Evening star., 1923-11-05
FAILS TO SEE HOPE
IN WHEAT REPORT
Anderson Says Mondell-
Meyer Study Likely to In
crease Unrest. :
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

Wheat farmers of the northwest
will not be appeased by the Meyer
Mondell report to the President, Is
sued today. Besides failing to go 10
the root causes OF their distress, the
report holds out no hope of immS-
date emergency relief, SO its effest
10 likely to be disappointing.
Those are the opinions expressed
to the writer by Representative
Sydney Anderson trepubiican) 81
Minnesota, president Of the recently
organised wheat Council Of tie
United States and chairman OF tie
late joint Congressional committee
on Agricultural inquiry. Mr.. Andef-
son says that If the conditions wish
which the report deals are permitted
to drift from bad to worse. or as-
lowed automatically to right thera-
selves. the political consequences 20
the republican party in northwestern
states are bound to be serious. Ao-
derson is confident that the Coolidge
farm program will have to be much
farther-reaching than the WSr
Finance Corporation report, If At
is to get anywhere"
Representative Anderson. sum UP
their inquiries by recommending,
first, adjustment of wheat produe-
ton to American needs. as long a,s
the world market is over suppliea:
and. secondly, development Of CO
as a whole. narrates conditions aCr
curately, and their recommendations.
as far as they go, are sound. But
the infirmity in the report is that
1t does not go far enough.
Way to Salvation.
"Even the most scientific scheme Ct
cooperative wheat marketing is not
going to solve the problems of the
100000 farmers engaged in wheat
growing. Salvation for them lies il
some system Of drastic. organized
production control. Devices that
merely facilitate the marketing u
wheat or the increase of prices witl
not suffice. An inevitable result Of
such reforms would be greater pro-
duction, with q recurrence Of the very
evil they were designed to eradicatk
wheat-raising has got to- be taken
in hand, regulated and controlled I'm
industry Is supervised. To do that
goes far beyond the realm of simple
cooperative marketing.
The Meyer-Mondell report calls sd-
tention' to the successful working 2f
cooperative marketing in the CaH-
fornia citrus fruit industry. Apart
from the fact that the citrus fruit
area is relatively restricted, aAd
therefore easily supervised, compared
to the wide expanse of the wheat
belt, its, cooperative marketing
scheme Is profitably conducted be-
cause 1t is SO skilfully and highly
organized. It's managers have pat
themselves in touch with capital ahd
in possession Of trained executives.
They have mastered the art of Great
ing demand. They insist upon ura-
form quality of produce. They 90
not permit reckless Cutting Of tie
supply. These are some of the things
that any effective wheat cooperative
system will have to do: and to do
them conjures up host of Difficult
ties, because of the numbers OF wheat
farmers, tho Investigation Of thir in-
terests, localities and crops and tie
foreign competitive note that enters
80 conspicuously into their calcula-
tions."
Demand for Relief.
Representative Anderson's atten-
ton was called to the fact that
public criticism Is sometimes leveled
(Continued on PAGE 2, Column 3.