The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-03-31
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
RECOVERY PROGRAM DEFECTIVE


Senator Borahs presentation of what he believes
to be fundamental weaknesses in the admnistra-
tons recovery program should make even the
members of the 'brain trust think. He pointed to
the fallacy of curtailing production in an era when
there are hundreds of millions of people suffering
from want. That procedure is illogical, just as IS
the program of trying to increase prices to the
producer by an expedent that decreases the pur-
chasing power of the consumer.
Our problem, and it is world problem, is one
of distribution and not of over-production, the
Idahoan explained. The theory of cutting acreage
of .Slaughtering pigs and trying to reduce produc-
ton so as to put up prices compels leSs and less
consumption because purchasing power is not there
to take care of the higher prices. The processing
tax levied on pigs, for example, falls back on the
farmer because the consumers curtail consumption
as price advances.
The policy of buying up marginal lands is
mistake Senator Borah urged, because half the
cultivated lands of the country are marginal 1t
is much better to have agrculturstS tilling those
acres than to have the land idle and add to the
millions forced to seek living in cities already
overcrowded We have built up the wealth and
greatness of this country on the basis of produc-
ton, or creating wealth to be used by our own
people and sold in the markets of the world.
The thought expressed by Senator Borah is not
new 1t takes into account the essential fact that
we arc not an isolated unit, but part of a family
of nations. The late Senator Beveridge, 25 years
ago, said in his book. "The Meaning of the Times,
that ''the salvation of American prosperity de-
mands larger and even larger foreign markets.
This alone will keep American labor employed.
n all oil
your commerce with foreign markets-this soVeS,
forms the labor problem" Continuing, ne SAID;
Constantly America is producing surplus. The
prosperity of any establishment depends upon the
sale of its surplus If that surplus is unsod, GER
tain number of working men must be discharged
These idle working men cease to buy products OF
farm and ranch. Thus the ability of the farmer
and the cattle raiser to purchase what the factory
makes is decreased And then the factory must
discharge more men; and thus action and reaction
continue until we have worked out the syllOgism
of ruin.
"Hold what foreign markets have; capture
new foreign markets every year; push the advance
of American commerce-that is the one insistent
task of American craftsmanship at the beginning
of the goth century. Where may we sell another
barrel of American meat, another car of American
flour. another shpload of American machinery?
These are the questions upon whose successful
answer American well being depends"
The thought expressed by Senator Beveridge
and reiterated by Senator Borah is elemental We
can not hope to regain prosperity by curtailing
production and trying to increase the price of a
reduced output We can not expect to become
wealthy by refusing to produce wealth, which IS
what we do when we can make one bushel Of
wheat worth as much to US as two The difficulty
is not one of overproduction but of maldistribu-
|ton-Muncie (Ind.) Star.