Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-02-21
HOUSE AMENDS
FARM BILL FOR
CONSUMER NEEDS
Mccormack Proposal SIM
liar to That Defeated
by Senate.
MEASURE EXPECTED
TO PASS BY TONIGHT
Group Protesting Lack Of Hear
ing Given Audience by Bank
head and Smell.

BACKGROUND
As solution to problem of aiding
agriculture, issue raised by inUali-
dalton of A. A. A. BY Supreme
Court, administration leaders are
pressing legislation inUolUing pro-
gram OF Federal subsidies based
upon soil conservation.
Measure already has passed the
Senate and is noD under co1lsidera-.
ton in House. Yesterday, House
substituted its committee Uersion
for Senate bill. although no major
differences ertSt between tho.
Other congressional friends OF
farmers favor plans for tariff
equalization. export debentures and
UariouS other deuiceS.
By the Associated Press.
The House today wrote a strong
consumer protection amendment into
the new farm bill and pushed the
measure ahead toward passage tonight.
The amendment was proposed by
Representative Mccormack, Democrat,
of Massachusetts,. 1t would direct the
Secretary of Agriculture to work to-
ward pre-war parity" income for
the farmer without discouraging pro-
duction to a point below the 1920-29
average domestic consumption Ac-
copied by Chairman Jones of the
Agriculture Committee, the consumer
proviso was along the lines of the
Wagner amendment, defeated by a
wide margin in the Senate.
After Mccormack had explained
the interests of his industrial area in
protection of the consumer Jones
told the House the amendment was
acceptable since it included the 1909
1914 parity" objective for farm in
come. This would be attained by
seeking to re-establish the ratio of
that period between the net income OF
the farmer and farmer.
The amendment was adopted on a
voice vote.
Protest Is Heard. =
Before the House met, representa-
tives of several organizations headed
by the peoples lobby were given a
formal protest" audience by Major
ity Leader Bankhead of Alabama and
Minority Leader Smell of New York.
They complained that the bill. al
ready passed in the Senate, was be-
ing put through without any hearings.
Republicans on the floor have voiced
similar complaints.
II don't see how at this stage of the
game, in all candor, there is anything
I can do" Bankhead told them. ut
was an emergency situation requiring
speed The Agriculture Committee
has always been very liberal in hold
ing hearings"
Smell nodded assent.
The professors as identified by Ben
1amin C. Marsh, secretary of the
Peoples Lobby, were, in addition to
himself, the National Committee on
Rural Social Planning, Farm Research,
Inc; the Southern Tenant Farmers
Union, the Workers Alliance and the
League for Industrial Democracy.
Since House leaders plan to pass the
measure as an amendment to 9 very
similar bill recently approved by the
Senate, further action by the latter
chamber will be necessary before the
legislation goes to the White House.
The main battle is on the Boileau
Progressive OF wisconsin, amend
ment to prevent subsidized farmers
from producing dairy commodities
with the aid of land taken out of
wheat, cotton or other production.
Leaders were confident this amend
ment would be beaten. Chairman
Jones, Democrat, of Texas, of the
House Agriculture Committee said it
would make the bill unconstitutional.
BY the same token, the leaders were
confident of showing under proposal
by Representative Andersen, Repub-
lican, of Minnesota, to repeal the law
under which the administration has
been making international agreements
for mutual tariff reductions.
Some of the minority, in turn, under
Representative Taber, Republican, of
New York, stored up trouble for a
Jones amendment to authorize use of
So, 100000 of relief funds for wind
erosion work in the duststorm areas of
Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Okla
homa and Texas. This proposal was
supported, though, by Representative
Hope of Kansas. ranking Republican
on the Agriculture Committee. Yes
terday he announced he would sup
port the administration bill as step
in the right direction. He is friend
of Gov. ALI M. I.andon of Kansas.