Evening star., 1934-09-09

which depends for its prosperity on
cheap and abundant raw materials,
especially food, that enable it to COM
pete successfully in world markets.
But it is not only in the industrial
world that the Elliott policy is viewed
with growing diStrust and suspicion.
Even the agricultural world is Seeth-
ing with diScontentS and grievances.
The ingenious plans which are de-
signed to stimulate one phase of agri-
culture are found in practice to
penalize other branches of agriculture.
To take an instance. In yielding to
the clamors of the arabic farmer for
duties on imported grain, Mr.. Elliott
Is penalizing the live stock farmer,
who is the backbone of the British
farming industry and who is now
finding that his feeding stuffs are
beginning to cost him more. The
duty on oats is a peculiarly fragrant
example of this folly. 1t is pointed
out that British farming derives less
than 2 per cent of its money income
from oat sales and nearly rs per cent
of its money income from animals
that eat oats Thus three quarters
of the farming industry is jeopardized
In the interests of ne-fiftieth of that
industry
This matter, as the president of the
London Corn Trade Association points
out in weighty letter to the London
Times, assumes graver aspect in
view of the alarming shortage in the
world cereal harvests. 1t is estimated.
he says, that the total shortage of all
cereal crops in the North American
Continent in the years 1884 is ap-
proximately 9O,0O0,000 tons. In Eu-
rope wheat crops are far below those
of last year, while barley and rye crops
are very poor and potatoes only
moderate. Add to all this the failure
of the hay harvest in the United
States and Canada and its practical
failure, owing to the drought, in this
country, and it is apparent that dur
ing the coming II months large quanti-
ties of wheat will be used as feeding
stuffs for animals, particularly as the
old surplus of wheat in the United
States is of poor quality and much of
the crop just harvested is thin and
shrivelled.
Should the Argentine and Australian
harvestS, due four months hence, be
Only moderate-still worse if they be
poor-the world shortage will be alarm
ing and prices dangerously high. AL
ready the prices of barley and maize
have been doubled and that of wheat
increased by 40 per cent, and, as this
country is by far the largest importer
Of wheat and feeding stuffs, the pres
ident of the Corn Trade Association
appeals to the government to enter
into no international wheat agreement
which in face of the imminent scarcity
would spell disaster for a country so
dependent as Britain on overseas sup
plies of food.
1t is pointed out that the Interna-
tional Wheat Advisory Committee did
nothing during the first II months of
its existence to raise the price of
grain, and that now that the power
that controls the weather has changed
abundance to scarcity, the operations
of the Advisory Committee can do
nothing but miSchief-certainly so far
as this country is concerned.
All this threatens foul weather for
Mr. Elliott and his policy. He has
swept the country into the tide of
planning and economic nationalism,
but with the drought and its con-
sequences the pendulum is now swing
ing violently back in the direction Of
fraa and fIr1irnnadoI froda
(Copyright, 1e340 -