The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1924-01-29
SENATORS WORK
HARD FOR HELP
F0RPR0DUCERS
Agricultural Committee
Considers v Various
Forms of Relief for
Wheat Farmers

Washington-ln an effort to ge
together in support of some Legislation
that can be put through Congress tina
will bring relief to the farmers, Sen
ators from the West on the Agricul
ture Committee are holding frequen
conferences with the hope of getting
together on one of the bills now be,
fore the Agriculture Committee thai
promises the most relief to the wheat
growers The Senate Committee or
Agriculture is holding hearings each
morning, and individual wheat grow
ers as we'll as representatives OF the
principal farmer organizations are pre-
senting their views and their COM
ments. Sentiment appears now TO be
crystalizing behind the McNary agri-
cultural export corporation bill, the
bill that seems to have the support of
the administration. Three other bills
are. pending before the committee. the
Gooding wheat stabilization bill; the
Norris bill providing for the purchase
and sale of farm products, and the
Norbeck diversihcation bill.
Some of the wheat growers who
have been heard thus far have en-
dorsed the Gooding stabilization plan,
but recognizing wider demand for
the export bill, they are now urging
that measure as being broader in
scope. and likely to have more gener-
al support. G. P. Mix of Moscow,
one of the big wheat growers of North
Idaho, recently was heard before the
Agriculture Committee He told how,
on his thousand acre farm, half of it
in wheat, he had kept close account
of costs, and found that exclusive of
any compensation for himself, with
out reckoning interest on investment
or depreciation of farm machinery
and livestock, it had cost him 79 cents
to grow a bushel of wheat last season.
His class of wheat was selling around
80 cents, which meant that he would
sustain a heavy loss. Mr.. Mix dis
cussed agriculture generally in Idaho,
and told the committee the wheat
growers were practically unanimous in
their support of the Gooding stabili-
zation bill. He had attended many
meetings held in the wheat growing
regions of Idaho and Washington and
those meetings showed the people ia
vored the Gooding plan. However,
there has since arisen some objection
to the Gooding bill, especially among
millcrs and grain-buyers, and as it is
now believed the administration ia
vors the wheat export plan, as advo-
Gated by the Secretary of Agricul-
ture, Mr.. Mix said his people would
accept that plan as the next best thing
to wheat stabilization. And he there
fore endorsed the McNary bill. Prof.
Dale of Moscow spoke along similar
lines, and while saying that the Good
ing stabilization bill had many suppor-
tiers, sentiment was fast crystalizlng
in favor of the export plan as cndors-
ed by the Secretary of Agriculture
and he accordingly lent his endorse
ment to the McNary bill.
There prevails among Senators ad-
vocating agricultural relief a general
and sincere desire to get early action,
and inasmuch as sentiment in favor
Of the export bill growing stronger
each day and as that plan seems to
have general approval, advocates of
other kinds of relief are subordinating
their personal preferences and get
ting behind the one bill that gives
most promise of early enactment, es-
pecially as the bill promises substan-
lial relief to an industry that is in
dire distress. After reporting the
McNary bill, the Committee on Agri-
culture may go further and report
other bills for the relief OF the wheat
growers, in order to have them avail
,ble for consideration il the McNary I
Dill should encounter serious opposi-
ion :
ID.