Evening star., 1924-11-07
FARMERS T0PRESS
!. CONGRESSIONAL
Westerners Seek Ungrudging
Republican Help in Return
for Coolidge Votes.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

support of Calvin Coolidge in the
campaign just ended. the farming
West is promptly to the fore with a
legislative program for which it ex-
poets ungrudging Republican support
The program will be pressed with all
possible energy during the expiring
session of the Sixty-eighth Congress
which will be convened on December
l. Meantime the farmers hope that
the President will furnish timely
background for their program by ap-
pointing his long projected agricul-
tural commission. Announcement OF
the commissions personnel is be-
1feved to be only matter of days.
1t would have been named prior to
election day except that Mr.. Coolidge
wanted to avoid the appearance OF
playing farm politics at psyche
logical moment.
The Presidents agricultural inquiry
is not to deal with particular emer-
gencies in the farming country, either
recent or present. He has never been
an apostle of sudden panaceas for the
farmer. His commission is rather TO
delve deeply into fundamentals and
to arrive, if possible, at solutions that
will comprehend rural problems over
a range of years. The Coolidge farm
investigators are likely to be at their
job for considerable period. Ihe
President will call upon them Tor
remedies and recommendations that
will stand the test of time.
Pleased With West.
It is an open Scret at the Whlte
House that no phase of his ianosilde
victory pleases Mr. Coolidge more
than his winning of the West. NO
one can appreciate the MAGNITUDE ana
significance of that triumph who was
not acquainted with the emotions or
the West a bare year ago. The writer
had personal contact with 1t at that
time 1t surged with bitterness. 1t
was in mood to Wreak ruthless ven
geance on anything and anye eedy
bearing the Republican label. II haa
in particular a New England COM
plex" 1t somehow held the tarin
barons" of the northeastern Atlantic
seaboard responsible for most of the
rural Vests trials and tribulations.
Yet that same West has just given
New England Republican candidate
for the presidency the heaviest vote
of confidence it has ever bestowed on
any one in a national election.
Calvin Coolidge considers that his
agricultural policy. which has been
more or less the passive policy Of let
ting nature take its course. has been
yirdicated by events. The farmers
are getting back on their feet without
any of the artificial Federal stlmu-
lants they clamored for like the NC
Nary-Haugen export bill, which the
President stubbornly opposed. Re-
peatedIy in 1924 Mt. Coolidge urged
self-help. self-reliance and resort to
modern measures like cooperative
marketing as the farmers surest re-
courses.
He recognizes that the Government
can and ought to do all in its power
to promote the agricultural industry.
just as it promotes the manufactur-
ing industry. But Mr.. Cooldge is
against unconsidered help of purely
ephemeral sort. He thinks his ma
jorities in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas. South Dakota. Idaho and the
rest of the farm belt indicate that
his conservative agricultural policy
meets with approval in the communi-
ties most affected.
Want Speedy Help.
The farm organizations of the
country will not wait for the Cool
idge agricultural commission to as
semble, inquire and report. When
Congress resumes in December it
will find a formidable list of farm
wants" on it's desk. Here are some
of the outstanding items to be urged,
more or less, in the relative order in
which they appear.
/. McNary- Haugen bill, providing
for formation of Federal export
corporation to handle eXportable sur
pluses of farm produce. This bill.
which farmers urge in the name of
equality for agriculture i. e.,
equality with industry, was defeated
in the last House by a vote of 224
to 1874 Farm representatives again
will urge that the McNary- Haugen
bill is indispensable if the tariff is
to be made fully effective for agri-
culture.
. The Muscle Shoals bill, passed
by the House in June by a majority of
So. In the closing hours of the last
session the agricultural committee re-
ported to the Senate the Norris bill
for Government operation of Muscle
Shoals as substitute for the Ford offer
TO lease the plant. In being reported
as substitute, the Norris bill carried
the Ford bill along with it to the floor,
so that the Senate may have an oppor-
tunity to choose or reject either
proposition.
8. The Capper-Williams bill, pro-
viding for a Federal system for CO.
operative marketing of agricultural
products. 1t would create a market
ing board quite outside of any exist
ing Government department or bureau,
and provide for cooperative commod-
ity boards throughout the country
4. The Capper-French truth-in-fab-
ric bill, which special House COM
mlttee was instructed to have ready
for Congress in December
5. A bill providing increased appro-
priations for State agricultural expert
ment stations.
6. The Haugen bill, which clothes
the Department of Agriculture with
the right to dye any imported field seed
, which, by test has been found to be not
generally acceptable to American farm
ers. Heavy imports of Italian clover
seed are involved IN particular.
z. The Metaphysical bill, stand
ardizing containers for fruits and veg
etables.
s. The Ketcham bill, to lodge the
foreign marketing of farm produce,
and all work Herewith connected. in
the Department of Agriculture.
Would Control Interest.
Another bill, which has had the ap-
proval of farm organizations through
out the country, but has not been re-
ported from congressional commit
tees, seeks to control Federal Reserve
Bank activities in the interest of
farmers. 1t limits the spread" on
Federal Reserve money loaned out to
country or city banks in the rural re-
gions to 2 per cent. That is to say,
the bankers who obtain money from
the Federal Reserve system would
not be permitted to charge more than
2 per cent in addition to the interest
they paid for the money, when the
money is loaned to the general public
Copyright, 1924
GIRL HELD AS BANDIT,