Evening star., 1934-06-07
SEESA.A.A. UPHELD
|NSPR|NGDROUCHT
Wallace Stresses Challenge
to Collective Planning
During Western Trip.
BY HENRY A. WALLACE,
Snrr ~ Anric,,ltnre

OtIlSldIS VI AAAINhltuAS.
PIERRE, S. Oak, June THE
drought has several aspects, ranging
from the area completely dependent
on irrigation. where the failure of the
snow last Winter makes a serious
shortage of water supplies to the dry
land area of the Dakotas where short
age of rainfall in other years has been
followed by an early season shortage
this year, entirely unprecedented.
This drought does not mean that
human planning is futile; it is chal-
lenge to more comprehensive and et-
fective collective planning.
In my visit to the Pacific Coast l
was impressed with what can be done
in the way of building dams to con-
serve water supply and. on my way to
this region l have been further i'm
pressed with the possibilities of cover
CROPS that will hold the moisture and
prevent the blowing of the soil in the
dust storms so unpleasant this year.
Prepare for the Worst.
A Spring drought is something new
to most of us. Whether it will con-
tinue throughout the Summer, no one
can tell. We shall hope for the best
and prepare for the worst.
I DO not see how any one who has
gone through the drought area, as l
am now doing, can say kind word
for natures method of crop reduc-
tion. Mans methods may be full of
imperfections, his machinery as crude
and uncertain as all of his inventions
in their early stages, but they are
perfection itself by comparison with
the occasional crudenesS, the ruth
leSSneSs and the uncertainties of ma
ture.
My predecessor, Secretary Arthur
Hyde. said, in regard to the drought
OF 1880. that it demonstrated the
necessity for conscious control of crops
by organized farmers as preferable to
the arbitrary reduction Of nature.
We now have the opportunity for
collective action on the part of farm
ers. 1t must be noted. too. that this
machinery does have the merit of f1ex-
ibility. A plan involving the collec-
tive action of millions of individuals
can also be sufficiently flexible to
offer some protection, at least, in an
emergency.
For years, farmers have looked for
some social device, some collective
machinery, which would shield them
from devastation by whim of nature.
Argument for A. A. A.
The present plan of production
control does provide crop insurance
IN an emergency. Farmers who have
co-operated with the farm adjustment
program and whose crops are stricken
can point TO this drought as a final
and convincing argument for the
necessity of such planning as the A.
A. A. makes possible.
mans crop may be burned out. or
ruined by dust storms or hail. but he
gets the benefit payment from the
Government
Even the present drought does not
give rise to fear of food shortage, 1t
ooes. however. suggest the necessity of
future protection against crop failures
IN a continuous program of produc-
ton control. Since nature has gone
from niggardliness to abundance in
the space of one season, we shall have
to think about a program of farm re-
serves to be maintained from season
to season.
Perhaps 1t would be possible to set
a mechanism Whereby growers could
maintain these necessary reserves by
means of loans similar to the present
corn and cotton loans. Stored COM
modlties. owned by producers and
held in the country, might be part of
the system of benefit payments in an
adjustment program.
Must Store Up Crops.
found. in my recent visit to Utah,
that the custom there was to store up
wheat in times of plenty as a reserve
against crop failures. This plan has
been abandoned since the war. but
! think it well for the country as a
whole to consider some such approach
to our problems of production and
supply.
I do want to emphasize the fact
that the Government will do every
thing in its power to soften the blow
of this devastating drought.
The first move must be for relief of
human distress; the second, for the
protection of property-notably live
etock-that is endangered.
Through the leadership Of the
President, the Federal Government is
moving as unit in this emergency
task
tCopyrisht. 1884. bv the North American
Newspaper Alliance. IncD