The Washington times., 1935-07-11


Lewis Haney one futile ex.
pertinent after another?
1t seems to me that the first
duty of the economist and the
newspapers today, is to fight each
unsound project as it comes up
to expose their fallacies and
dangers.
The first great need is to give
the country a rest from this tur-
moil of wild experimentation We
need chance to get our bearings,
and to test the numerous changes
that have already been made. We
| need to find out what laws are
constitutional.
We need to find basis for con.
fidence, so that we can make plans
and go about our business with
some degree of certainty.
But in order to get even this
start toward recovery. we must
first GG5pOSe Of these must"
bills now pending-or "highly
desirable" bills, as Mr.. Roosevelt
is now reported to call them. In
other words, we need to MAKE
them the must not" bills, among
which would list the Guffey
bill, the Roosevelt taxes, the
AAA amendment bill, the IVA
bill and the EccleS banking bill.
Of these, one of the most I'm.
desirable and dangerous is the So
called AAA amendment bill.
say "so-called" because the
name is entirely misleading. The
New Dealers have tried to put the
thing across by representing it to
be mere clarifying amend
ment." 1t is much more than that,
and the attempt to conceal pur-
poses shows trickery.
One amendment" for example,
changes the proposed power of
the Secretary of Agriculture to
license" all distributors and
handlers of agricultural products.
to a power to issue "orders." It
comes to the same thing. But the
New Dealers hope by changing
words to get around the Supreme
Court.
The bill still seeks to give
dangerous powers to the Govern
ment-poWer to fix prices, and to
regulate all sorts of dealers, local,
State, and interstate.
Another very dangerous feature
is the proposal to bar any action
by individuals in the courts to
recover illegal processing taxes,
or damages caused by the illegal
enforcement of the act. It is pro.
vided that after the amendment"
no refund or credit of any taxes
paid shall be allowed.
This proposal is based on the
notion that "the King can do no
wrong" 1t is another New Deal
attempt to hide behind the doc
trine of sovereignty. 1t is repudia-
ton.
Senator Borah is right on this.
He says that the people of the
United States wrote a Constitution
to limit the power of sovereigns.
They set limits on government.
IF the Government should over
step, the people should have the
right to question the act If the
courts are closed to such suits,
such thing does not fit in with
Constitutional government"
The whole scheme rests upon a
vicious set of exorbitant taxes
which are burdening consumers
and Strangling the markets for
agricultural products. Gook at the
declining exports of cotton and to.
baccoD
These processing taxes" are
not for government revenue.
They are levied indirectly on con-
Sumers of bread, tobacco, meat,
and cotton cloth. Then the hun
dreds of millions of dollars Wrung
from consumers, are used by the
New Dealers to bride farmers to
sign up for wild schemes of re-
strictlng crops and killing pigs.
For examle, the processing
tax is now 30 cents on every
bushel of wheat ground into
flour. The proceeds arc to be
used to pay farmers a 80 cent
benefit" per bushel if they cut
acreage 10 per cent, which is
three times any loss to be ex-
pected from such an acreage
cut. No wonder a majority of
those farmers who voted at all,
yielded to such a bride.
But is all this right? Does it