Evening star., 1933-01-03
Farm Aid Efforts Received
With Careful Study Of Plans

unless the rest of the farm crop States
are amazingly short In sagacity they
will refuse to be satisfied with anything
less than the same sort of thorough
and adequate attempt to improve the
farm status that Iowa insists upon"
"As we listen to the issues debated at
Washington in the next few weeks, !"
says the Houston Chronicle, I'VE will
have better opportunity to make sound
decisions on Them The Chronicle
finds some uncertainty as to the desir-
ability of the allotment plan. making
the statement: Possibly the plan
would be beneficial for the entire Ma
ton. Certainly it seems that our eco
nomic depression has been prolonged.
If not created, by low buying power on
our millions Of farms, and there is little
hope that we can ever again enjoy
prosperity until that buying power has
been increased. Money in the hands Of
the farmers would go Immediately for
thousand needs, and set wheels spin
ming in many q factory now idle, with
consequent benefit to railways and
middlemen and the entire public. But
is the method sound, and do we want
to resort to the principle of a direct
Federal subsidy to one or two large
classes of producers? Some persons
contend that an artificially high price
on cotton will lead to the wide use of
substitutes, especially of rayon; and
that wheat users, with the price of that
grain out of line with other grains, will
turn to corn, oats, rye, thus reducing
consumption of wheat and cotton and
permanently injuring the producers of
them. Still other persons will argue
against the entire principle of Federal
subsidies; will contend that a free eco
nomic field for all Is Still best"
AS much or more justification for
the proposed legislation as there ever
was for the farm relief legislation of
the Hoover administration" is seen by
the Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
with the assertion that ''the answer to
the question whether we are to have
this new experiment may be found in
the map of the electoral vote for Presi-
dent, which reveals a solid continental
block Of States from the Appalachian
Mountains to the Pacific Ocean in sup
port of some plan on domestic allot-
ment lines" The Republican calls the
idea highly experimental" but feels
that sit does seem superior at vital
point to the agricultural marketing act
now in effect, for it makes direct at
tack on the problem of overproduction
by placing farmers under contract to
keep production within specified limits
in case they sign up under the allot-
ment plan" That paper analyzeS the
project: III. in addition to wheat and
cotton, the system were to include hogs
and tobacco in its working, it is caIcu-
lated that the Government would collect
a total Of $600,000,0e0 to $500 900 600
from the professors, and by them from
the consumers. to pay to the producers.
As the system would apply only to the
part Of the crop consumed in the
United States, foreign buyers of the
same crop would have an advantage
over American buyers. In the cotton
textile industry, for example, this ad-
vantage would increase the competitive
power Of foreign manufacturers in the
worlds markets In trade rivalry with
American goods. An objection raised
to the debenture scheme of farm relief.
which provides for an export bounty
equal to the tariff on stated crops.
thus applies also to the allotment plan"