Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-12-02
THE NATIONAL
GOVERNMENT
By PAUL JOHN KVALE, M. c,

AS forecast in this place last week,
there seems little likelihood that the
Presidents special session legislative
program will be enacted. There may
be farm bill but even that is doubt
full at this writing.
The Senate Agriculture committee
yesterday called for further adjust
ment and regulation of the dollar
under a single government agency
to insure the success of crop con-
troll program. In a report on the
Farm Bill which the Senate has been
debating, the committee on Agri-
culture said that unless and until
the dollar value is regulated and
stabilized, it will be impossible to
regulate production of farm COM
modities in any kind of satisfactory
manner" 1t is significant that the
report concluded with the following
recommendations: "The price level
is too low and should be raised to
at least the 1926 level as shown by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The
power over the value of the dollar,
now divided among various agencies
and departments, public and private,
should be coordinated and concen-
trated in one federal agency with a
definite Congressional mandate to
such agency to properly adjust and
regulate the value of the dollar and
thereafter to stabilize such adjusted
value"
The comments in the Senate agri-
culture committees report relative
to monetary regulation and stabiliza-
ton were generally regarded as the
Individual views of Senator Elmer
Thomas, Democrat, of Oklahoma,
who some time ago introduced
measure providing for federal none
tary authority. The report had this
to say on the subject of monetary
regulation and control: 1.-THE bill,
in the main, proposes a plan for
raising prices through control of pro-
duction and the elimination of I'M
necessary and wasteful SURPRISES.
However, the committee is of the
opinion that, in order to make the
plan workable and practicable, the
price level must first be adjusted and
regulated, and thereafter stabilized"
Careful reading of the committee
report reveals its reference to the
fact that it was in the first general
farm bill passed during the Roose-
welt administration that provision
was made for a downward adjust
ment of the dollar at the discretion
of the President Without saying so,
the report suggested that the PreSi-
dent should further adjust" the value
of the dollar with view to increas-
ing farm prices and income. ''The
committee reports that the cOnStitu-
tional power TO coin money has been
vitalized but that the power to reg
ulate the value of the dollar has
never been given the consideration
its Importance demands. The farm
er buys with the products of his
farm everything he uses and con-
sumes. The farm dollar fluctuates
the most widely; hence it is the most
oOAioA c'iAy SAOOP AAe'o W Wi
tend with
"The committee further reports
that, unless and until the dollar value
is adjusted and regulated and such
value thereafter stabilized, it will
be impossible to adjust and regulate
taxes, rents, wages and salaries. The
testimony presented to the commit
tee was to the effect that the price
level should be raised, which means
that the dollar value should be re-
duced. Farmers in the cotton states
testified that, in order to produce cot
ton and pay costs of production and
have some profit to spend with the
merchants, such cotton should sell
for more than Is cents per pound.
In the wheat states, farmers testi-
fed that, to make money from rails
ing wheat, they must get over ST
per bushel Farmers, North and
South, testified that they must have
over rs cents per bushel if corn is to