Evening star., 1924-04-27
BY SHELDON s. CLINE.

Haugen bill before the House
of Representatives for debate and an
early vote. It's proponents claim,
with every air of confident assurance,
that if the measure is permitted to
come to a vote its passage is certain.
1t already is before the Senate with
~ favorable report from the commit
zee on agriculture. 1t is proposed to
press for favorable action in the
Senate itself as soon as the revenue
bill is out of the way.
1t is difficult to believe that the
American Congress is in a mood to
enact this astounding measure into
law, but. difficult as belief may be,
Congress appears to be in that identical
mood
Political Vengeance Threatened.
Why are members of Congress in
such 4 mood" Primarily because they
Lave been made to believe that the
american farmers are clamoring for
this legislation. Both political par
lies and practically all the members
ar congress are committed to the
proposition of Legislative relief for
IN" agricultural industry, and the
McNary- Haugen bill has the deter
mined backing of determined men
VINO are ready to go to any political
ichSth to punish any man who op-
poses their program. They say so
without evasion or equivocation.
IL Is easier for members of Congress
desiring reelection to comply with
than resist al
tho purposes of the approa hing cleo
Ton 1t doesn't make much Inference
whether the McNary- Hauger scheme
IS sound or unsound. workable or
unworkable, whether it will do the
farmer harm or good. The votes will
he cast and counted long before the
program could be put into operation
and its harm or benefits determined.
What the Bill Proposes.
Briefly, the McNary- Haugen bill
proposes to make the growing of
wheat and other farm crops profita-
BILE by scheme of government price
fixing. On its face it looks plausible.
It seemingly would benefit agricul-
tural producers at the expense Of the
NNtAooIiCIo VI pTO0ucIS.
But study Of the scheme leads in
evftably to tho conclusion that even
if it could be made to work, it would
benedt relatively only a few farmers
for season or two, and that in the
end the farmers as a whole would be
the greatest sufferers because of it.
The scheme of the McNary- Haugen
bill is SO complicated that it is diff
cult to explain it clearly except at
great length A bald outline of it's
provisions is as follows:
That there shall be set up a fed
eral agricultural export commission
and federal agricultural export cor
poration, the latter with capital
stock of s2o0,0oo,Ooo, to be provided
from the United States Treasury.
The purpose cf the act is to main
tain farm products at the same level
of prices compared with the prices
of all other commodities that they
averaged during the ten years prior
10 the war
To Dump Surplus Abroad.
The export commission is to deter
mine from month to month what this
''fair" ratio price should be. When
a given product falls 10 per cent be-
low the fair price an emergency"
is to be declared and the export cor
poration is to go into the market and
buy all that is offered at the 'fair"
price Whatever it buys and cannot
sell at home without loss it will
sell abroad at whatever it will fetch.
Export losses and operating costs
would be apportioned among the pro-
8ucers of an emergency crop by an
ingenious scheme of making every
purchase of that commodity, whether
by tho government corporation or a
private buyer, payable partly in cash
and partly in scrip" at a previously
determined ratio. The scrip would
be redeemable for whatever percent
age Of it's face value it might be
worth out of any funds left in the
hands of the corporation after that
particular emergency was over.
Tariff rates would be readjusted
monthly or as often as might be nee
essary to prevent imported farm prod
ucts from selling below the price de-
creed by the government to be fair
Making Water Rum Uphill.
Clarence Ousley, former assistant
secretary of agriculture, says of the
bill:
las a piece of economics the scheme
is a futile effort to make water run
uphill. If it should succeed for the
time being in holding the price Of
farm products to satisfactory level
It would Induce greater production.
The longer it succeeded the greater
would be the ultimate disaster. The
farmer who assents to any process
of government control of prices be-
trays himself into the hands of his
trade enemies. There are more con-
sumers than producers of wheat or
any other commodity. In popular
government any public agency or ad-
ministration sooner or later comes
to reflect the will of the majority.
Hence public control of prices is
majority control, and the majority
will cause the prices to be fixed low
or will cause the agency of control
to cease operation
There is abundant food here for
AGRICULTURAL reflection. Are those
who advocate that no farm product
prices should be permitted TO fall
below the pre-war level prepared to
concede that no farm product prices
should be permitted to soar above
that level? II they are, then cotton
and tobacco and numerous other
products will have to be brought
down at the same time that wheat