Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-07

| Announcement by the Federal Farm
Board that it will for the present with
! draw from the practice Of purchasing
and storing cash wheat at fixed prices
! is declared to leave questions unsettled.
At the same time it will continue to
| make loans to co-operativeS against grain
in their possession up to the time of the
new crop Comment on the policy
which has now been discontinued was
varied. many newspapers contending
that the law of supply and demand
could not be ignored.
The Chicago Daily Tribune assumes
that when the new crop appears in July
"a new loan basis viii be fixed more
nearly in line with the market at the
time. This measure" continues the
Tribune, can be justified on the theory
that the Farm Board cannot succeed in
raising the income of farmers unless 1t
can limit production, and it cannot con-
troll production except as 1t may exert
its influence through the cooperative
associations. In effect, farmers are be-
ing offered a cash inducement to join
co-operatives. AS an emergency meas
ure this policy has much to commend
1t, though 1t assumes, of course, that the
solution of the farm problem lies in the
organization of marketing associations,
theory that has yet to be tested and
against which serious objections have
been raised"
1.-The Farm Boards operations during
the past week." according to the st.
Paul Pioneer Press, served to lift.prices
from abnormally depressed depths to
higher levels, and Chairman Legge ap-
parently feels we'll satisfied that an
emergency situation was covered. Now
he falls back on less spectacular proce-
dure. Reserves on the farm are
strengthened to hold with loans at the
fixed price basis Of SIPS. Minneapolis
If need arises the board will enter the
open market next time and buy more
wheat to take OF pressure. Fixed price
buying. but not fixed price loaning, is
laid aside. The board still clings to its
main purpose of helping the farmer
through orderly marketing and stabilized
prices against manipulation" The Pho
neer Press contends that 1.-The redoubt-
able Chairman Legge gives no sign Of
surrender"
1T took the experience of but two
weeks" asserts the Cleveland Plain
Dealer, ito convince the Farm Board
that its policy of buying wheat above
the market price was unsound. Traders
were buying wheat in the grain ex-
changes at 81 a bushel and ,reSelling 1t
TO the board at the pegged price. The
result was not the price stability which
the board was seeking, but the worst
kind of instability, to which was added
a loss of 10 cents a bushel or more to
the public Treasury on all the wheat
the board bought. What the
board will decide to do now no one is
willing even to guess. 1t announces its
intention of making loans on wheat
until July /, presumably on the basis of
actual market price, instead Of its own
fair price But no relief from over
production and declining prices can be
expected from that policy, as expert
ence since the beginning Of the year,
before outright buying began. so well
demonstrates"
ITO most disinterested observers" ac-
cording to the Omaha World-Herald,
1.-The Hoover plan in its incipiency looked
like a rather innocuous and feeble de-
vice for aiding agriculture. Now, with
its dizzying momentum. with its bold
ness in the face of rebuffs and discour-
agement, with the masterful Alexander
Legge in command, 1t begins to appear
in its truer light, as one of the most
daring and momentous departures from
eminent in time of peace"
The Charlotte Observer charges that
"the trade is doing its best to break
down the sterilization corporations
pegged price" The Flint Daily Journal
advocates "farmer-to-farmerc canvass"
to show the producers that they are
making themselves poorer, by raising
wheat in such enormous quantities"
Newspapers which believe that the
law of supply and demand is an effec-
tive obstaclek to the proposals are thel
Cleveland News the st. Louis Times and |
the Chattanooga News. The Duluth