Evening star., 1935-09-15
EXPORT BOUNTY FAVORED
BY KNOX AGAINST A. A. A.
Chicagoan Wants to Help Agriculture,
but Also Aid Consumer by
Ending "Food Tax

4ACtC WILL bdkc CucCb OcCculUEt
next law under which the following
conditions will exist:
No farmer can raise and sell more
than five bushels Of potatoes without
getting a permit from the Federal
Government.
The Federal Government, through
A. A. A, will dictate, for each farm.
how many potatoes may be raised.
Any farmer raising and selling more
than the quota A. A. A. has imposed
on hins and any farmer who has hot
received Government permit, will be
penalized by a prohibitive tax Of As
cents a bushel on any potatoes he sells.
All potatoes sold by any farmer must
be in closed containers prescribed by
A. A. A. Each container must contain
q Government stamp.
II any farmer sells potatoes not
packaged as the Government requires,
or not bearing a Government stamp.
he is subject to $1,000 fine for the
first offense and a years imprison-
ment for the second offense.
Any buyer Of potatoes not packaged
as the Government requires. and not
bearing a Government stamp. is SUBJ
ject to the same penalties as the seller.
Every farmer raising more than
five bushels of potatoes must keep
such records as the Government re-
quires. And every person having any
information about the production and
sale Of potatoes must give such In.
formation to the Government on de-
mand. The penalty for failure Is
a fine up to 81 900 and imprisonment
up to one year, or both.
Geared Into Entire New Deal.
Now let no one suppose that potato
control" is merely one law standing
by itself. Let no one suppose that
law can be repealed and that there
after everything will be as before. Po-
tato control is inseparably geared into
the whole New Deal theory Of gov
ernment. Potato control Is one step
in a series. Potato control was made
necessary by the preceding steps. In
turn. potato control, in connection
with the preceding steps, will make
further steps inevitable. No one
dreamed two years ago. when cotton
control was adopted. that cotton con-
troll would necessarily lead to potato
control-at least no one dreamed it
except the inner circle Of the New
Dealers, who knew that once they got
the first step the succeeding steps
must follow.
How potato control came about.
how 1t was forced by the preceding
steps, is explained by Senator Josiah
w. Bailey Of North Carolina, who in
trodueed the bill:
Under the operation OF the crop
control act, farmers have been driven
from cotton. tobacco and peanuts as
well as other crops, and have gene
into the production Of potatoes"
Hence glut Of potatoes. hence low
prices for potatoes, hence another
step in the series. potato control, fol-
lowing upon, and forced by, cotton,
tobacco and peanut control.
AS to what will follow potato con-
troll (unless the whole process is ar
rested and the preceding steps re-
tracedD read Senator King Of Utah:
I'VE may expect at the next session
to find measures bringing other COM
modities under control, perhaps car
rots and cabbages and lettuce and
tomatoes, and all kinds of fruits and
vegetables" If the reader thinks that
fantastic, so would he have thought
two years ago that the idea Of potato
control was fantastic.
Other Products Due for Control.
The process does not stop with farm
crops. Not by any means. Once
farm crop is restricted, commodities
competing with 1t must be restricted.
Already, to make cotton control
stick" certain products made of pa
per and jute are under control and
effort is under way to put silk and
rayon under control.
And that Is not the full length the
process will go, unless it is arrested. In
the final phase 1t will be necessary to
fix prices for every commodity at every
stage, and to fix wages in every in
dustry.
To make clear this essential quality
OF the New Deal Is difficult. Faced by
that difficulty have occasionally had
recourse to quoting the especially well
phrased explanations of an economist,
Dr.. Virgil Jordan, head Of the Nation
al Industrial Conference Board:
1t Is an unconscious, automatic,
1rreversible process that has been set
In motion and Is moving forward
steadily. What is happening Is not a
question Of any particular individual
intention, but the logical consequence,
or inevitable effect, of a series Of meas
ures or steps that may or may not be
part Of conscious or consistent pro-
gram somewhere in the administra-
ton. The important thing is that
these measures have an inevitable Sc.
quence one to another. The underly.
ing ideas that are involved in them
grow one out of the other, and in such
process, once set In motion, one
thing leads inevitably to aonther and
each step compels a successive step
which carries us farther, unconsciously
and perhaps unwillingly, toward the
end"
The issue in the election next year
is whether We shall go on with this
process to the end, which as Prof.
Lionel Robbins says, is complete So.
cialism." Or whether we shall turn
back.
(Copyright. 1e35)