Milford chronicle., 1934-09-21
ECONOMIC HIGHLIcHTS

| says the old prOVerb. IL proves
fact that has the Department Of Ag
riculture and high Government off,
cials giddy and dismayed.
Main Administration program fol
the farmer has been crop and acre.
age reduction. Working on the the.
, ory that unless drastic action were
taken, the American market would
| be glutted with agricultural sur
/ pluses for many years to come, thus
/ keeping prices at bankrupt levels
steps we're taken to kill pigs, pillow
under wheat and cotton, and other
wise attempt to adjust demand and
supply. The government paid out
checks totaling millions to farmers
in order to recompense them for
crops thus destroyed.
Everything went along well-un-
til the power of God appeared, in
the form of the worst drought in
generations. The wheat and cotton
crops of whole states were literally
burned to dust-cattle died of thirst
and starvation-high winds whirled
away seed and top-soil, making d
desert of what had been the finest
and richest farm land in the coun-
try.
Outside of the afflicted areas, the
American people had little idea of
what the result of this would be.
They read the headlines, felt pity
for the farmers whose years in
come had vanished, agreed that the
Government should administer re-
lief. What they did not realize was
that the drought, following upon the
man-made campaign to destroy pro-
duce, had turned the crop surplus
into a crop deficit. And that means
but one thing: Soaring food prices
to the consumer. Private crop ex-
perts say that 1t will take five or
six years to make up for the crops
we have lost. Every one of these eX-
perts is of The belief that during the
coming winter food prices will be
higher than for many years past
and that, coming at a time when the
national income is still heavily de-
pressed and millions of families are
earning just enough to get by on,
contains the fruits of potential trag-
edy.
President Roosevelt. Secretary
Wallace and others have said that
all the power of government will be
used to prevent profiteering, that
the consumer will be protected. But
no law exists which can keep far
mers from hanging onto what crops
they have left in the hope of higher
prices-no power has yet been call
ed into play that can prevent spec
ulation all along the line, from the
farm to the grocery store.
Washington is worried and uncer-
in the meantime the Gov
ernment is in the old position of
forcing crop reduction ON one hand,
while administering relief to crop
sufferers on the other!
The hand of politics. not too we'll
veiIed, is beginning to appear in
many supposedly dispassiOate sur
veys of the business situation. II Is
an ancient axiom that any smart
can produce figures that
will prove almost anything-it is
automatic that you can col
or the true facts concerning busi-
ness by either Overstatement or un-
reinstatement without actually tell
ing an untruth.
Republican sympathizers are seek
ing to make the public believe that
business is bad. is getting worse.
Democratic hackers are trying to
persuade it that business is recov-
ering, that definite improvement is
taking place all the time. The truth,
as is so often the case. lies between
these extremes of opinion. Business
Is still suffering from the summer
iecline, but in some fields prOduc- |
lion is above what the normal sea-
sOnal expectancy would have led us |
% expect. Prices for many commOd- |
ties seem fairly steady-those of |
agriculture, due to drought, well up, |
md rising. Basic heavy industries
notably steel and lumber. are at ,
Tery low ebbs, however. !
Main fly in the ointment is still
abor trouble. BY the item this is
-ead, some 100000 textile workers
nay have walked out, paralyzing
he industry. Whether they do or
lot, is not especially important so
ar as the long view is concerned
he fact to be kept in mind is that
abor has been made dissatisfied and
orces are at work to keep trouble
,rewing in a campaign to uniOnize
100 per cent. The appeal
made to labor is that II 1t loses now.
Is cause will be set back a century.
)n the other hand. conservative
eaders believe radicalism and strik-
IS will shake public confidence in