The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-12-13
LEADERS ENDORSE
ALLOTMENT PLAN
FOR farm RELIEF
Promise Support If Consumer
Costs Are Not Passed on
to By-Products
ROOSEVELT REPRESENTED
House Committee Prepares to
Insert Necessary Changes
in Jones Bill

Washington, Dec. 13.-(R)-Ignor-
ing suggestions that it might meet q
presidential veto, farm leaders Tues
day rallied behind the voluntary do
nestle allotment plan for agricultur-
al relief.
After a meeting lasting into the
early morning hours, they went be-
fore the house agriculture commit
tee, prepared to tell Chairman Jones
they would support the plan pro-
vided additional consumer costs were
not passed on to by-products Of the
commodity served.
President-Elect Roosevelt, who has
shown leaning to the allotment
principles, was represented at the
conference of Is national farm and
commodity organizations by Henry
Morgenthau, Jr., frequently advanced
as possible choice for secretary Of
agriculture in the new administra-
ton.
With the apparent agreement on
this farm-aid plan, the agriculture
committee made plans to insert any
changes necessary In the Jones bill,
which was outlined to the confer
ence Monday night, and prepare It
for speedy house passage. It would
be effective only two years, leaving q
more comprehensive program until
Governor Roosevelt has taken office.
Excise Tax Necessary
At the conference 1t was pointed
out that to pay farmers q certificate
approximating the tariff in addition
to the market price on that portion
Of their crops allotted for domestic
consumption the government would
have to collect an excise tax Of the
same amount from professors. They,
In turn, would pass it on to the con-
sumer.
It was the contention of farm
leaders that the increased cost of
living should be reflected in higher
prices of bread, cotton clothing, pork
and tobacco products. If spread out
over all categories the benefit to
wheat and cotton farmers would be
diminished by increased costs of
shorts, middlings and cotton bagging,
of which the farmer Is the principal
consumer.
The allotment plan was sharply
criticised by packers and the pro-
ducers of fruits and vegetables. The
former said that with family incomes
reduced so per cent it would be i'm
possible to pass an excise tax of two
cents a pound on to the consumer of
pork and that it actually would be
reflected in lower farm prices. It
was the contention Of the latter that
as surplus crop acreage was reduced
to get the benefit of domestic allot-
ment certificates the production Of
fruits and vegetables would increase
to distressing proportions.
That argument brought out the
suggestion that farmers volunteering
for the allotment plan agree in their
acreage reduction contracts not to
devote abandoned areas to certain
crops designated by the department
OF agriculture as susceptible to over
production.
Death Knell for Board
Farm leaders said the Jones bill
virtually would be the death knell of
the farm board. The measure puts
all discretionary power in the hands
OF the department of agriculture and
Morgenthau told the conference
Roosevelt felt the educational CO.
operative marketing functions OF the
board should be transferred to the
department while a new agency
should be created to take over the
credit powers Of the board together
with those Of the federal farm loan
board which now controls the Fed
eral Land banks, the joint Stock
Land banks and the Federal Inter-
mediate Credit banks.
AS proposed by the Jones bill, the
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