Evening star., 1935-08-04
Supreme Court to
Review A.A.A. Act
By Owen l.. Scott.

Henry wallace ana CAeSCcr LAWS
will offer the New Deals prize exhibit
to the Supreme Court this Fall when
they present the A. A. A. to the nine
justices for a first legal examination.
The court then will have the unusual
experience of examining an experiment
in planning that seems to work.
For the fact is that q miniature boom
Is getting under way in farming regions.
Its proportions are becoming large
enough to point business condition
charts upward at time when many
forecasters thought they would turn
down.
But this time the justices are get
ting a plan that is in full fiower-except
for 900 court attacks-with millions Of
farmers deeply interested in It's future.
y =.
The team Of Mr.. Wallace. as Secre-
tary Of Agriculture, doing the heavy
thinking, and Mr.. Davis, as admins
traitor OF the A. A. A., doing the New
Deais best Job OF executing, get much
OF the credit for the N. r. A.-A, A. A.
contrast.
Right from the start they cut awav
from Gen. Hugh johnson and the code
ballyhoo. Their idea was to build from
SAsS SAONA0 up, 4CttAliB LDeH-
selves carry much OF the load and do
much Of the work
The result Is that the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration is stronger
now than ever-except for possible legal
inf1rmities that may spell its end
That strength is coupled with the rise
In farm income. In 1892. before the
A. A. A. came on the scene, farmers
received about four and one-half billion
dollars for their products This year
they expect to receive about seven
billions. The increase in the three crop
years during which the New Deal farm
experiment has functioned amounts TO
about so per cent.
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Much of the persistent demand for
automobiles is coming from the farming
regions. Farm machinery companies are
having difilculty meeting demands for
their products. Mail order houses re-
port sales running about 40 per cent
above year ago Rural districts that
almost disappeared as markets for city
goods. at the depth of the depression,
now are absorbing goods in huge guam
titles
What has happened to bring this
changer
For one thing, the A. A. A. has
syphoned about a billion dollars from
the pockets of city people to the pockets
OF farmers. 1t did this through the
medium of processing taxes. These are
the taxes now under court fire De-
stroy them and the present farm pro-
gram would collapse
The billion in processing taxes went
to farmers who agreed not to grow q
certain amount of wheat, corn, cotton,
hogs, tobacco, sugar and peanuts. 1t
received an ally in the 1884 drought,
so that burdensome supplies of farm
products were cut to the point of scarcity
4 *%+
Farmers got benefit payments for
holding down production and they got
higher prices for what they had to sell
because production was held down. The
city man, on the other hand. saw his
living costs increased. Whether that
shift OF income from the city worker to
the farmer, through taxes on food and
higher prices, caused any net increase
in the country's purchasing power is a
matter of debate
Some Government economists say
there simply has been a transfer of
money from city pockets to farm pock-
cts. They point to the fact that busi-
ness in the East has not revived in a
measure comparable to that in the
farming regions of the West and South.
Others, however. argue that the in
crease OF farm income has produced
benefits to the whole country far in
excess Of its burden on the city con-
sumer. They point out that the farmer
is good buyer.
there remains little doubt about the
popularity of the control plan among
farmers. They have induced Congress
to expand the whole scheme, taking in
more products than at first intended
and adding schemes to compel all farm
ers to join in with the programs.
X %x
Are there signs then that the country
can recover by restricting farm pro-
duction? Is prosperity tied up in a
policy of scarcity?
Both Mr.. Wallace and Mr.. Davis
doubt that. They think the farmer has
had all the recovery he can have by
holding down production and shifting
income from the cities to the farms.
New markets abroad and prosperity In
the cities now are needed to give q
further boost to rural income.
X ~
But these New Deal officials say that
farmers, by cutting down production to
push up prices, are doing only what in
dustry always has done. The employer,
rather than cut prices in order to hold
volume, plows his workers out into the
street in order that volume can be cut
in an effort to hold up prices. Now
the farmer. with Government help, is
applying that same procedure to his
business.
In the process, officials will admit that
they have created about as many prob
lens as they have solved.
Then what is likely to happen If the
Supreme Court early next Winter should
treat A. A. A. like it treated N. r. A.
and order the plan junked?
Answers differ widely. Some think
the decision would be as popular as the
N. r. A. decision. Others think that a
rural revolt would result.
At that point Henry Wallace enters as
the New Deal philosopher. He 'opines
that the end to the A. A. A. would only
lead to demands for a more radical
form Of farm control. Some people
think the present form smacks fas-
cism or socialism or some other Euro
pean" system.
But Mr.. Wallace is not interested in
names He Is interested in worldwide