Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1924-11-26
MNARY HAUGEN
SUNWORKABLE
SAYS HIBBARD
Sees Uncle Sam as Dealer
In Corn, Hogs, Cotton
and Other Things.

NEW YORK-The McNary-Haugen
bill proposing farm relief through
governmental purchase of surplus
farm products was attacked as I'M
workable by Prof. Benjamin H. Hib-
bard of the University of Wisconsin
agricultural economics department in
an address here before the Academy
of Political Science.
SHOULD the McNary-Haugen bill be
enacted" Hubbard said, there is ev-
cry reason to believe that all farmers
with their many products will demand
the direct benefits of it. The tobacco
growers will not stand by and see
cotton raised in price while their
product is allowed to drop to unprof-
table levels. The growers of peanuts,
potatoes, and poultry are surely going
to insist on receiving similar treat
ment to that granted the growers of
the favored products.
Carried to it's logical limit, it
means that the government shall ex-
tend protection to all, which in logic
is paradoXical. To protect some at
the expense of others is comprehen-
sible. Manufacturers have been, and
farmers.
Must Help All
"In all reason the passage of the
McNary- Haugen bill would prove to
be the insertion of the camels nose
under the tent. If by taking this kind
of thought, we can add a cubit to our
financial stature, we shall in the flu
ture be prolific of thoughts in order
to add more cubits. The government
of the United States would become
the greatest dealer of the world, and
for all time, in agricultural products.
The sign to be hung over the place
of business would read: "Uncle Sam,
dealer in corn, cotton, wheat, hogs,
cattle, sheep, butter, eggs, tobacco,
peanuts, and other things too numer-
GUS to mention. The bureaucracy
needed to operate business of this
kind would be greater and more pow
erfr1 than any vet created or de-
signed.
POLITICALLY a scheme of this kind
is unthinkable. 1t would mean that,
no matter how much the cost of pro-
duction should be lowered, the same
relative price level as between agr1-
cultural products and all commodities
must remain infexible. The farmers
might punish themselves, no matter
how severely, by overproduction; still
the public would pay the fixed price.
The seven million people of New York
City might come down to the wharVes
daily and see wheat at a dollar a
bushel going out to feed Europe while
every bushel kept at home must bring
a dollar and a half. Similarly other
nroducts will be increased in price
10. 20, or so per cent from time to
time.
Require Many Bureaus
"The efficient cause of this increase
will be clearly and Enthusiastically the
government. Can it stand the onus
attaching to it as forestaller OF the
market? Is it possible to make the
majority of people believe that tariff
benefits are diffused, and that we are
in some more or less mysterious man
ner made more prosperous by paying
a hundred dollars for a coat which
without the tariff could be had for
fifty dollars. 1t will be a man-slzed
political job to convince the 70 per
cent of farmers that they are
better off by paying bonus to keep
the 80 per cent engaged in farming
producing a surplus to be sold at
loss"