Evening star., 1934-12-09

Superstition Is riding high in the
drought belt. Many of the farmers
who were asked by the Roosevelt ad-
ministration to kill 100000 pigs and
| 25000O mother pigs are saying that
! the drought is Gods way of Furnishing
! the folk who slaughtered animals
! while there was hunger in the world
officials of the Department OF Agrl-
! culture are a bit concerned over the
spread of this superstition and they
! are inclined to blame the meat pack
ers. The latter Indignantly deny 1t.
i AS for the origin of the tale, it is
pointed out that it came first from
! the pulpits of Iowa and has been traV-
cling across the farm country ever
| since
| Some day, of course, this whole
! curtailment of production will be
analyzed retrospectively and the Fed
eral Government under Mr.. Roose-
velt's regime will probably get taste
of the kind of criticism that was
visited against the Federal Farm
! Board of the Hoover days.
/ When the Government undertakes
| to interfere with natural law, 1t
usually runs into trouble.
Who Pays?
| About 2OO,O0O.000 in processing
taxes are to be collected this year for
hogs. Where is it coming from? The
packers? But all the meat packers
of the country didn't make more than
S34 100000 in profits last year. and
this was Just about offset by the total
of their losses during 1881 and 1882.
So, assuming that the processing
! tax is not going to come out of pack
| ers' profits, it will come out of the
American people who are going to pay
next Winter a higher price for meat
products than this year, partly be-
cause of the shortage and partly be-
! cause of the taxes.
Restriction of production has come
at a most unfortunate time. Had
| there been no restriction, the sur
pluses would have carried over nicely
The producer would have gotten in
creased prices, but the public would
| not have had to face famine prices.
! Already the indications are that
about 25OO0,O0O bushels Of rye will
have to be imported.
Already the Department of Agri-
culture has indicated that farmers
may plant forage crops on lands with
| drawn from production. 1t was on
account of this withdrawal that bene-
| fit payments were made to farmers.
Cotton Falls Short.
| A1roody tho cotrop ,,roorapo &c
threatened and the latest figures in
dicate that the cotton crop will fall
short by 100000 bales Of what was
set as the desirable limit. This is be-
cause nature has destroyed part of the
crop.
The trouble with the farm program
| is that it was based on the notion
that curtailed production would mean
higher prices for the farmer and that
the public would gladly absorb the
| increased living costs. But it turns
at retail get too high, the people
eat something else
| Had there been no processing taxes
it is believed that the live stock pro-
ducer might have had Just as high
| prices, but he would have had his
money sooner. As it is today, he
must wait for Government checks
Just why the delay is not explained
The Republicans are saying the pur-
pose is to withhold the money till
the Fall election campaign, in the
hope that it will make the farmers
feel better and cause them to vote
for a Democratic Congress.
But whatever the reason, the fact
is red tape is slowing up the payments