The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-05-01
NEA Service Writer

NEA Service Writer
 Washington - The equalizat ton fec and the export debenture, famous proposals for agricultural relief which were supposed to have been snuffed out as political issues, will be brought to life in the next congress unless farm prices take a miraculous upward swing such as no one expects.
 Thousands of letters have been coming into Washington, urging one plan or the other. Advlces from the winter wheat belt say that faAners terest in them. While the farm bloc was making it's loudest roars here and forcing the measures through to defeat by presidential veto or pressure it was often said that most farmers didn't know what the two plans provided and didn't care much as long as wheat was selling around Q dollar a bushel.
 Lately, however, wheat has been shooting down below % cents and other grain prices have been the lowest in many years The farmers have been demanding action and re- quests also are being received for information about the equalization fee and the export debenture in which so many were previously un- interested.
 Borah Promises Fight.
 Senator Borah of Idaho has prom ised to launch a fight for the export debenture and Senator Norbeck of South Dakota has promised to in- troduce a bill carrying the equali- zation fee principle in case Chair man McNary of the senate commit tee on agriculture doesn't reintro- duse his old McNary- -Haugen bill. Both plans are designed to meet the problem created by enormous exportable surpluses which depress prices and prevent farmers from benefiting from the tariff which in the case of wheat is AZ cents a Under the McNary- Haugen bill or succeeded by a bill quite similar I-congress would have created gov- ernment corporations which would buy from the open market the sur- pluses of such commodities as wheat, cotton, livestock and to- bacco, paying the world price" psus the amount of our tariff on the particular commodity. Thus. if the price at Liverpool were GO cents a bushel the government corpora ton would pay farmer $1.02 a bushel. The corporation would buy wheat until an American price, of $1.02 was established in the dom estic market for all wheat. The ! farmer would actually receive that price, minus the equalization fee. Would Sell Abroad.
 The corporation would then sell its wheat abroad at whatever price 1t could get. It would, of course, probably lose about 42 cents a bushel on all wheat thus bought and sold. Through the equalization fee that loss would be charged to the farmer on each bushel or other | unit of his crop. The Federal Farm Board proposed in the McNary- Haugen bill would have estimated probable costs and losses and then have determined and announced the amount of the equalization fee to be collected on each unit. It was left to the board to decide in the case of each commodity whether the fee should be collected 2t the sale.
 | The McNary- Haugen bill was passed by congress In 1927 and 1928 and was twice vetoed by President Coolidge on the ground that 1t was impractical, unconstitutional and class legislation. Coolidge con tended that such law would stimu- late production and defeat It's own purpose. although that argument had previously been countered with the assertion that in that case the automatically increasing equalizn- tion fees would deter farmers from increasing acreage.
 Exporters Would Benefit.
 Under the export debenture plan
 farmers or co-operatives exporting
 would receive from the government certificates or "debentures' worth the amount of our tarif on the quantity exported. Anyone who
 exported a thousand bushels of
 wheat. for example. would receive debenture certificates worth $420. The government would not cash the certificates. but would accept them in payment of import duties and the assumption is that importers
 would be glad to buy them at ap-
 proximately face value. As with
 the McNary- -Haugen measure, the
 theory is that the debenture plan
 would immediately throw wheat in- to the export market until the
 American price had reached tbs world pricer plus the amount Of Ithe tariff.
 Past dsbsnturs proposals havs Ii.5l