The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-03-05
NORBECk on THE LIVESTOCK
1nAE ROVV

In his discussion Of the so mil
lion dollar livestock loan bill from
the Senate floor Senator NOrbecl,
of South Dakota laid the emphasis
OF his argument not so much on
the practical benefits which the
loan will bring about as upon the
| prOpriety of the governments do
ing what il is contemplated in this
bill that it shall do in the way Of
agricultural relief.
| This would seem to have been
| the logical way to permit the case
at this time because it has been
very generally admitted that the
revolving fund plan, if approved,
will do all that has been claimed
for it by its sponsors, and that it
is necessary form of remedial
legislation.
Senator Norbeck holds that the
government may properly consider
that a moral obligation rests on it
to extend the proposed relief to
the wheat farmers of the North
west. and for several basic rea-
sons: Namely, that the govern
ment is primarily responsible for
the present difficult situation be-
cause it lowered and kept the pri-
ces Of wheat to given level by an
arbitrary policy which prevented
producers Of this grain from get
ting war prices for their product
commensurate with prices obtain
ed for other American products:
because it brought about a cessa-
ton of the movement to reduce
wheat acreage and extend diversi-
fed farming by appealing to the
wheat farmers to concentrate on
the raising of wheat to supply this
country and its war associates
with -four and bread; because it
inaugurated an effective system of
reducing the domestic consumption
OF wheat in the war period, the
results of which were not ended
with the ending of the war. 4
1t is submitted by Senator Nor
beck that the farmers can show an
obvious loss to themselves of at
least two billion dollars as di-
rect effect of the governments
war policyswith reference to wheat,
and he ventures to say that if
wheat, like other commodities, had
been permitted to find it's own
price level in free and open
market, the producers would have
been gamers in an aggregate of six
to eight billion dollars.
Senator Norbeck further con-
tends that the Grain corporation
OF the government, in effect, if not
technically. deprived the wheat
farmers OF so million to 80 million
dollars by furnishing 81 million
bushels of wheat out of it's stores
for the relief Of various European
and Asiatic countries, for which
there was no reimbursement to the !
farmers, and, by giving aid to the
extent of 20 million dollars to /,
Russia, this sum being taken, he
says, out of a fund held in trust by
the government for the farmers.
on the strength of these prem
ises, Senator Norbeck holds that
in being asked to lend SO million
dollars to the farmers at this time I
to enable them to regain ground in
diversified farming they surrender
ed in response to patriotic appeals,
the government is not confronted
with an unreasonable demand. On /
the contrary, he believes the thing
asked is exceedingly modest and !
fair.
Senator Norbeck is correct in
saving that the direct effect of the
relief proposed will be felt in a .
limited area, namely, in some of !
the spring wheat communities of
the Northwest, but he does not
overlook the effect that the indirect
benefits will be very far-reaching
and shared in some degree by
every interest in the land-Minne-
apolis Tribune. I