The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1934-10-26
The new STEAL
PUNCHING THE NATIONS
BELLY TO FIT IT'S
POCKETBOOK
By Capitol Hill Billy

! A1d4Cu NAOoo bhC AoAAus SAO @A<1<A esAAA
the USDA chung to an ostrich pol
icy of publicly ignoring and Sec
reilly gloating over natures assist
ance to their plans of crop and
cattle destruction.
Investigators brought confiden-
tial reports of cattle weaving with
weakness, thousands of dry wells
and soil water reserves generally
exhausted. Finally top soils blew
as far as Washington in a cloud
that made even Capitol Hill con-
scious of the drought. Most of
the populations of those drought
bitten states are agricultural peo-
pies and these Representatives"
who had supported the ghouls who
plan crop and cattle destruction in
the face of needy millions began
to wonder if the old ballyhoo would
reap their usual harvest of ballots.
Wallace and Company also woke
up. They forgot their first state
ments, and fastened to deny the
drought as an ally, but made a
virtue of necessity and piously
pointed out that benefit payments
for destruction-even if snatched
by the banker-were so much
drought insurance" 1t takes a
Brain Trust with a brainstorm to
figure that death and destruction
of 80 per cent of your business
has been insured because the AAA
gave benefit payments of 10 per
cent. While you, on the other
hand, contracted to permanently
reduce your business by that same
10 per cent. And a smaller vol
ume of production means reduced
standards of farm living.
Having assured the farmer that
he already received drought in
, surance," the AAA next promised
that he would get immediate re-
lief IF he contracted to reduce his
business still further; that he
might have the corn sealed up in
: his crib IF he had benefit bal
ance or other collateral; and that
the Great Father in Washington
was going to plant a gigantic ma.
! tional belt of trees through the
bread-basket of America so that bS
1875 or thereabouts the bugaboc
of hot winds wouldn't get him. In
the meantime, he was to be pa.
tient and patriotic and re-elec-
some Democratic congressman Of
whatnot and so cast the farmer
| ballot squarely behind the New
Deal.
The next job of the AAA wa:
to lend a helping hand to thu
brethren of the same stripe acros.
: the way, in the MIRA with a bat
terry of high-salary aides the AAA
sent press releases and made radio
d speeches to the hungry millions o.
:" the unemployed, giving them tn,
comforting assurance that in spit,
of the drought, in spite of tn,
success" of crop destruction, fooc
. supplies were adequate" AS
: matter of fact, DIR. Stiebling O
home economics, using health al
her yardstick, disproves this, anc
this year cambridge wrote a pop
ular book on the basis of Stieb
ling's figures, showing that in
stead of 40 million acres "surplus'
farms, we were, according to al
adequate health diet, exactly Al
million acres shy. In a press re
lease on August 16, the AAA quail
flies the health definition of "ade
d quate." In speaking of the diet
$ airy studies made by DIR. Steib
ling, they say: "Such improved di
n cts will not be in general use
: however, until consumers hav,
greater purchasing power to cove
e the cost of the increased produc
/ ton of foods expensive to grow
and ship, and until better under
: standing of nutrition has changed
food habits. In the meantime. thu
relative adequacy of present sup
plies can best be Judged, not b,
theoretical foundations of VIVA
4 we should consume, but by wha
we actually have been consuming.
If you think over that blurb. vo,
a must see that the Home Economic
Bureau has gotten under the ski
OF the disciples of destruction TIL,
! AAA claims that Stiebling's tern
! adequate" is theoretical" VIVA
= they mean by the same word i,
! plainly not what you SHOULD ca
to keep healthy, but what you cal
AFFORD TO BUY. And sine,
40 million people are expected t,
need relief this winter, by just tina
amount does the AAA plan +,
pinch the national belly to fit it,
: pocketbook. Notice also that RI,
New Dealers III the AAA insis
Cnat besides fatter purses the hun
] cry Americans need education II
: now to eat before they can be ex
t pected to change their food habits
Isn't it strange that Mr.. Wallac,
: ignores the fact that every tim,
2 a worker loses his job and is fore
t cd onto the breadline, he change,
0 MS food habits !? Did Wallace eve
notice that when a farmer lose,
r MS farm ne too must seek relic
! and shelter? The farmer not onl1
D changes his food habits; his Who'll,
life is upside down.
AS the effects of the drought
! become more and more terrible
tney break down the official os.
tr1ch policy and f1ara m, o,vo..