Milford chronicle., 1935-09-20
DOUBT or LEGALITY OF THREE
A CONTROL LEAVES FARM
PLANNING UP In THE AIR
(1rhe Pathanderl

: The Supreme Court, when declar
!. ing the NRA to be an unconstitu
tiOnal delegation of power, was yer.
: careful not 10 intimate whether /
r held the came view with respect Il
c the AAA. The principles involves
are much the same-but the cour
: very considerably postponed an.
, decision on the AAA until its fal
session. This allows q breathing
: spell, during which the farmers ar'
going ahead cautiously, with one eys
on the idea Of producing more anC
the other eye on the idea Of prOduc-
ing less-so they can in a measure
be prepared no matter which way
the cat jumps. Nature has been
placing an unusually heavy hand on
the situation. June was the coldest
and wettest June for many years, in
large part Of the country. AS ev-
erybOdy knows, a cold summer can
upset the best laid plans Of mice and
men, for what helps one crop hurts
another one. II every farmer raised
all the hundI eds Of products which
are listed, the farming business
would not be the gamble It now is.
But no farmer does that. The indiV-
idual farmer has 10 choose what
particular crops or cash products he
will produce, or try to produce, this
year. One farmer may just hit 1t on
everything, while his neighbOr may
guess wrong on everything. In the
long run the farmer who has the
I Ennnn Of sunanuuarar tafnahN NhA rrnngf
times will be found in the prosper
Gus class, while there viii always
be unfOFtunates whose luck will new
er be with them. When potatoes are
drug on the market, such a far
mer will have a big crop of potatoes.
When pork is high he will have no
hogs to sell. When wheat is BOOM
ing you will find that he is raising
oats-and there is no demand for
oats Seeing that his rich neighbOr
has made money raising tobacco
IL It is tobacco region-this far
lneF puts lot of his land into that
weed-and then there's an extra big
crop and the price goes down below
the cost of production.
Without becoming tiresOme along
this line. we wish to make It clear
that the farmers are not all alike
and that what may be one farmers
meat may be another farmers pOis-
on. Many farmers have a way of
stalking everything on a single crop.
We have known farmers who would
SOW a crop of wheat-and nothing
else-and then go galivanting
around the country for several
months and come back just in time
to harvest the wheat, and then go
galivanting around the country for
the winter, and still expect that !
their farming" would be so profit I
able that they could live idle a large |
Part Of the year. This sort of farm |
ing" makes a very pleasant hobby
but If too many embrace it, as they !
have in the case of wheat, it ruins |
the business for everybody, for the
reason that surpluses pile up year
after year which cannot be disposed
of. We do not mean to say that all
wheat farmers are that way. Far
from it. But there are enough of the
"one-crOp," absentee" or "tin-can
tourist" type Of farmers to make the
farming game hOpelessly unprofit-
able for the great bulk Of the farm
ers.
We have stretched the situation a
little so as TO illustrate how the way
has been paved for the AAA plan,
or something like it. In the indus
trial field, the factories do not go on
goods which they cannot
sell. They shut their factories down
and wait for conditions to improve.
When the wage-earners feel that
hey are not getting enough wages
hey strike for more. The farmers,
being un0rganized, are not in a stTa-
.egic position to enforce any such
program. In former years the farm
srs were encouraged to Join tOgeth-
.r in cooperative associations, etc,
Ind protect their interests. But this
jroVed to be a deIusiOn and a snare.
n most cases the cooperative efforts
we're swallowed up by the big COM
liners, while the farmers were left
o hold the familiar bag. President
as part of his great New
)eal plan, got the Agricultural Ad-
act passed by Congress.
his act, as we know, allowed the
armers to join together in a single
ation-wide combine, under the
and with the powerful as
istance of the government, and with
II the backing of law. Benefits of
ariOus sorts were provided for the
urpOse of bringing the farmers as
lass up to the level of the indus
'ial workers and others, so that
ley could buy the products of in
ustry. There is no question that
lis policy has been of great help to
great many farmers--but It has
lsO left a great many farmers out
the picture and unable to share in
lose benefits. The benefit payments
ave been applied only to certain
rOducts and not to the farming in
istry IN general.
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace
rs often stated that some such
an as the AAA control will have to
, kept up, else the farmers will go
ght back TO their natural way of
Using all they possibly can, of ev-
ything they possibly can. The very
ct that the AAA plan has raised
e prices Of farm products so much
exactly the thing which induces
e farmers TO increase their pro-
Ietion, instead Of curtailing it. In
Is way the AAA has really worked
ainst itself Secretary Wallace
lnts the AAA not only continued
I also given sharp teeth" so that
Z only the farmers who are too
! 49,. - ..ll..a -. nl..As..al