Evening star., 1934-04-08
Continued From Third Page.)

preston, you have not made a hit in
a whole year. Look at the A. A. A.
This program was just about the most
efficient scheme for helping our far
mers that the brain Of man could de- .
wise, far better than the unhappy
method of buying surpluses tried by
another administration. But 1t has
met with difficulties.
You have made present of some
200000,0 900 to farmers. Where did
you get this money? You taxed the
bread and the meat and the shirts of
the city millions. Now it Is in the
cities that there are the greatest num-
Der of the unemployed, and the great
est misery. There is some reason to
believe that the farmers used the
money to buy fertilizers and more hogs
and better plows for the acres not
thrown out. Even so, the farmers
have not been as pleased as you hoped
they would be. The people Of the
cities, burdened by rapidly rising prices
due to N. r. A. and to A. A. A.. have
not been able to buy as much as they
would have otherwise, while the farm
ers have found that the gifts of money
made to them have been consider
ably Offset by the higher prices they
must pay for all the things they buy.
The lesson in the A. A. A. is a very
old one, long known to economists.
That is the lesson, that it is a dubious
thing to tax one section of the people
for the benefit of another. And yet
you are actually considering bills for
restriction Of agriculture by law.
Here again you have been receiving
some bad advice. Secretary Wallace,
for example, has been talking about
the probable necessity OF withdrawing
from cultivation, by force, fifty or
a hundred million acres of agricultural
land. There is talk of moving the
people out of whole States like South
Carolina.
Depression Sole Curse.
This is undoubtedly the widest idea
that has come out of a bedlam Of wild
rotions There is just one thing wrong
with our agriculture, and that is
world depression. We are coming out
of this tragedy now. and when it is
over a hungry and half clothed world
is going to want the products OF our
agriculture. But even if this were not
so, all the rules of common sense ad
wise you to let agriculture alone.
When you begin to consider telling
farmers to stop growing things on
their own land on pain OF going to
Jail, you are forgetting all you ever
learned about history as we'll as
economics. The cotton farmers OF
India and Egypt grow new bale for
every one you destroy, and our farm
ers will discover this. When you be-
gin to play with the idea that in this
country a man will have to get a
Federal license to own COW or plant
a hill of potatoes. it is about time for
you to ask yourselves whether you
are enjoying the services Of the best
agricultural advisers.
Your N. R. A. experiences have been
rather tragic. You we're handed bill
and told that it would end depression.
Naturally you were in favor of bill
that would do that. 1t would not only
bring to an end a period of grievous
distress. but it would show up all the
DlI.tL IldllUIlS VI lllC NOL ~ lLidC llno
been unable to end depression by
passing a law. expose the inefficiency
of the Republican administration and
rebound greatly to your own personal
credit. The law seemed to be excellent
1t provided for a careful scientific and
thorough analysis of the conditions in
each of the major industries. to be fol-
lowed by the adoption of code of
hours. wages and trade practices. 1t
is not necessary to list the many bene-
fits that were to accrue.
1t did not work out. You passed
the bill without stopping to read it.
You did not note two things about it.
One was that it did not specify the
industries that it covered The other
was that there was labor clause in
it that meant serious trouble. OF
course. You could not know who was
going to administer the law, and the
measure had bad luck there Some
body thought up way to force the
industries under the law at once. He
devised the P. r. A.-the Presidents
e-employment gIeement-Which you
did not authorize under N. l. R.
A. The terms of this P. R. A. we're
so drawn that no employers in the
United States, big or little. could
operate under it. And then followed
the most luridly fantastic burlesque