The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1924-02-02
NORBECK WRITES ON new
PLAN TO aid FARMERS
Dear Mr.. Editor:

/
agricultural relief that are pending
before congress. The 50,000,000 live.
stock loan plan will be helpful to the
wheat district in diversification. but
no loanirg scheme by the government
will put the farmers dollar mp TO par
1t takes too many bushels of wheat
to buy a binder, too man. pounds cf
pork for a suit Of 'lothes ard too
many pounds of beef Tor 'ad of
coal. The Norris-Sllc.a;r Iii as
many supporters, but n t!,, brief let
ter | can only attemp. to explain os.a
i have in mind nov the McNary-
Haugen bill creating a government
export corporation. 1t is sometimes
referred to as the Wallace plan, but
Mr.. Wallace does not claim to be its
inventor.
The successful plan of stabilization
so long followed by the manufactur-
or, is used as model. The manu-
tacturer aims to produce only what
the market will absorb but if he has
a surplus he disposcs of it to the best
possible advantage, but generally out.
side of his regular customers. In
other words, he dumps it on Europe
Sometimes he makes profit, some!
| times he comes out even, sometimes
| he takes a substantial loss-but, he
disposes of it just the same, so as to
Get it out of the way from competing
with the next years output. In this
way, he maintains his price fairly
steady at home, which is his main
market.
1t has often been suggested that
the farmer could, through cooperation
and the proper tariff legislation, put
the wheat farmer in similar posi-
tion to the producer Of wool, whose
dollar at the present time il not below
par. 1t is easy to protect the wool
,goducer, because wsslnvg no export
sFSle surr!us. Tho tariff meets all
the requirements. The wool growers
Get satisfactory price under the
present tariff law, but the marketing
Of wheat, pork or beef are different
problems.
1t has been suggested that the
farmer could, through coopcra. ION
dispose Of his surplus abroad, so as to
not depress the American market
But the difficulties in the way of or.
ganized cooperation on the part Of
farmers, scattered over q whole con-
tinent are almost unsurmountablc
Therefore, il is suggested by the Me-
Nary bill that the government shall
establish an agency to assist the
farmer in carrying ont such pro.
gram, but deal only IN those comrnodi
ties OH which the present price is be-
low the pre-war OF "ratio' price.
1t is not intended that this plan
shall be any expense to the public
treasury except that the treasury will
furnish the revolving fund in the
form of two hundred million dollar
capital for the government export
corporation, provided for in this bill.
The plan is expected to be selfsup-
porting.
I'm reading the bill, Keep in mind
the two important matters. First,
that the purpose is to establish a
ratio price in the American mar
ket for the staple product OF the Am
erican farmer. The purpose is to
make this price high enough so as to
gct the farmer the same exchange val
ne as he had before the war. 1t is
estimated that this would at the pres.
ent time be $50 per bushel for
wheat In South Dakota. Second;
keep in mind that there will be loss
on the surplus that is exported. Ey-
erv producer bears his proportion of
this loss.
A Commission is created to determ-
inc what fair price or the prewar
price of certain commodity really
was when exchanged for other goods,
or, in other words, the ratio price.
1t is suggested that thcsbasis for this
price shall be determined from tabu-
lations by Bureau of Statistics now
in operation covering some four huild
red and five (405) articles i'm cont
mon use. and WEIGHED according to
their importance. For example, lOc
bushels of wheat should bus the same
amount of these goods as before the
war and 100 ponds Of FORK should
be able to buy 'he same amount OF
these articles as before the war.
Let us assume tha. the ratio
price for wheat would be 81 .65 in Chi.
cago, or about $3.50 at Redfield tim
stead of 95c). The Commits ION hav-