Evening star., 1936-04-05
BY CARLISLE BARGERON.

Nothing ever has been done about
Secretary Of Agriculture Wallace's pes
simistic warming early in the Roosevelt
regime. that America must choose, "
but 1t has developed that he, himself,
must make an important decision.
He must decide what to do about
Senator Vandenberg's determination
to bring the A. A. A. benefit payments
into the open. The Republicans be-
lieve that here is developing one of
their best campaign issues. They say
gleefully they believe Wallace is sunk
If the figures are made available or
II they are not.
In the meantime Democratic leaders
and Wallace are understood to have
agreed on procedure which will not
portray the picture Vandenberg is try
ing to develop. Chairman Smith of
the Senate Agriculture Committee an
nounced yesterday his committee had
authorized him to report the Vanden-
berg resolution calling upon Wallace
to make public the benefit payments
but in amended form. Vandenberg
only sought payments Of $4,000 and
over. The amended resolution calls
for all payments of $1,000 and over
together with a lot of additional in
formation. The fear on the part of
Republicans Is that Wallace will con-
tend the furnishing OF this information
Is so exhaustive that the report will
not be forthcoming for months, not
at this session Of Congress anyway.
Card Files Garry Amounts.
Vandenberg quotes Controller Cen
eral McCarl as saying that all the
benefit payments could be compiled
in three weeks from the card files
which the A. A. A. keeps. Whether
the additional information called for
In the amended resolution is avail
able on these files is another matter.
At the A. A. A. there is little effort
to deny they are trying to evade CIV
ing Vandenberg the information he
wants. The big payments they had
to make in their crop-curtailment
program have been known to them as
an embarrassing phase for a long
time. Vandenberg's efforts they con-
slider purely political, but there is
the private admission that he has the
better of the argument.
In fact, Vandenberg has dug I'd the
constitutional provision in article /,
section 9. reading And a regular
statement Of all of the receipts and
expenditures Of all public money shall
be published from time to time
Of course, it is pointed out. Wal
lace can contend the benefit pay
ments have all been ruled to have
been unconstitutional.
Was Wallace Misquoted:
Publicly. Wallace has resorted TO
one explanation after another as to
why he didn't want to make the pay
ments public. First, it was stated
their preparation was impracticable.
Then the secretary sought to laugh
the matter of by telling newspaper
men publication of the payments
might cause the farmers daughter"
to be kidnapped He was mimicking
the contentious of those who opposed
the publication of income tax re-
turns and all salaries over $4,000 a
year. For some reason he got alarmed
about this reference to the farmers
daughter and contended later that he
had said farmers dollar" The
transcrip Of this interview reads
farmers dollar" but the reporters
insist they heard him say daughter -
Maybe it was farmers darter." But
at any rate Wallace has finally come
to take the attitude that he doesn't
care what he said.
Vandenberg already has made pub
Lie several big payments by asking
the secretary if his information on
them was correct. In one of these
purported instances a hog raiser re-