The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-05-24
(Official City, State and County
Newspaper
Foreign Representatives
SMALL, SPENCER, BREWER
(1ncorporatedD
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
Why NOt?

why INOI.
When Senator Nye Monday offered
the three-fold farm relief plan as an
amendment to the revenue bill in the
senate, he struck a responsive chord
In the hearts and minds Of all North
Dakotans, regardless of whether or
not they are listed among his political
supporters.
The battle as it is now going on in
the senate is one Of og-rolling against
the peoples interests. If logs are to
be rolled why should not someone roll
q few for agricultural America which
has been long suffering if not overly
patient.
There can be no question about the
log-rolling on the oil, lumber, copper
and coal tariffs. When SO conserva-
tive an organization as the Associated
Press comments on current congress
developments as obvious log-rolling
you may be sure that the gay custom
Is being INDUCED in. This news
gathering organization deals in fact,
not in comment or surmise, and when
it remarked on the log-rolling activi-
ties with regard to the revenue bill it
spoke of something which must be
generally admitted at Washington.
The cry for farm relief this year has
not been one for appropriations but
rather one for latitude in which to
operate. Leaders OF the Farmers
Union, National Farm Bureau and the
National Grange show no disposition
to regard the federal farm board as
an unqualified success, but they are
unwilling to scrap it until something
better comes along. Also, they would
like to improve its operation. They
would like to broaden its authority so
the farm board may try any one of
several plans Of operation, all Of them
together, or a combination of the
three.
All of the plans listed are we'll
known and have been widely discussed
except one. That is the so-called
Wilson plan which would allocate to
each state, county and farmer the
right to sell given amount of
given farm product at the American
price. This would be the world price,
plus the tariff, and would apply to
all Of the product consumed in this
country. The rest of the product
would be sold abroad at whatever
could be obtained for it. The man
who raised more than his share of
the product would receive the Ameri-
can price only on the amount allotted
to him. If he failed to raise his full
share he could sell his rights" to
market that which he failed to pro-
duce and thereby receive some income
in a year of crop failure.
The other plans are the export de-
benture and equalization fee ideas,
about which congress has wrangled
long and without tangible result.
One of the weaknesses of the pres
ent farm relief law is that it limits
the activities of the farm board to
cooperative action.
The question is not now whether
the farm board has failed or been sue
cessful. It is one of doing something
constructive to get things going in
this country-and there is no better
way than by putting agriculture back
on its feet.
It well may be that the whole prin-
ciple of governmental activity in the
farm question is an error. If so the
major crime already has been COM
mitted and little further adventur-
ing will not blacken the record much
more.
Nye tacks the farm-relief proposal
onto the revenue bill with the asser-
ton that 1t is just as much revenue
raising measure as the four tariffs
now being debated. In that he is
right-unless all the authorities are
wrong. He expresses the view, hello
by many persons, that the farm board |
might lust q well be turned loose to
make its own record As to go on like
It Is now. The farmers never cared
for the present law very much any,
how.
It was the result Of political bicker-
ing. og-rolling and compromise in the
first place and was shaped to meet
the ideas Of many men, some Of whom
had little, II any, interest in the farm
problem.
Nye's amendment suggests that the
farm population is as willing to be
sacrificed q q sheep as It is TO 20 to