Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-18
FARM RELIEF BILL
POLITICS INTRICATE
Hoover and Western Repub.
Iican Senators Cast in
Leading Roles.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

The politics of the farm relief bill is
intricate yet easy to understand. The
dramatis personae of it are chiefly
President Hoover on one side and a
number of Western Republican Senators
on the other hand. AS between these,
most of the Democrats are naturally
disposed to line up with the Western
Republican Senators.
AS to the issue involved, a simple
statement would begin by saying that
the Lower House, which Is mainly
friendly to Mr.. Hoover, has written
farm relief bill. Mr.. Hoover's views are
conformed to in this bill. It is q bin
which excludes Government buying and
selling. 1t excludes Government subsidy
and any form OF direct Government tax
1t puts the operation Of farm relief
strictly in the hands and on the respon-
sibility of specifically farmer owned"
cooperative associations.
So much for the Lower House bill.
The group of Western Senator'S think
this plan won't work. They think no
plan will work unless it includes some
form OF direct Government operation
and Government responsibility. Govern
ment subsidy or Government price-fix-
ing or Government taxation. In think
ing this way, and wanting this kind of
Dill, the Western Senators are complete
iy sincere.
Position Of Senators.
Since the Western Senators think the
Lower House plan will fail in operation
they want right now, at the beginning.
to Ak the blame for failure on Presi"
dent Hoover. They don't put it that
way. They say IF the plan succeeds,
Mr.. Hoover should have the credit: if
II rails, he should have the blame In
order to insure that the President shall
have the blame for the failure which
they expect. they want the bill to be
called the Hoover bill" and are trying.
among other things, to bring that ter
minology about.
To pass to another phase of the poll
tics OF the situation, these Western SEN
ators want to have credit for making
an effort to bring about their own plan.
Also, they want to Ak on the President
responsibility for preventing them from
doing this. They have written a proviso
which would give the wheat farmer, for
example, a direct Government subsidy
OF 81 cents bushel on all wheat sold
abroad and similar subsidy on other
crops sold abroad. They cali this the
"debenture PLAN" They propose to
make fight to attach their debenture
provlSo to the Lower House bill. They
90 not insist on making their dehen-
ture plan a mandatory part of the bill;
they would make it alternative They
would in effect. write into the bill
something like this: IF the plan that
Mr.. Hoover approves should fail in OPP
Grafton, then the proposed Farm Board
shall have power, If it so chooses. to
~ Ia oh @%xrre srAkA
the Farm Board will be appointed by
Mr.. Hoover, it Is, in effect, Mr.. Hoover
who would have the option of invok-
ing or not invoking the debenture plan
If they were addressing President Hoo
yer directly, they would say something
like this:
You say your plan will work, and If
it does work we will be perfectly happy;
but we think 1t will fail, and we only
ask you to use our plan after, and II,
and when your plan fails"
Hostility Is Hinted.
All this is the politics of the farm
relief situation. AS things go, it is per-
fectly legitimate politics. The Western
Senators quite reasonably want to keep
their records straight with certain
groups OF their constituents by having
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It does not necessarily imply any un-
reasonable hostility to the President.
There Is some hostility. One of the
South Dakota Senators, Norbeck, dis
cussing Mr.. Hoover's message on farm
relief, was quoted as saying:
IT have never doubted that Mr..
Hoover has as much sympathy for the
farmer as Calvin Coolidge had" In
that there was subtle barb, as any
one familiar with Washington knows.
AS to the outcome, the Western Sena-
tors are likely to fail. Even If they
should succeed in putting the debenture
subsidy plan into the Senate bill, they
would still fail. The House as a
whole does not believe In the debenture
plan. The House committee on agricul-
ture already has rejected the debenture
plan from its draft of a farm relief
plan by a majority Of 10 to 4. In any
tug-of-war between q Senate bill in
GLIDING the debenture plan, and a
House bill excluding 1t, the House would
probably win. Among other reasons,
the House has an important technical
advantage. The debenture plan affects
revenue, because the debentureS are to
be paid out of customs receipts. Under
the Constitution all bills having to do
with customs or revenue must originate
in the House