Evening star., 1937-02-28
Washington Planners
Working on Blue Prints
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

will be tried out if Mr. Roosevelt sue
ceeds in altering the attitude of the
Supreme Court.
Mystery continues to surround details
of some of the plans. particularly those
designed to revive important parts of
the old N. r. A. and to establish new
controls over business. But, in another
field, that of agriculture, Henry Wallace
is doing his bit to end all mystery by
opening to public view a panorama of
the promised land for farmers.
This view lets people in for glimpse
of the type Of job that the President
and his aides are cutting out for Gov
ernment to perform. Its performance
depends on change in the Supreme
Court or the Constitution. or both.
**
The idea, essentially, is this: To use
the powers and machinery of a modern
lied central government to set up and
operate controls over business and
finance and agriculture that formerly
operated automatically when the world
was running along more normally. The
goal is to smooth out the cycle of violent
booms and disastrous depreSsions.
In seeking that goal for farmers, Mr..
WdlldCt, dS oSCICtdIy VI
appears to have run away with the show.
The program he has devised for Con-
gress-with the help of farm organiza-
tion resentativeS-should turn old
order industrialists green with envy.
Their original use of Government powers
to protect themselves with tariffs and
other special privileges is mild by COM
parison.
But Henry Wallace has been a shrewd
pupil. In seat of power at the time
of the main chance for agriculture, he
Is determined to capitalize upon 1t. One
defeat at the hands of Supreme Court
majority served only to increase his
ingenuity. The result is that present
plans are designed to turn farming from
the most unprotected of big American
industries to the most protected: from
the least privileged to the most priv
ileged.
On paper. the idea seems to be to
make agriculture the ideal risklesS Ven-
ture. Once that idea is worked out, the
next step could be to use Government
powers to take some of the risks out OF
the lot of the worker in industry.
Just what is this latest program OF the
planners as applied to farming? The
answer can best be given by applying
what is planned to the experience In
store for an average farmer.
This farmer now receives a check from
the Government in Washington. His
check, averaging around Sl0O. is in pay
ment for following practices that help
to conserve his soil. 1t is one little
slice of s5OO.0O0 900 being taxed away
from corporation stockholders each year
to support this part of the farm plan.
But experience of the last few years
demonstrates that soil conservation is OF
little practical value if drought and in
sects prevent crops from growing. The
soil conservation check is hardly enough
to live on. So now Congress is asked to
set underway a system Of crop insurance
to protect farmers against the hazards
of nature. Premiums for that insurance
are to be paid in the commodity pro-
tected-and taxpayers will pay the cost
of storing the premiums against the time
they will be needed to pay claims, cost
that may be large.
Still. weather is not always to be bad.
More real farm trouble lies in the pros
pect of crops larger than can be sold at
profitable prices. Several sets OF govern
mental machinery are to be set up to
meet the surplus problem.
First. when the individual farmer finds
himself with big crop at time OF low
prices, he will be offered Government
loan at figure that guarantees him
satisfactory return. The commodity then
is stored to wait for price rise. If none
comes to enable profitable sale the
Government takes the commodity and
the farmer keeps the Government
money. This is a form of price-flxing.
A somewhat similar venture. undertaken
by the old Federal Farm Board, provided
taxpayers with $3.50 600, 900 worth of ex-
perience So:
Second, If surpluSes start to pile up
again, bearing down on farm prices, the
plan calls for an increase in cash sub
sides to individual farmers, with these
subsidies based on q reduction in the
amount Of land planted to crops IKE
cotton and wheat and corn. A somewhat
similar program. utilized by the old
A. A. A., was ruled out by Supreme
Court majority on the ground that 1t
represented an attempt by the Federal
Government to invade field that was
essentially local in nature. Yet. even
this type of control is not expected to be
sufficient. with the result that:
Third Congress will be asked to set up
a system of taxes designed to control
the marketing of surplus crops by assign
ing a quota to each individual farmer
and taxing him heavily for any sales
above that quota. The principle involved
is that of the potato control act and the
cotton control act, which attracted at
tention back in 1885. 1t is direct. COM
pulsory marketing control that takes
away the freedom of action on the part
of the individual farmer.
X X X
When this point is reached, the Gov
ernment has come all the way back over
ground given up at the time six Supreme
Court justices upset the A. A. A.
But that is not all. Its officials propose
a push on to other fields of control, aimed
at further help and protection to the
individual farmer.
Mr.. Wallace has decided that. with all
of these aids, there still is no assurance
that a farmer is going to be able to hold
the farm that he owns or that the rent
ing farmer is going to have chance to
become farm owner.
So the Government plans now to go
further and to attack basic problems OF
land ownership and land use, again
using its powers to effect reforms and
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