Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-02-06
THE SUPREME COURT

Editor Askov American:
Dear Mr.. Sorensen:
Thanks for your comments on my
opinion in regard to 1.-The Supreme
Court has Spoken" You seem to be
sure l have turned my back to Democ-
racy and parliamentary procedure
and submit meekly to the dictator
ship of half dozen reactiOnary old
men, entirely out of touch and SYM
pathy with present day realities and
problems of agricultural America.
You are on the wrong track how
ever. | try to be fair and acknowl-
edge common sense and fair play
where | see it, even if it happens to
coincide with our Constitution and
six old men. 1t so happened in this
case that the decision protested our
constitutional rights against mob rule.
| contend that you and l individually
and in cooperation with others have
right to act foolish and unwise and
suffer the consequences of our folly,
as long as such acts don't transgress
on other individuals or groups who
That is what the six judges did
without sentiment or sympathy and
protected us from mob rule. What |
challenge is the philosophy of pater-
nalism and bureaucratic control
which underlies the whole program
of crop regulation with its destruc-
tive theory of scarcity This phase
of the AAA with it's system of pro-
cessing taxes, allotments and cash
benefits is unconstitutional.
When our government institutes
controls of that kind with the prin-
ciple of paying a man for not doing
something with money from taxes paid
by another man, there are set in mo-
ton vicious forces which are oppo-
site to the initiative and enterprise
which are the bed rock of Democracy.
1t is bad enough to rob a man of his
natural and constitutional right to
work, but, when in addition you make
him the beneficiary of what amounts
to nothing less than a political sub
sidy you make him part of wrecked
system in which he becomes a serv-
ant to the politician, or party who is
dispensing this bounty.
This type of control suspends nor
NAL economic forces and places the
whole of agriculture on an artificial
basis with Farm Bureaucracy. A
vast pyramid is erected with the con-
sumner at the bottom. the farmer at
the top and the bureaucracy in be-
tween. All are caught between the
pressure of one group for higher
prices and that of the other for lower
prices. Thus the paternalistic sys-
tenn sets up an ever widening circle
which ultimately involves everything
and everybody in varying degrees of
dependency. 3at
The AAA program has the merit of
inconsistency in its policy. In 1886
Secretary Wallace said the farmer
was to be paid for raising hogs, that
he was paid for not raising in 1895.
Subsidy for refraining from produc-
tion one year and bounty for increased
production the next How can stabil-
ity of prices be attained under any
such vacillating policy? How is the
farmer to plan his operations unless
he takes a course in mind reading so
that he can penetrate the mental pro-
cess of some bureaucracy in far off
Washington? -4tr
There is but one chance for such
program to be successful. Put
every farmer and all farm products
under complete control as in Russia.
In the future, if it ever arises, all
alike will be members of non-think-
ing, non-creative group, going through
the motions of husbandry like bound
peasants of old, and not like the
farmers of our America who settled
the land.
LUDWIG MOSBEK
AskOv, Mimi, Feb. 6. 1886.