Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-24
The Political Doctors.

The country has tried 'stabiltzata1n"
Of the price of wheat for the benefS Of
the wheat farmers. The Federal Firm
Board, with hundreds of millions of
dollars at its disposal, bought and
bought wheat until it hurt" And now
the end of such buying apparently has
come, according to the announcement
of Chairman Stone Of the Farm Board.
No sooner had the announcement been
made, however, than Immediately in
political circles the cry was raised for
the old equalization fee" of the orig
inal McNary- Haugen bill and for the
more recently advocated "debenture'
plan. If any one had any doubt that
the question Of farm relief legislation
would enter into the coming political
campaign, that doubt no longer fingers.
The farmers will be told from now on
that this or that panacea is what is
needed to make them all prosperous.
The pity Of it all appears to be that
the equalization fee" was not adopted
and tried out years ago. In all prob
ability the American farm:r would have
been SO sick Of the equalization fee long
since that he would have been disillu-
stoned and the farmers-out Of political
panaceas for the farmer would have
little standing today. Former President
Coolidge vetoed the McNary-Haugen
bill, declaring it uneconomic and unfair
to the farmers themselves. So the
equalization fee plan was dropped and
with some reluctance the opponents OF
the fee plan adopted "stabilizaton" as
= substitute. With the Hoover admin
istration agreeing to support this stabili-
cation plan, It's opponents took up the
"debsnture" and Rugged it to their
bosoms. As a matter Of fact, the pur-
pose Of all three plans was to give the
farmers price for their wheat higher
than the law Of supply and demand
warranted. Under the sterilization
plan, the Government has gone into the
business Of buying wheat and storing it.,
IN the effort to peg the price and keep
it above the world market price. All
pleas 70 the whsat farmers to keep their
acreage down failed. The end Of the
Government buying plan had TO come
some day.
The political leaders in Congress,
however, cannot AFFORD, apparently, to
tell the farmers the truth; they cannot
afford to tell them there is no way arti-
hcially TO increase the price Of wheat
above the world market price when
there is great surplus Of wheat pro-
duced in this country over and above
the needs Of the American people. So
the campaign is already launched to
catch the farmer vote through promises
Of the enactment of legislation which
can only fail to give permanent relief.
The advice Of the Farm Board to the
farmers, many times reiterated, that
crops must be curtsiled in order to
maintain higher prices. has fallen on
deaf ears, it seems. Certainly it has
been ignored and ridiculed by these who
are engaged in farming the farmers"
The demand for a special session Of
the new Congress goes up again. The
plea is made that Congress be called to
pass farm legislation, along with huge
appropriation to establish q Federal
cole for the unemployed. At this time
it does not appear that the plea viii be
granted. But these who hope 10 gain
political advancement are loudest in
their clamor for a session Of Congress
which, if called, would be impotent, ex-
cept for the purpose of political agita-
ton, with the parties evenly divided in
Senate and House, and with the Chief
Executive opposed strongly 70 the nos
trums which have been put forward by
the political doctors to aid the public.