Evening star., 1928-05-20
Congress Passes Bills to Put
The Government Into Business

| ing from most Of the other appropria-
tions here considered The Government
Is not to do one stroke of work at
Boulder Canyon till II Is possessed Of
| contracts with local interests which will
repay to it every cent that it spends.
For the marketing Of farm commodi-
ties, under the McNary- -Haugen bill, We
are to loan up to 5000 900 900 Of public
! Federal money to farm organizations
for working capital. for the purchase OF
warehouses and elevators and cream
cries and packing houses and other
| physical facilities, and for the expenses
OF conducting membership drives. We
| are also to loan up to another 5000 000,-
900 Of public money to farm organiza-
| tions to enable them to withhold"
their products from the market tn they
can get more money for them.
| The spirit animatjng many OF the
| supporters Of all these projects Is one
Of profound diatrust Of such meaSlres
but also Of profound despair regarding
the alternative measures based on pri-
| vate enterprise.
! At Muscle Shoals, for instance. even
| the commission appointed by President
| Coolidge himself was unable to find a
satisfactory private bidder for the plant
| and felt itself obliged TO recommend
| continued governmental control OF it.
| while saying at the same time that it
| recommended that control with great
reluctance"
1t Is to be noted further that Presi-
dent CoolidgeS fundamental objection
to the McNary- -Haugen bill is not at all
in its financings of agricultural market
ing by public moneys, but in it's equali-
Zation fee, which lays a tax on the
private growers or owners OF agricul-
tural commodities An enlarged use Of
public moneys for agricultural market
ing assistance Is admitted nov az a
principle by the overwhelming majority
Of public men of all shades Of radicalisr
and conservatism in Washington.
Turning then to appropriations which
do not represent any adventures by the
Government into active business. ne
may note that the appropriation Of
1925 900, 900 for Mississippi River food
control is only a starter, because IL ap-
plies only TO the main stem Of that
river itself. while the bill specifically
| orders the executive branch Of the Gov
eminent to prepare and present further
plans for improving the upper reaches
| Of the Mississippi and also for improv-
| ing all its chief tributaries-and the
| tributaries Of its tributaries.
We also are going TO spend a few
million dollars year on bird refugees II
We get our new proposed migratory
Bird Conservation Commission" which
| has passed the Senate.
We also in this session have already
appropriated $3.000,000 for Federal pur-
chaSes Of lands at the ultimate head
| waters Of navigable streams.
We also have made new appropria-
| tons of Federal money for growing
shade trees and giving them away free
to the inhabitants of our "dry-land
regions" and of our Southern Great
Plains area" in the wide-open spaces
west OF the ninety-eighth meridian and
| east OF the summit of the Rockies.
We also have told the Secretary Of
| Agriculture that besides extinguishing
contagious diseases in live stock he
| must now bestir himself to extinguish
them also with Federal money among
chickens
II anybody thinks that anybodv's
speeches have stopped the onward
march OF the Federal Government of
the United States Of America. all he
needs to do is to buy a ticket to Wash
ington and look
l Copyright 1881