Evening star., 1936-07-15
Peek and the Farmers.

George N Peek, who has been in and
out of the Roosevelt New Deal admins
tration, is at least considering whether
he will support Governor ALT M. Landon
of Kansas for President After three
hour conference with the Republican
nominee, Peek said that he would await
Landon's speech of acceptance on July
90, and then quickly make up his mind
whether to back the Kansan against
President Roosevelt.
Mr.. Peek will probably be found in
the Landon camp. In the first place,
according to his own admission, the
Republican platform conforms more
nearly to his own proposals regarding
farm and foreign trade policies than
does the Democratic In the second
place, Mr.. Peek is definitely opposed to
the present farm and foreign trade poll
cies of the Roosevelt administration. He
does not believe in curtailing the pro-
duction of food in the United States
and then importing foodstuffs from for
eign countries. That, he says, is what
the Roosevelt program is doing.
Peek has long been regarded as a
friend of the American farmer. He has
labored with congressional committees
and with Congress in the interest OF
farm legislation. He halls from the
Middle West When President Roosevelt
hn oIy ctr Ioa
pointed Peek as the first head of the
A. A. A. Peek did not agree with some
of the young brain trusters regarding
the agricultural program. In the end,
Peek was eliminated from the A A A
and given job as foreign trade adviser
to the PRESIDENT and as head Of the
Export Import Banks. But Mr.. Peek
thought no better of the trade policies
of Secretary of State Hull than he did
of the ideas of Tugwell, Wallace and
others in connection with agriculture.
So he quit.
In the opinion of Mr.. Peek the re-
ciprocal trade agreements entered into
by the administration with foreign ma
tions have proved distinct disadvan-
tage to the American farmer. Incl
dentally, good many of the farmers
have come to the same conclusion. Mr..
Peek believes in making bilateral agree
ments with foreign nations in the matter
of trade concessions. The administra-
tion has stuck to the most favored ma
ton clause in making tariff agree
ments, so that if the United States
agrees with another country to make
tariff reductions on certain articles, those
reductions are granted to every other
nation which is not discriminating un-
fairly against the United States.
The Roosevelt Democrats doubtless
will say, if and when Mr.. Peek comes
to the support of Landon, that it is a
case of sour grapes. However, Mr.. Peek
is widely and favorably known to many
farm leaders and to many farmers. If
he jumps into the campaign on the side
of the Republican ticket it will be a
matter of joy to the G. o. P. On the
other hand, it will be matter of regret
to the RooseveltianS. The Democratic
high command has been counting
strongly on the support of the farmers
of the Middle West. It's farm program,
however, will be under attack constantly
from now until election day. If the
drought and the consequent admins
tration of relief to farmers in the
Dakotas and several other States make
votes for the President out of gratitude,
the drought, on the other hand, may
cause severe criticism of the program of
crop curtailment in other sections of
the agricultural West. Already Secre-
tary Wallace is on the stump protesting
that all talk Of food scarcity in this
country is ridiculous and manufactured
by enemies of the administration. If
there is shortage; if prices of food
stuffs mount, and if the importations of
foods from other countries increase, Mr..
wallace will have good deal of pro-
testing to do before election day rolls
around.
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