Evening star., 1932-07-31
FARM BOARD TURNS
TO FOREIGN SALES
Also Pushes Co-operativeS in
Forsaking Activities in
Sterilization.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
Its original $500, 900 900 fund depleted
severely by tussling with the woes of
agriculture, the Farm Board has turned
its face from stabilization to more &C
tive development of co-operatives and
finding foreign markets for huge Amer
lean stores of wheat and cotton.
Sterilization activities, which Con-
greSS specified, cost the Farm Board
many of its millions and led to charges
on Capitol Hill during the Spring by
Senator Reed, Republican, of Pennsyl-
vania and others that the money had
been poured in some rat hole"
Other millions are tied up in loans to
co-operatives. Appropriation by Con-
greSs of 85,000,00O bushels of stabiliza-
ton wheat and 100000 bales of cotton.
for which only $4,000, 600 was set aside
to reimburse the board, has cut further
Into its resources.
Funds Cut to 100000.
And curtailing the boards vigor,
priation was cut from $l.880,000 to
100000 This will necesSitate sharp
cuts in personnel and the labors Of the
board, but James C. Stone, the Ken
lucky colonel who presides as chairman,
thinks the board has been a militant
factor since its creation in aiding agri-
culture and expects to give increased
constructive aid.
The chairman has contended repeat
edly that the boards work has been
judged too much by Stabilization activ-
tiles which we're ordered by Congress
purely as an emergency measure and
not enough by its permanent efforts
designed to build up for the future CO.
operative marketing.
Formerly head of a large co-opera-
tive himself. he holds this out as the
most tangible hope for the farmer. and
he vehemently excoriateS cotton and
wheat merchants and spectators who,
he contends have attempted to oaik
every effort to give aid to the producer.
The Farm Board was one Of the most
active eXponentS of the clause IN the
relief bill which permits the Recon-
struction Corporation to finance sales
abroad of farm products on credit.
Cotton Not Included.
Over the protest of some private
merchants. Congress incorporated in the
relief bill the provision permitting un-
limited funds for this attempt to flnd
markets abroad, the only restriction be-
ing that cotton owned by the Farm
Board or the Cotton Sterilization Cor
noration should not be included. Chair
man Stone, in reply to a query as 70
the possibility of these sales on credlt
artifcially stimulating the market so as
10 force Argentina and other Wneat-
eyportirg countries to cut their prices
to meet the competition, said:
I don't believe that cEedit f1 exten1ded ,11Ita
under these conditions Will st1rr1u1a0e
tie foreign prices necessarily.
Discussing the possibility OF foreign
sales. Stone cited recent negotiations
abroad. A..
Several months ago." he said. I'VE
had an opportunity TO sell l5,Ooo,ooo
bushels Of grain in Europe to coun-
trv which / thought would have been
beneficial to our wheat growers. Ihe
reason I thought so was that this coun-
trv was not going to buy wheat unless
they could buy it on credit. They
couldn't. They didn't have any gold
with which to buy exchange, ana tney
were simply going to use what tney mao
and mix potato -four and rye and other
grain IN the bread.
"Thev have done that. thought 1t
advisable to get that 100000 busheIs
out CT our visible supply and out OF
Again. referring to the sale Of 49,
600 900 bushels of wheat to China, he
said:
Mote is Only Security"
ct do not think the security we got
on the sale to China is what commercial
banks would consider adequate security.
We simply took the note Of the Chinese
national government, and in the eyes OF
many people that government was
pretty hard to locate, but think 1t s
eventually going to be paid and !
thought at the time that the fact OF
getting the wheat out Of the Pacific
Northwest. where they had surplus
would mean a lot not only to farmers
but also to general business in that sec
ton. and it did that, think.
THE last years crop of wheat In the
Pacific Northwest sold at price above
the Chicago prices when normally II
sells Is cents under Chicago"
That indicates what Stone holds Is
the next step toward restoring agricul-
ture TO prosperity; build up the farm
ers' cooperative marketing system to
eliminate middleman profits and get
rid of the surplus until such a time as
the farmer himself can be taught to
produce no more than can be sold,
thereby eliminating the ruinous carry
over.