Evening star., 1925-11-14
Critics Believe Congress
Will Act on Crop Reports

Variations during the past growing
season in estimates of the ulti-
mate size of the cotton crop have
resulted in severe criticism of the
crop-reporting machinery of the Gov
ernment. While some who comment
believe that the practice should be
discontinued by the Government. 9TH
erS see no substitute for the present
method. The question of holding the
staple for prices that may be desired
also is debated.
Taking up the general question as
to whether or not any official esti-
mate ought to be made of the crop,
the Charleston Evening Post calls
attention to the purpose of such re-
ports, which is TO protect the farm
erS against the dangers of estimates
from private agencies, and then sug-
gests: 1T ought to be possible to de-
termine whether the Government es-
Inmates have had, in the main, a
beneficial influence on the market
and improved the return to the farm
er for his toll, or have caused loss.
1t is also easy to ascertain
accorded with the facts. With these
figures in hand. the cotton-planting
industry should find some way to
make a pronouncement on the sub
ject."
Convinced, however, that if the
present system is wrong, private en-
terprise would be infinitely worse, -
the Lynchburg News feels that "the
very fact that the Government esti-
mates are criticized may be the best
possible indication that they are not
biased" The News continues: ANY
forecast must at best be Somewhat
inaccurate, being based upon acreage
and weather conditions. The latter
being unstable, 1t follows that the
outlook for production on June % of
any year might be decidedly changed,
even by million bales, on October
II, and this f1uctuation does not seem
to be very indicative of anything
save the non-dependability of the
weather."
apparently the public" the Wall
Street Journal suggests. has been
disposed to hold the crop reporting
board responsible for all the fluctua-
tions in the cotton crop and price
occasioned by the weather. Would
it not be more businesslike to find
fault with the law compelling the
making of the reports as at present
and to seek the best way of amend
Ing IL. II Is IlHlo 10 CudISe lile
practice, to tackle the source of the
trouble itself, and that source is Con.
gress." More emphatic Is the decla-
ration of the Fort Worth Record
Telegram that this seasons dis
creditable record has convicted the
Bureau of Estimates of the worst
fault that can be charged against an
economic service of it's class-that of
inaccuracy."
X y y u
1.-THE reports have done more than
any single agency, including the
deadly boil weevil," the New York
Herald-Tribune believes, "to -disor-
ganize the machinery of the great
primary markets for cotton, markets
in which supply and demand have
been harmonized as completely as In
genuity and experience can harmo-
nize them. The remedy lies in the
repeal Of the congressional mandate
under which the Department of
Agriculture is now compelled to
guess so early and 50 often on the
size Of the crop"
A promise by Senator Caraway
that he will introduce q bill in Con-
gress to make the penalty for gamb.
ling in all farm products so severe that
none will have the temerity to violate
it, Is cited by the Little Rock Arkan-
sas Democrat together with a state
ment by the Senator that "the cotton
reports this year had cost the cotton
growers Of America q quarter, Of a
billion dollars, which is accepted as