Evening star., 1936-01-09
KEEPING PLEDGE
OF A.A.A. PROBLEM
New Assistance to Farmer
Declared Essential to
Stave Off Disaster.
BY III. ]. HASKELL.
I Dispatch to The Star.


KANSAS CITY, Mo-, January 8
(N.A.N.A.) A.).-Obviously it is impossible
to present an offhand appraisal OF the
effects of so far reaching a decision as
that of the Supreme Court on the A. A.
A. program. The immediate practical
question raised by the courts action
has to do with the handling of con-
tracts already entered into, and to
an extent, complied with by farmers.
It is unthinkable that the farmer who
has reduced his wheat acreage In good
faith on a Government contract should
find that contract repudiated.
The first problem confronting Con-
gress then, without regard to party.
Is to meet these Government obliga-
tions.
But the Supreme Court decision
forces a reconsideration of the entire
agricultural policy Of the Govern
ment. AS an emergency plan the
A. A. A. program represented a great
and necessary effort to meet not mere
ly a national but a worldwide farm
surplus problem.
Farm Plant Expanded.
In the war and the boom years i'm
mediately thereafter the United States
had expanded its farm plant, while
at the same time it was pursuing
high tariff policy that was making it
increasingly difficult for other nations
to get the necessary exchange for
the purchase of American farm prod
ucts. With the ending of the boom
and the cessation of American lend
ing abroad, the collapse OF foreign
markets helped bring an acute crisis
to the whole farm industry.
The United States normally has
about 360,0OOO00 acres of crop land
under the plow. OF this, about Co.
600, 900 acres was used. before the de-
preston, for crops sold abroad. With
the slackening of export demand,
much of this 60,00O000 acres was
condemned to lie idle.
It was apparent that, if 10000, 900
to 45,000,000 acres of this surplus
producing land was to be held out OF
cultivation. the result would be an
Immense shock to the agricultural
regions and to the country. The shock
would come not merely to the farm
industry, but to all industries depend
ent upon it-railroads, processing,
handling OF crops, and the numerous
professions and services they supported.
Crop Insurance.
To meet the situation. the A. A. A.
program was devised. How effective
it would prove, under normal condi-
tions, to reduce production has not
been determined, for the, drought
proved a far more effective destroyer
of surpluses than any Government
program. But at least it proved an
invaluable form of crop insurance to
Western farmers in the drought years.
Tens of thousands of farmers, whose
crops we're burned up and who would
have been on relief were saved by
their rental and benefit payments.
Through such payments, the West
has been receiving partial equivalent
to the tariff subsidies received by East
ern manufacturers.
But there were obvious objections to
making the A. A. A. permanent
policy.
The farmer is a natural individ-
ualist. While he is glad to accept Gov
ernment checks, he feels strongly that
he is more competent to determine his
land use than is board centering in
Washington. Under experience, it
was evident that A. A. A. policies
tended to freeze production on uneco-
nomic land. destroy individual ini-
tiative, penalize diversified farming,
encourage the speculative, commercial
farmer and distort crop production.
Tiding Over Assistance.
In the light of experience and
under the impetus of the Supreme
Court decision, it should prove pos
sible to work out some legal plan to
tide over the farm industry while the
drive for foreign markets is pushed
1t may be feasible to devise some
plan for crop insurance, or for sup
plementing farm incomes, that would
avoid the undesirable as well as the
illegal features of the A. A. A.
Unless such tiding-over assistance
Is given, the whole country will suffer
from the effects of the sudden re-
moval OF the props that have been set
under agriculture.
(Copyrisht. 1895 BY the North American