Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-06-08
THE FARMERS AND CONGRESS.

The farmers OF the United States are not very
well pleased with the congress that has just ad-
journed 1t is true that all politicians court the
farmer vote. To read their speeches one would
think that every member of congress was the
original friend of the farmer, but their acts do
not always conform to their words, and there mas
been disposition manifested by the Repubhcan
leaders in congress to cut agricultural approprla-
tions in order to save money while spending MIL
lions lavishly in partisan investigations of all
war activities conducted by the administration.
This does not please the farmers They realize
that the state of the treasury requires economy,
but when they find the Republican leaders will
ing to spend millions for purely partisan ends and
then cutting out small appropriations helpful to
them, they naturally feel somewhat dsgusted
The Democrats have not been slow to point out
these nickel economies at the expense of the
farmer and to show up how inadequately he Is
represented on the committee that controlled
all action in the house of representatives Crltl-
cising the majority of the house for failing to
give any farming section representation on the
powerful Republican steering committee and
accusing the majority party Of indlscrlmlnate
slashing of appropriations for agriculture, Rep-
resentative William L. Nelson, of Missouri, an
ayzed how little had been done for the farmers
of the country at this session of congress.
81 find from the recent speech of Representa-
tive Henry T. Rainey, of Illinois,, said Repre-
sentative Nelson, "that the steering committee
is constituted of four men, one coming from CHI
cago. another Cincinnati and two others from
Rochester. N. Y, and Worcester Mass. They
are reputed to be millionaires, all of them. So
the farmer whose work places him IN closest
partnership with the Master of the Vineyard, is
unrepresented on this master committee of con-
gress."
AS pointed out by Mr. Nelson, the steering
committee of the house virtually dictates all leg
islation 1t determines what bills shall be gwen
the right of way, or what measures shall be SIDE
tracked or put at the bottom Of the calendar. For
instance when the committee on public buildings
and grounds wanted to report out public build
ings bill at this session. the steering committee"
refused to O. K. the program and the bill was
never reported.
Furnishing specific instances of the GRIPPING
of agriculture by parsimonous Republican pol
lev. Representative Nelson continued:
"A member on the majority side of this cham
ber offered an amendment to cut 100000 from
the appropriation for hog-cholera control, not
withstanding that it is estimated that the loss
from this disease in the year ending May l, 1919
amounted to $500 900 head of hogs, worth twice
the entire amount carried in the agricultural ap
preparation bill. The amendment which was
adopted over the protest of Democratic mem
bers, was voted on in the house February IA, at
which time 164 members voted for it, of these
there were but Democrats"
eve lead the world in number and value Of
registered and pure-bred animals more than 60
pure breeds of livestock being found in the Unit
ed States. Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and
other South American countries are, or soon will
be- actively in the market for breeding stock
With this thought in view representative was
last year sent by the bureau of markets to South
America to look into conditions. This man, a
practical farmer and extensive breeder of live
stock, reported and recommended that special
livestock representatives be placed in South
America to assist in turning trade to the live
stock breeders of the United States, as England
now has her representatives on the ground.
Strange as it may seem, the proposed appropria-
ton, amounting to but $4,000, was stricken from
the bill on point of order made by Repub-
can member.
again, during the consideration of the agr-
cultural bill, Republican member from New
York offered an amendment to take S500000
from the cooperative agricultural extension
work. In contrast, we find Mr. Rubey, Demo-
crat, of Missouri, making fight for an appro-
pration for 100000 to provide means to pro-
tect the corn crop of the United States, worth
S3,934, 100000, from the European corn borer,