Evening star., 1935-03-29
When the Shoe Pinches.

Democratic denunciation OF the A.
A. A., and planned economy based on
scarcity, has assumed the proportions
of a chorus on Capitol Hill. Yester-
day Senator George of Georgia, after
asserting that Secretary Wallace had
demonstrated his unfitness to be q
member Of the Presidents cabinet,
discussed at some length what was
happening to the cotton farmers and
the cotton mills under the pillow un-
der" and processing tax scheme. Said
Senator George Of Secretary wallace:
He is paying US to plow up our
cotton and kill off our hogs and to
reduce our acreage and to reduce our
production. But how is he doing it?
He Is doing it by asking the American
farmer to sell out his business. to sell
out his capital investment. We have
sold out our farm business for a mess
Of pottage or one or two or three
years of benefit favors.
The Georgia Senator added that if
Secretary Wallace or Undersecretary
Tugwell believes the American farmer
is q fool. and that he wanted to
submit to all .hese restrictive meas
ures which have been imposed upon
him, they will have a sad awakening
in the immediate future" Such was
the general tenor of one Of the sharp
est denunciations yet made by q
Democratic Senator of the planned
economy policy of the men in charge
of the Department Of Agriculture.
Senator George told the Senate that
the processing tax on cotton amounted
to a forty per cent tax on the raw
material. that 1t was playing havoc
with the cotton mills. He said that
the assertion by Secretary wsllace
that, instead of eliminating the
processing tax on cotton, it would
probably 60 higher, was having a dis
astrous effect on the cotton industry.
The fact of the matter, which is
becoming palmer every day, is that the
reduction of American crops as prac-
ticed by the A. A. A., in conjunction
with the processing taxes, is increasing
prices of food stuffs and of cotton
goods. things that the working people
of the country, including the farmers,
must have. 1t is clear that this pro-
gram Of cutting down American
production Of cotton and other crops
is building up production in foreign
countries. The foreign markets of the
American farmers, such as they have
been, are being still further reduced.
And the American markets are re-
ceiving more and more imports of
agricultural products. As long as the
farmers were receiving their benefit
checks and prices of farm products
were going up the scarcity system
seemed to be working we'll. But with a
check in the cotton price, which has
taken slump in recent days, the
farmers and their representatives in
Congress are not so sure that this way
Of doing business is correct.
At the other end of the cotton
business stand the mills, which both
in the East and the South have been
hard hit Many Of them have had to
close. They are pleading with the
Government to do something about
the processing tax. The mills of
America are the big market of the
American cotton farmers. In fact,
they have become the great reliance
of the farmers since their foreign
markets have been curtailed. Yet all
the comfort that the mills receive
from the autocrats of the Department
Of Agriculture is that the processing
tax may 20 higher.