Evening star., 1935-12-10
Defense of the A. A. A.

FIeSloeHL 1OOSeVelL, speaking 10 Cne
American Farm Bureau Federation in
Chicago yesterday, painted a glowing
picture of the benefits that have come
to agriculture under his administration
The farm income of the United States,
he said, has increased approximately
$4,000 100000 in the last two and a
half years. This has enabled the farm
ers to buy more farm machinery and to
purchase automobiles, and the effect
of the increased farm purchasing power
on these industries has been marked,
resulting in great employment of labor
and production. The effect of the in
creased buying power of the farmers
has been felt in many other lines as
well.
1t happened that the Presidents ad-
dress to the farmers was timed almost
to the minute with the opening of the
argument before the Supreme Court of
the United States in the Hoosac Mills
case, challenging the constitutionality
of the A. A. A. and its processing taxes.
The President made no mention of the
case before the court. In one part of
his address, however, the President said
that the organized power of the Nation"
should never permit return to the days
when the rule of tooth and claw" threw
farmers into bankruptcy and turned
them virtually into serfs.
"I say the organized power OF the
Nation advisedly," the President said,
because you and I, as Americans who
still believe in our republican form OF
constitutional government, know as
simple fact that forty EIGHT separate SOW
ereign States, acting each one as
separate unit, never were able and never
will be able to legislate or to administer
individual laws adequately to balance
the agricultural life of Nation so greatly
dependent on nationally grown crops OF
so many kinds"
What the President said sounds like
a reiteration of his earlier position with
regard to need of Federal action where
problems of Nationwide scope are in
volved. He took such a position imme-
diately after the Supreme Court handed
down its decision holding the N. r. A.
unconstitutional. If the Supreme Court
should hold now that the A. A. A. is
unconstitutional, would it be surprising
if the President in forceful terms again
laid down his theory of Federal control?
And if the Presidents theory is adopted
by the country, can there be any doubt
that the original idea of sovereign
States" as the basis Of the governmental
structure in the United States will fall
more and more into ''innocuous desue-
tude"?
Every one will agree with President
Roosevelt that justice is the need today,
as it has been in every other day-jus-
tice to the farmer, to the industrial
worker and to the consumer. The aims
of the President and his administration
are admirable. The question of method
is another matter. The wisdom of great
crop curtailment and the payment of
benefit checks to farmers for not pro-
ducing crops out of money taken from
the professors and the consumers in So
called processing taxes has been chal-
lenged and will be challenged again.
There is reason to believe that the
farmers themselves are reStive under
such a plan, although until they have a
substitute they are likely to stick to their
benefit checks.
The appeal in the Presidents Chicago
address was not alone to the farmers.
He was in effect asking the industrial
workers and the consumers to bear with
the A. A. A., on the theory that through
benefiting the farmers they will benefit
themselves. And just as the President
appealed to the industrial workers and
the consumers not to be disgusted with
the A. A. A., so he urged the farmers
not to be discouraged over the new
Canadian reciprocal trade agreement.
That agreement has been interpreted in
the agricultural areas of the Northwest
as detrimental to American agriculture
and to the advantage of certain
industries.
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