Evening star., 1926-05-03
A Dangerous Road.

II is 10 be wondered II tllOSe ItleIuS
Of the farmer" who are pushing for
passage by Congress of the Haugen
bill, providing d Government subsidy
10 agriculture and Government price
liking for farm products, fully realize
the perils Of the road on which they
have set out. They are telling the
farmer that the road leads to guar
anteed profits and Government-assured
prosperity. II has no such destination.
The road would lead the farmer
through a morass of disappointed
hopes to certain disaster at the end;
20 ills far worse than those his bad
The Haugen bill is utterly un-Amer.
lean in its conception, and it is i'm
possible to believe that the average
American farmer. the most sturdy Of
individualists, has any wish that he
should be given by legislation an un-
fair advantage over his fellow citizens.
It would be bad enough and objection
able enough and dangerous enough il
It was proposed that the Government
should establish maximum as we'll as
minimum prices for farm products, but
there is no such proposal in the
Haugen bill. 1t is intended to take
1875, ,000,000 out of the public Treas
ury, money derived from taxes levied
upon all the people, and use it as
subsidy to assure the farmer q price
FOR his products above that which he
would receive under the free opera
lion of the law of supply and demand
1t is proposed to tax all the consumers
Of foodstuffs in order that foodstuffs
:oay be made to cost the consumer
more than they would otherwise.
The consumer is given absolutely no
protection against extortion, except in
the conscience Of twelve men selected
solely to serve the interests Of the
producer, and charged with no other
responsibility. There is nothing in
the Haugen bill to prevent the mem.
bers Of the proposed Federal Farm
Board from using the taxpayers
money to put the prices Of agricul-
tural products up to any level they
are able to persuade themselves is
fair and reasonable" The board
would be specifically charged to main
tain an American price equal to the
world price, plus the measure of pro-
cost of transportation from other pro-
ducing nations. If, in the opinion of
the board, the minimum price thus
established still fell short of being
fair and reasonable" there is provided
no limit as to the altitude to which
subsidized prices might be carried.
And, most amazing Of all, comes pro-
vision in the bill that should the arti.
flcial price structure threaten to break
down under its own weight, the Presi-
dent may declare an embargo on food
stuffs to prevent importations from
abroad.
How long do proponents of the
Haugen bill suppose the American
people would endure such a ne-sided
arrangement? Consumers of any given
agricultural product outnumber the
producers of it from five to twenty to
one. These consumers are today ap-
uarently almost without spokesman in
Congress. But once they discover
themselves to be the victims of such
an inequitable program they will
quickly become articulate, not to say
vociferous.
Once the Government enters upon
the adventure Of price-fXing Of the
necessities of life, where is a logical
stopping place to be found? There
has been an insistent demand, which
has been firmly resisted, that the
Government should fix the prices of
coal-not to keep prices up, but to keep
them down. 1t has been possible to
resist this demand because the great
body of Americans do not believe in a
socialistic, or even a paternalistic,
Government. But if Congress should
launch the Government into paternal-
ism for the purpose of keeping prices
I'D, the people are not long going to
hslk at paternalism to keep prices
down.
Are the farmers willing that the
Government shall limit, as well as
guarantee, their profits? If they are
not. they will be we'll advised to do a
lot Of hard thinking before they urge
their representatives in Congress to
..z4 ao,. tho IIanpeO bill