The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1933-10-13
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National Topics Interpreted q fTYTTTYYR
by William Bruckart ksnr61F
by William Bruckart

unbiased observers here that the tax
payers are due for a tremendous shock
anyway before this recovery plan Is
completed. The expenditures are so
vast and in so many ways that 1t Is
difficult, IL not impossible, to tell how
much the thing is costing. OF course,
as see It, if recovery takes place and
there is prosperity abroad in the land,
nobody is going TO object so much.
On the other hand, If the methods EN-
ployed by the Roosevelt administra-
ton fail to bring complete recovery
and the country has to worry along
for awhile in the same condition Ii
now is, then it appears quite obvious
that the taxpayers are going TO raise
enough cane TO rout some of the public
officials out of their jobs.
about six million pigs weighing less
than 100 pounds and
Wallace Plan one million sows
Half SucceSs about to farrow. as
means of cutting
down the hog surplus and forcing
prices higher appears to have been
only about half successful. Or, to say
it another way, the program failed.
Department experts won't say why It
failed, but there has been a good deal
of discussion in the Capital that the
Secretary's plan missed fire because 1t
did rol- int %hn
practical, the human side. of the
equation. 1t was a beautiful theory.
think the secretary ought not TO be
charged wholly with it, however, be-
cause it had ITS inception in the minds
Of certain men who claim TO be lead
ers in agricultural thought who put
their heads together with some of the
professors who are so numerous
around Washington.
From divers sources, I get the infor-
nation that farmers in many sections
of the country held off marketing their
pigs and their sows. even with the
premium the Department of Agricul-
ture was paying. because they wanted
to wait for those higher prices that
the Department Of Agriculture said
would come. Quite obviously, they ex-
pected the little pigs to grow up, and
when they became bigger pigs and
prices were higher. there would be
bigger amounts of money.
The net result of the whole show
was that the Department of Agricul-
ture put out only about 100000 In
its pig program, whereas it had esti-
mated that there would be approx
mately S5OOO0.000 expended A part
Of the total paid out went to the proc
essors, such as the meat packers and
butchers, as compensation for the
work they did. The country's hog
population was reduced by the extent
Of about four million pigs, while in
stead of one million sows being bought
and killed, there were not more than
one hundred thousand.
Notwithstanding the failure of the
program to buy pigs and sows, the
outlook for hog sup
Expect LoUer plies in the principal
cL..rt. markets during the
forthcoming market
ing year is for lower shipments than
in several years. The marketing year
ending October 1, 1893, saw roughly
47,250,OO0 head of hogs slaughtered.
That total. and it is fairly accurate
because federal inspectors see all of
the hogs killed, was the largest In
four years. But the marketing year
just now starting gives every indica-
ton of a considerably smaller ship
ment and slaughter and that probably
means higher prices, according to the
experts.
The relationship between hog prices
and corn prices has been unfavorable
for hog production in the last three
months, and the prediction from the
Department of Agriculture is that this
condition viii continue for probably a
year. II is TO be assumed that this
will result in a smaller pig crop this
fall than is usual. although since the
plan to buy pigs failed to materialize
into satisfactory results, I do not see
how the experts can guess the dimen-
sions Of the pig crop.
There was very little attention paid
by the daily newspapers TO the retire
ment the other day of DR.. Charles L.
Marlatt. as chief of the bureau of en-
tomology of the Department Of Agrf-
culture. But farmers of the country
and those who consume the food which
the farmers produce (which means all
of us) owe n great debt of gratitude
TO Doctor Marlatt who had TO leave
his office when he passed his seven
tieth birthday. He had served in the
Department CT Agriculture since 1889.
1t was Doctor Marlatt who almost
single-handed succeeded in arousing
the nation to the necessity for a quar-
antine law that would stop the steady
flow of pests from entering this coun-
try. many of which became among the
worst of the crop hazards. The plant
quarantine act of 1912 was the result
OF Doctor Marlatt's studies and his
constant urging that restrictions be
laid down to protect orr agriculture
from the ravages of insects and dis
eases which had their origin in other
countries.
The lengths to which imitation can
20 was well illustrated in a German
bank note which Secretary Woodin
showed me the other day. II was a
note of the denomination Of FIVE bill
lion marks. and was issued dur
ing the orgy of imitation in which
Germany INDUCED eight or ten
years ago. Secretary Woodin, who
keeps the note as a curio. computed