Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-03-04
SURVIVAL IS SEEN
FOR FARM BOARD
Unit Is Expected to Continue
With Morgenthau at Head
Following ParIeys.
By the Associated Press.


BY simple process of elimination
Q number of observers have arrived at
the conclusion Mr.. Roosevelt may re-
tain the Farm Board in the new ad-
ninistrative set-up.
Under the reorganization rider on
presidential powers voted by Congress
the Chief Executive has virtually q
dictatorial power over the independent
Offices of government. He may con-
tract. expand or consolidate their
functions, and with the exception of
executive units practically obliterate
them at will.
The Farm Board has very definite
executive functions and. therefore.
could not be abandoned except by act
OF Congress. 1t Is the fundamentally
Of the agricultural marketing act which
would have to expire with it or be
given new vehicle of operation.
Cooperative Marketing Aim.
Since the prime purpose of the act
and the board originally was to de-
velop cooperative marketing. and great
national commodity agencies suisse
Quently have been erected. some quar-
tiers consider it inconceivable that
farmers who have pooled their future
and fortunes under Federal encourage
ment should be left without protection
and assistance.
Mr.. Roosevelt will have the power.
and he is known to favor it, to put
under one responsible head the fiscal
activities Of the Farm Board, the Fed
eral Farm Loan Board and the Crop
Production Loan ONCE. Such COM
bination would leave only the educa-
tional and defense features of co-opera-
tive marketing without governmental
anchor
The answer, as some see it, would be
to retain the Farm Board in that ca
pacity or transfer the services back to
the Department of Agriculture.
One member of the Farm Board who
often is its spokesman says the legal
and promOtional aspects of co-opera-
tive marketing have so expanded since
the days of the old Federal Bureau of
Cooperative Marketing as to make it
almost imperative that some indie
pendent unit of Government foStor and
direct the nationally developed service.
Continuances Seen.
Indication that such a unit will con-
tinue to be the Farm Boord was seen
in recent long conferences between
Chairman Stone, resigned. and Henry
Morgenthau Jr, representing the
Presldent-elect. Responsible sources
within the board and the Department
of Agriculture say Mr. Roosevelt has
decided that Morgenthau will become
the new chairman to succeed Stone.
In the same connection they suggest
the possibility of Morgenthau being
named an Assistant Secretary Of Agri-
culture in charge OF the Farm Board;
in which case they believe it would
become his duty to administer the VOL
untary domestic allotment plan or
whatever measure or measures of farm
relief may be enacted by the special
session of Congress expected to be con-
yened in April.
They see some argument for the
board to continue Independently Of the
department in the we'll known desire
Of the latters officials to keep that
branch of the Government free of ex-
periments in remedial economics. 1t
is considered conclusive that no fur
ther use ever will be made of the
emergency sterilization clause Of the
agricultural marketing act, the invo-
cation of which was the signal for
both friends and enemies of co-opera-
tive marketing to attack the Farm
Board