Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-15
FARM BOARD CHAIRMAN WINS
!" SUPPORT OF WHEAT GROWERS
Midwest Is Inclined to Give Leege an Op-
portunity to Demonstrate His
Relief Policies.
BIZ OWEN b. SCOTT.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
TOPEKA, Kans., January 15.-Just
what Alexander Legge meant when he
wrote to Senator Elmer Thomas Of Ok
lahoma concerning the price of wheat
Is question that recently has agitated
the breast of the wheat farmer more
palpitatinkly than almost any other,
John A. Simpson, president of the
National Farmers Union-an important
farmers cooperative marketing organic
zation-aSserted that Chairman Legge
of the Farm Board admitted that his
policy had been to press down the price
Of wheat in order to force an acreage
reduction Mr.. Legge dubbed the Simp-
son statement an ''unmitigated lie"
Confidence in Board.
Farm organizations In this State. the
center of the world wheat territory, set
out to determine just what was said by
whom and to whom concerning prices.
Carl A. Ward, president of the Kansas
State Farmers Union, today had an
nounced that there was no basis for the
statements Of the organizations ma
tional president. His conclusion was the
signal for general attack on Simpson
and victory for the Farm Board chair
man.
While this fracas has engaged the
emotions of the wheat growers. farm
organizations as a whole In Kansas have
expressed confidence and support for
the Farm Board. These groups, the
Kansas Farm Bureau Federation, the
State Grange and the Kansas Farmers
Union, all have resolved to this effect.
The attitude of the wheat country
toward this experiment in national price
control can be cleaned from agricultural
of oil ovaA
the West Kansas plains for their BIZ
ennial meeting. 1t Is as follows:
THE American wheat grower for the
| first time in years is receiving a larger
return for his wheat than the Canadian
| farmer. While prices are the lowest in
| nearly 40 years and Improbable for
all but the lowest cost producers, still
they are approximately 20 cents above
the world level. Thus, without either
the equalization fee or the export de-
benture-both intended to dump the
| country'S surplus on foreign markets,
| with the expense to be borne by the
! a bushel is nearly so per cent effective.
Price-Pegging Policy.
while Mr. Legge admits that the
Federal Government on June / may be
holding 150,000000 bushels of actual
wheat, bought and carried at an eX-
pense of approximately 5000 0OO, 900 of
taxpayers money, STILL" the farmer
| figures, that isn't the concern of the
producer. Maybe the Farm Board, as
Mr.. Legge intimates, is up tree con-
corning what to do with these immense
wheat stores, but even so it is COM
mitted to a policy of pegging the price
and that isn't the farmers worry"
To the individual farmer the Fed
eral Farm Board is pictured as repre-
senting an intangible entity. Chairman
Legge is a very real personality in this
country, secretly very much liked be-
| cause of his candor and fortnight
statements, but openly suspected in
some quarters because of claims that
the Government buying policy would
have resulted in much higher prices
than prevail if the Farm Board had
squeezed shorts in December wheat at
the close of 1880, instead of letting
them out of a corner.
THE Farm Board. as we see it." ex-
planned j. G. Mohler, secretary of the
Kansas State Board of Agriculture and
leading figure in the agricultural in
dustry, lis an agency which should
devote itself to solving problems be-