Evening star., 1933-11-03
New Farm Demands.

lle i've 1OFcIIlOIS VI WcSltIIl ldTIll
States who have come to the President
with entreaties for new farm-aid ex-
periments-entreatieS which assume the
force Of probably do not
overestimate the Importance of their
mission. The daily news dispatches
present compelling picture of the I'M
rest and bitterness in the grain States,
indicating more serious disturbances
II hope for more tangible benefits from
the Neaw Deal should fail again to ma
terialize. The farm problem remains
one of the most difficult of all those
many problems faced by the busy
President
Yet, granting these things, there is
little enough encouragement in the fact
that the Governors have presented
plan which, if accepted even with res
ervations, would enable them to leave
Washington victorious. Over long
period the farmers have won VIC
tory after victory, when victory con-
sisted in gaining the various devices Of
governmental aid which were designed
to lessen their difficulties. But each
grant has been followed by renewed
demand for others.
The latest farm bill, representing the
boldest experiment in the transfer of
money from one section Of the popula-
ton to the other ever attempted in
America, was an "untrod path" blazed
by those who supposedly represented
the best views of what the farmers
wanted. That bill was signed on May II.
1t Is not yet six months old. 1t has
already resulted in the payment Of hun
dreds Of millions to the farmers for
crop curtailment. In the next two years
it contemplates the levying Of 1,100,-
100000 in processing taxes-to be paid
by the consumer-the majority Of which
will be passed on to the farmer. Addi-
tional aid, such as the buying by the
Government of surplus products to be
given to the unemployed, and the lend
ing of money on crops at a price which
prevents the farmers from losing any
thing, no matter what happens, has
been extended and is being broadened
every day.
Yet the farmers at this early date
are ready to call that experiment fall
ure and to demand greater things. Some
of the demands reflect nothing less
than desperation. Direct currency In
dation, for instance, is represented as
a necessary element in any plan to
alleviate the farmers difficulties, in
spite of the fact of known record
that the farmer, in the end, becomes
one of the worst-stricken victims OF
imitation. Price fixing, at a level that
would guarantee" q profit over pro-
duction costs, is another feature OF
the new aid which the farmers
spokesnlen demand. Yet If the demand
for farm products and the artificial
curbs upon production fail to raise the
price, how is it possible to maintain
q price by decree and to compel the
-orsur,ers already taxed to benefit the
farmer, to buy at higher price what
they fail to buy in sufficient quantities
at a lower price?
In his radio address Of Sunday night,
nearly two weeks ago, the President
asked his hearers not to take stock In
miracles. The administration disclaims
power to evoke miracles and does not
believe in them. Perhaps the root OF
the new farmer agitation rests in the
belief that miracles can be worked at
Washington, and those who fail to
wave the magic wands in their possess
sion must be threatened and denounced
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