Evening star., 1936-08-09
FARM PRICE RISE HELD
ROOSEVELT BOOMERANG
Consumers and Growers Alike Feel Mis-.
take Made in Limiting Com.
modify Production.


farmers for not planting, is not the
way.
For creating scarcity, nature can do
a better job that Secretary Wallace
any day. And when nature and Mr..
Wallace unite their efforts, the result,
as Josh Billings used to write, lis 2
mutch"
Crop control has not worked as
President Roosevelt thought it would.
About that there can be no doubt
whatever. I am tempted to say that
| literally no aspect of Mr. Roosevelt's
novel and intricate farm relief plan
has worked as he thought it would.
The possible exception is the rise in
| prices of farm crops which took place
| in the early months of the adminis-
tration, in 1888 and 1884. That rise
was wholeSome-everybodg agrees to
that. But think that early rise was
due, not to the farm relief plan but to
the monetary steps Mr.. Roosevelt took.
And I think further that prices Of
farm crops, at that time. would have
risen even had Mr.. Roosevelt done
nothing whatever neither about farm
| ing nor about money.
! One feels very sure that Mr.. Roose-
velt never fully understood, that is,
never, fully foresaw, the working out
of the forces which he so gaily set in
motion. OF this there is one proof in
something he said and did on May 81.
1885.
At that time the Supreme Court
had just declared N R. A. invalid.
Mr.. Roosevelt was much disturbed by
the Supreme Courts action. To a
| press conference he talked for nearly
an hour and a half about the de-
cision. He recited many reasons why
! he regarded the decision as deplorable.
/ Among others he said that if N. r. A.
was unconstitutional. then Triple-A
must also be unconstitutional (The
/ court had not yet passed on Triple-A.)
Wheat Collapse Forecast.
| And Mr.. Roosevelt said-I quote an
account of his remarks printed the
| following day, June !, 1885, In the
New York Times:
The simplest example of the prob
lem was that of crop adjustment he
said: asking if the Government was to
take its hands of any effort to adjust
national crops and go back to the
old policy that every farmer was q
lord on his own farm, free to raise
whatever and as much of any crop as
| he pleased. If We abandon crop con-
/ troll, wheat would Immediately drop
/ to 36 cents bushel and cotton to
cents per pound, he held"
/ Well, in due course. seven months
later. on January 6. 1886, the Supreme
Court got around to Triple-A. The
court did what Mr.. Roosevelt feared.
1t invalidated Triple-A. But did farm
crops drop in price? They did not.
neither Immediately nor since. They
have not dropped yet, and they are
not likely to drop. To put the pre-
diction that way is too weak. I think
that no competent economist or other
qualified person believes that cotton
will go to 5 cents a pound or wheat
to 36 cents a bushel within any fore
seeable time.
Opportunity for Roosevelt.
I suspect it is generally felt that
what President Roosevelt and Secre-
tary Wallace have done about farm
ing-that is. the major part of what
they have done-has been mistake
and close to tragedy. I am told
that even within the inner circle of
the administration this view exists and
grows. So far as the program is de-
Tended the defense takes the form of
saying. in effect: Yes, it worked badly
in 1885 and it's working badly again
this year-but We know another
gadget which can make it work all
right" The new gadget they now talk
about is the lever normal granary''-
that is. Subsidizing farmers to raise eX-
cessively large crops for a few years
and then storing the surplus in Gov
ernment-built granaries against
time like the present. when nature
takes hand and shows herself more
expert at creating scarcities than Sec
retary Wallace is.
If the inner-circle feeling that the
administrations farm relief technique
has worked badly-if this feeling is
!
he has a good opportunity to do a
striking thing. And since he enjoys
doing startling things. perhaps he will
take it as a favor if he is reminded Of
something he may have forgotten.
The original Triple-A statute was
sent to Congress by Mr.. Roosevelt
on March 16, 1888 With it he sent
message. In the message he said:
Il tell you frankly, it is new and
untrod path. If fair adj
ministrative trial of it is made and it
does not produce the hoped-for re-
suits, I shall be the first to acknowl-
!, edge it and advise you"
Court Aid UnacknowIedged.
Well, if Mr.. Roosevelt wishes to be
the first to acknowledge" that his
farm relief plan has not worked well,
he will need to make haste. But per-
haps he does not relish acknowledge
ing mistakes. Possibly he prefers to
leave the correction of his mistakes
to the Supreme Court. If that is the
way of it, he ought to be grateful to
the court, instead of carping at 1t
anu COIUcIlpldbuIS AcuuStAOA Va AVo
, powers. Whether Mr.. Roosevelt feels
gratitude to the court or not, the oc-
casion for gratitude exists and he Is
beneficiary of the courts actions.
If the original Triple-A still existed
. Gncluding the harsh potato con-
trol') the outcry against it today
would be enough, alone, to leave little
doubt about the defeat of Mr.. Roose-
/ welt in the election. And If the other
formidable New Deal collectivist de-
J vice, N R. A., were also still in ex-
: istence. defeat Of Mr. Roosevelt would
be fairly we'll assured.
incidentally the Republican STRAIT
egy ought to include recalling N. r. A
and the original Triple-A to public
] memory. Though it is only sever
/ months since the Supreme Court in
: validated the original A. A. A., and {
} year and three months since it exc
cuted N. r. A. and buried the Blue
Eagle public memory has largely for.