The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-03-03

by the bill under consideration will
merely aggregate conditions which are
the cause of the farmers present dis
tress."
'The bill would impose the burden
of its support to larger degree upon
farmers who would not benefit by it.
The products embraced in the plan are
only about one-third of the total
American farm production. There
are several million farmers who do
not produce any of the designated
products, and they must pay the
premium upon the products desig-
mated in the bill. In some commodi-
ties such as corn and mill feed the
farmers are practically the sole con-
sumers. 1t is proposed to increase the
price of corn and mill feed to Ameri-
can farmers, and therefore the costs
to the dairy and cattle feeding indus
tries whose products are omitted from
the bill"
"The effect of this plan will be con-
tinuously to stimulate American pro-
duction and to pile up increasing sur
pluses beyond the world demand. We
are already overproducing."
at is proposed that the administra-
ton of this plan shall be in the con-
troll of board whose members are
! nominated to the President by agri-
cultuar organizations for his trans
mission to the Senate for confrma-
ton. That appears to be an uncon-
stitutional limitation on the authority
of the President, but, far more i'm
| portant than this, l do not believe
that upon serious consideration the
| farmers of America would tolerate the
precedent of a body of men chosen
solely by one industry who, acting
IN the name of the Government, shall
arrange for contracts which deter
mine prices, secure the buying and
selling of commodities, the levying of
taxes on that industry, and pay losses
on foreign dumping of any surplus"
"While the bill authorizes an ap-
preparation of S250,000,000, it fails to
restrict the contracts of the board
within that sum and nowhere denies
the liability of the United States for
additional sums of money. If the
board had begun operating in the 1925
cotton crop when prices were around
20 cents pound and had then at
tempted to hold up the price on the
1926 crop at level which induced the
picking of the whole crop, the whole
S250,000,000 would have been spent
and great commitments beyond that
figure have been entered into"
The President sharply criticises the
provision of the bill which provides
that State Conventions of the pro-
ducers must be held.
eff all the producers" he writes, at
tended the convention the expenses
which must be borne by them individ-
ually would be tremendous addition
to the operating cost, and if the ma
jority of them did not attend the con-
vention the deliberations would not
represent the voice of the producers.
1t is impossible to see how such con-
ventions of producers could ever be
held. The bill does not say delegates,
it says producers the farmers them
selves"
"That the equalization fee is not
laid on the entire commodity is not
apparent from casual reading of
the act. But close study shows that
section 10 provides that there shall be
paid AN equalization fee upon one of
the following: The transportation
processing, or sale Of such unit
There is no other way to collect the
fee. If that stood alone, then all the
corn would be subject to the fee I'M
less it were used by the raiser. but
section Is CD says:
$50, unless the corn is processed or
sold for milling or other processing
for market or is transported by COM
mon carrier, it is not subject to the
equalization fee. But the great bulk
of it which is neither processed nor
transported by common carrier is
free from the equalization fee"
"a feeder of cattle who had the
necessary machinery to grind or
crush his corn bought from other
farmers for feeding purposes would
be able to market his cattle free from
the cost of the equalization fee, while
another feeder would be compelled to
market his cattle with the added cost
of the equalization fee on the corn
This, of course, would be true as to
swine, moreover, the feeder who had
been compelled to purchase the
ground feed would pay the fee on
that, and when he sells his swine he
pays an additional fee on that trans
portation. He pays twice"
SIN fixing the amount of the equali
cation fee the board must necessarily
estimate the crop. If either the esti
mate of the crop or the size of the
fund needed should be inaccurate, so