio SENATOR 1 I understand der stand the senator to say that ht he thought the president had the power to enforce sound anti inflationary policies and one of the powers which he mentioned was the rower power to 10 abandon government bonds in the market and let lei them go down in value does the from ohio recommend commend that policy SENATOR TAFT 1 I would rather have that done than to so place price controls on the american people yes I 1 do not think it necessary I 1 think that raising the rediscount rate probably on short term bonds would be sufficient fi fici cent ent As to 10 a choice between that and the of price controls I 1 should prefer government bonds to go below par dewey request denied gov thomas E dewey of new york republican presidential i nominee apparently asked one favor of the special session and it was denied dewey reputedly asked sen chapman rep W va chairman of the senate judiciary committee to revise the displaced persons bill by cutting back the eligibility entry date into german DP camps from december 27 1945 to april 21 1947 mr truman also asked for the revision |