The Washington times., 1925-02-25
OPPONENTS
FEARU.S.
RULE
Bureaucratic Regulation OF
Co-operatiVes Held to Be
Greatest Danger
By WILLIAM HARD

It became clear here today that
one Of the greatest of recent
American national political insti-
tutions is engaged in doing a
fade-away into oblivion.
The 'tfarm bloc" has been cut
into small bits by the Haugen bill
for the establishment of a Federal
Cooperative Marketing Board-a
bill supported by the AdministrA-
tion and growing out Of the re-
port of the recent Agricultural
Commission appointed by the.
President.
Senator Capper Of Kansas,
senatorial "farm bloc" leader, has
introduced this Haugen bill into
the Senate and is accordingly Civ
ing it his name and favorable in
fluence.
Opposed BY Dickinson.
Congressman Dickinson Of Iowa.
''farm bloc" leader in the House Of
Haugen bill, and has moved to
Hauge nbiIl, and has moved to
substitute for it a till Of his own.
The old unified front of the
''farm bloc" is completely broken.
Typical farm bloc" spokesmen In
both houses Of Congress are some
OF them on one side and some Of
them on the other side os the pres
ent critical struggle.
Similarly the farm organizations
throughout the country are split
and divided. The consolidated farm
bloc" as political factor in the
country, has ceased to exist.
On the one side there are cer-
tain leaders Of certain great ''gen-
eral" organizations of farmers,
such as the American Farm Bur-
eau Federation, the Farmers
Union, and the National Grange.
These gentlemen were members of
mission and signed its recommen.
$4,000 New Employees.
Those recommendations, as en-
bodied in the Haugen bin, would
create a new federal administra-
tive body which Congressman
AsweIl of Louisiana, a great ex-
pert on farm matters, has calcu-
lated would in time add seventy
five thousand new employees to the
Governments payroll.
This new body, the Federal Co
operative Marketing Board, would
have power to register the ten thou
sand cooperative societies Of farmers
I'm the United States, to audit their
accounts, to arbitrate their differ
enees, to standartIiZe their products,
to issue rules and regulations for
the management of their business,
to impose fines upon them, and to
retain them in the list Of Federally
authorized societies or else suspend
or expel them.
The first appropriation authorized
I'm the bill is for half million dol
lars.
Leaders of general" organizations
Of farmers are in outstanding in
stances committed to 1t through
which produced it.
Many RevoIts Started.
They thus, however, have pro-
duced revoIts within their own
ranks. Various local State branches
of the American Farm Bureau
Federation and of the National
Grange are strenuously opposing
the Haugen bill.
The grange of the State Of Penn
syIvania, for instance, has sent q
communication to Washington say
ing: 1--WE emphatically oppose the
Haugen plan calling for Govern
ment regulation and control.
Again, John d. Brown. of Monon.
Ind, representing the Indiana Farm
Bureau, has testified here as fol-
lows:
"The Indiana Farm Bureau is
opposed to any legislation during
this session pertaining to co-opera-
tive marketing"
Thus in these cases, and in many
other cases, the general" farm
organizations are themselves di
vided and distracted and carried
into internal quarrels by the
Haugen bill.
In the meantime the overwhelm
ing bulk of the commodity" CO
operative agricultural organizations
which are the ones designed to be
helped by the bill, are notoriouslJ
and outrightly fighting 1t.
They see themselves on the eve
of getting regulated" by a Fedora