Evening star., 1933-03-26
WALLACE PRESSES
FARM RELIEF BILL
Changing Conditions Require
Broad Powers, Cabinet
Member Tells Senators.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The administration farm bill that
rode so smoothly and speedily through
the House skidded into a rut N the
Senate Agriculture Committee yester-
day and determined efforts by the
youthful and dynamic Secretary WAL
lace to bulge it loose drew little en-
couragement from committee members
After John A. Simpson. president of
the National Farmers Union, had again
attacked the measure as impossible"
and Wallace had defended it as an
emergency proposition essential to help
producers OF major crops, the committee
decided to continue public hearings this
week
This, leaders agreed. would delay a
report to the Senate until the latter
part of the week. Some members
thought the bill might not reach the
Senate floor even then.
Many members Of the committee. in
cluding Chairman Smith, who has a
substitute pending, and Senator Nc
Nary. Republican, of Oregon, favor re-
vision of the bill to simplify it, while
others want to restrict its application to
fewer than the nine commodities COW
cred.
Wallace Has Answers Ready.
Representatives of the commodities
wheat. cotton, corn. hogs, cattle. sheep,
rice. tobacco and dairy products-are
to be heard next week, including pro-
ducers and professors.
Wallace. making his first appearance
at a public congressional committee
hearing, impressed the agricultural
group with his straightforward state
ments and ready answers to a rapid
fire of questions.
Frequently talking with the end of
a pencil in his mouth, the cabinet
member from the Iowa corn belt assert
ed changing farm conditions made !.
essential that Congress enact legisla-
ton granting broad and flexible powers
to the administration"
1T must trust for a solution Of the
present emergency" he said, Ito the ex-
ercise of sound discretion by the Chief
Executive and those who carry out his
program.
Nothing less will suffice to meet the
realities that now confront us. Con-
gress has granted such authority to
meet the banking emergency. 1t
should, in my judgment, do likewise in
meeting the agricultural emergency,
which Is so intimately woven with the
banking situation and the industrial
depression"
Prompt Action Sought.
Declaring prompt action was de-
manded If the big administrative ma.
chine was to be set up In time to help
this years paintings, wallace denied
having estimated the cost Of the bills
operation at $500, ,00o, 900 for the first
year and said while the department
was trying to figure how many extra
men would be needed to administer 1t,
the number was "problematical."
Simpson had estimated the bill
would cost $500, 100000 annually, ex-
cluding land rentals, and 100000 men
to administer it.
"No sound answer Gas to cost can
be made in advance" Wallace said.
The answer depends upon what
products the professors tax is placed;
on the current farm prices; on the
amount Of tax fixed. having due re-
gard for the requirements that limit
the amount of the tax; on the changes
in the consumers purchasing power,
and on many of the economic factors
which now constitute part Of the
present national and international
emergency.
II desire to add, however. that the
percentage of the retail prices which
goes to the farmer is so small that the
addition Of the tax will have only
slight effect on retail prices. and that
the consumer, as well as the farmer and
business man. has everything to gain
from a fair and balanced relationship
of production to consumption that will
restore to the farmer the pre-war
purchasing power of his commodities"
Defends Bill as Drawn.
Wallace defended the bill as drawn
by himself and other farm advisers OF
the administration. He opposed the
smith substitute and proposals in the
committee that the bill be limited to
wheat and cotton. He especially did
not want to see corn and hogs
eliminated.
The Smith substitute would eliminate
the sections providing a reduction OF
acreage through agreement with pro-
ducers under q modified form OF the
allotment principle.
"As I read the substitute now under
consideration" Wallace said, mo ade-
ouate provision is made for protecting
the consumers interest by adjusting the
tax with due regard thereto"
Taking up the Dill Secuon py Sectlon,
Wallace said that under the acreage
control provisions he did not contem-
plate that the country permanently for
sake its foreign markets, but only that
it should face the fact Of the existing
carry-overs. He asserted 1t was neces-
sary to control the acreage planted with
view to keeping the new production
in accord with the Nations potential
domestic and foreign markets.
Control Of Production.
As for control of marketed production,
he said, acreage control would not be
suited to preventing overproduction of
live stock. =
at is necessary" he added, that
authority be given to meet the hog
situation by controlling the number, and
possibly the tonnage, Of the hogs
marketed.
"It may be found that control Of the
cotton surplus can best be handled
through control Of production at the