Evening star., 1936-08-09
By MARK SULLIVAN.
THE relation between election
campaigns and prices Of farm
crops Is an old story. Every

ME IelhtlOn DeLWeen election
campaigns and prices Of farm
crops is an old story. Every
experienced politician and OBJ
server believes the relation exists-and
for that judgment there is sound
basis.
The relation Is not always simple or
direct: sometimes 1t works with what
billiard players call reverse English E"
The present campaign would seem to
be one in which the relation works
the reverse way. Prices of farm crops
are high, but 1t is difficult, under the
particular conditions, to imagine the
electorate voting for Mr.. Roosevelt for
that reason. 1t is difficult to imagine
farmers voting that way; and it is
even more difficult to imagine others
than farmers voting that way.
To farmers. phenomenon is called
'high prices for crops" To others, the
same phenomenon goes by a diff
ferent name, high cost Of food" To
both farms and consumers, the causes
Of the present high prices are such
as to make both dissatisfied.
Let us look at the facts: About a
week ago, only July 81, 1 saw in the
market pages Of metropolitan news
papers an Associated Press dispatch in
which the opening sentence said:
Major farm commodities at a six
year peak"
A. A. A. Confirms Shortage.
Interested by that dispatch, reflect
ing upon high prices of crops caused
by scarcity. called up Triple A. 1
asked them: rs 1t a fact that at this
moment A. A. A. is paying out money
TO farmers for not planting wheat and
other crops, which crops, if they had
been planted, would just now Cor dur
ing July and June) be in process of
harvesting?" The answer was yes. A.
A. A. Is paying out some S226 900 900
for not planting crops which Just now
are deplorably scarce Up to June 80
last Triple A had paid out S45 ,424, 900
for not planting wheat which, had it
been planted, would Just now have
been harvested; wheat which is much
needed. wheat which is scarce in
America and throughout the world.
The complete story is that the
original A. A. A. statute was in effect
until January 6 last In other words,
1t was in effect during the planting
season Of last September, October and
November. While it was in effect, A.
A. A. made contracts with farmers not
to plant. Each farmer promised to
leave q specified acreage idle. For do
ing this. A. A. A. promised to pay a
specified amount per acre.
Pledge to Farmers Met.
Then, January last, the Supreme
Court held the original A. A. A. stat
ute unconstitutional. But A. A. A. had
made contracts and farmers had COM
piled with the contracts by not plant
ing. That A. A. A. should pay what
1t had promised to pay is fair Con-
gress knew this to be just and Con-
gress appropriated the money. Triple
A. Is now paying the money out.
Checks are going out every day.
Here Is an extraordinary spectacle +:
The Nations wheat and other crops
are made short by drought-and at
the very same moment A. A. A is
paying out money from the Treasury
for making the crops still shorter.
That the Nation as a whole should
be rather shocked by this goes with
out saying. 1t must shock the citizen
as citizen and it must shock most Of
the special classes affected All con-
sumers must be aggrieved. Most farm
ers must be. Many a farmer, seeing
the present high prices of crops. must
realize that he would have done bet
ter had he declined to make contracts
with A. A. A. and planted his normal
acreage. LAS respects cotton and to-
bacoo, the farmer had no choice-the
reduction in acreage was forced upon
him.
Many Feel Injustice Done.
True, fsome farmers, those directly
within the drought belt. may reflect
that even had they planted their nor
NAL acreage the drought would have
| destroyed or reduced the crop any,
how. To such farmers, not great ir
numbers in proportion to the whole
the A. A. A. payments now being re-
ceived may seem a kind of salvage
But the great mass of farmers, al
through the East and most of the
Midwest and South, must feel strong
" that it was a mistake for the
Government to pay and for the farmer
to take money for not planting crops
which as 1t turns out are abnormallI
i scarce and rising in price.
That something needs to be don't
about agriculture seems generally &C
cepted. But it seems we'll demon
strated that artificial creation o
| sns rnity srnrcitv arhievad nv navinJ