The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-11-09
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
By FRANK P. LITSCHERT

Some newspaper man the other day,
in commenting tersely on the differ
ences of opinion which have grown up
between Henry Ford and General
Johnson, suggested that if everyone
who is dissatisfied because the NRA
has raised the cost of living more
than it has raised his income, We're to
buy a Ford car, the famous Detroit
manufacturer would not be injured
to any great extent by a proposed
boycott of his products.
While there is neither the time nor
the space available here to discuss
the why's and wherefores of the con-
troversy between Henry Ford and
the NRA, it is undoubtedly true that
a great deal of such dissatisfaction
as may exist among the rank and file
of our people today is due to the fact
that generally incomes have not risen
as fast as the cost of living. That is
behind the latest wave of farm dis
content, and the complaint can be
heard on the street corner in the city
as well as in the rural districts. While
it is undoubtedly true that the recov-
cry program in shortening hours and
increasing wages has helped the work
ers in many industries, it is equally
true that such workers represent only
small percentage of the great body
of American consumers, even in urban
districts.
That the rise in the price of finished
products has outrun the rise in the
price which the farmer gets for his
produce is undoubtedly true, and this
furnishes the. inspiration for a great
deal of the present demand for inf1a-
ton. In the towns and cities too
there are many workers who have re-
ceived no increase in wages common
surate with the increase in the price
of the commodities they have to buy,
and there is another great class of
consumers who live on fixed salaries
or fixed incomes who are undergoing
the some unpleasant experience. The
government has sought to help the
farmer with processing tax on wheat
and cotton, but up to this time the
policy has only succeeded in raising
the price of necessities in the city
without aiding the farmer to any
great extent. And the processing tax
on wheat, for example, is not sound
method for increasing the consump-
ton of flour, no matter how it may
be viewed from other angles.
Evidently on the theory that the
new farm recovery plan has not had
sufficient time to work itself out, the
government is going ahead with an
extension of processing taxes. The
latest pronouncement of Secretary
Wallace is for an allotment plan for
corn and hogs. The procedure is similar
to that in the wheat plan for cutting
down production, and to pay the cost
of hiring the farmers to reduce hog
production, a processing tax which
will amount to two dollars a hundred
pounds by February l, 1884, to be lev
led on live hogs. Just how this will
work out remains to be seen. 1t used
to be the theory that when there was
a surplus in the country one way to
remedy the situation was to increase
the demand. This is evidently not the
present theory, however, as raising
the retail price of pork in the markets
of the country will not tend to induce
the ultimate consumer, who is already
a little peeved, to increase his con-
sumption of pork. And it is not to be
forgotten that tax of two cents
pound on live hogs is apt to be multi
piled many times before it gets to
the ultimate consumer.
One thing leads to another. Since
they realize that higher pork prices
may tend to induce people to turn to
beef, some so-called economic experts
are now suggesting small processing
tax on beef in order to "even up"
when the price of pork goes up, al
though it is generally admitted that
there is no great surplus of beef cat
tie in the country.
The entire governmental recovery
plan with its many ramifcations has
now become so involved that great
many students of economics are be-
ginning to wonder just where we are
going to come out. Some of them are
wondering whether it wouldn't have
been a better, as it certainly would
have been a simpler recovery plan, to
have passed minimum wage and min
imum hour laws in the first place, sub