The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-12-23

be until you, who do me the honor
to read my reports, will find your
selves without any honest express
sions in anything you read? 1t is
not black lacking the press yet, but
If it goes further, that will be the
proper term to apply.
Returning, now, to the original
premise, namely, that good law
may be destroyed or the effects of a
bad law may be made worse by bad
administration, it appears to me the
conditions related demonstrate the
theory as a fact. I have noted
some comment on the floors of con-
gress that the board was not aware
of what was happening in these two
cases; that it had issued no such
orders, etc. Such observations re-
quire no answer. Anything that is
done by any employee of govern
ment agency is done by that agency
because it is to that agency, not to
any particular person who may be
on its payroll, that congress gave
authority to act.
I am beginning to doubt that the
American farmer is going to
have his problem
rdrm solved, or even
Problem partially bettered,
by the present tao
tics. The word tactics" is used
advisedly. Congress has not acted
with the full freedom that ought to
obtain insofar as the current crop
control legislation is concerned. 1t
is suffering from an overdose of
some strange medicine, currently
called "Wallace's formula" There
is real doubt whether the ailment
from which agriculture suffers is
as bad as the Wallace prescription
of medicine for its cure.
Use of the word "tactics" can be
further justified if the legislation is
considered from the angle at which
the problem is approached. re-
fer in this to the projected limita-
ton on production. That is to say,
I believe in processes that will al
low all of the production that is
possible and that there are ways for
handling the surplus without turn
ing over a great industry, like agri-
culture, to have its fate decided by
one man or group of men. The fact
is that while Secretary Wallace and
his advisers are learned men, they
are still human beings. I hold to
the old-fashioned belief that even
those learned men are not equipped
to tell farmers how much they ought
to plant and what they ought to
plant. 1t stretches my credulity too
far for someone to ask me to be-
lieve any government official or
anybody else can forecast next
month what the demand is going to
be next year. And that is almost an
accurate statement of what is pro-
posed by the current model of farm
relief.
The reason / called the influence
"Wallace's formula" goes back sew
eral months. 1t is my recollection
without checking up the dates that
I reported some goings-on by Mr..
Wallace last summer. At that time,
/ said the agriculture secretary and
numerous of his subordinates were
traipsing about the country, telling
the farmers what was good for
them. It was quite evident then, as
facts have since proved, the Depart
ment of Agriculture was staging a
gigantic propaganda for Mr.. Wal
lace's type of farm legislation. He
persuaded a couple of senators to
go into the interior and hold hear
ings and it was from these hear
ings that Senators McGill of Kan
sas, and Pope of Idaho, both Demo-
Gratis, obtained their ideas for the
bill that the senate considered. Of
course, everyone knows that two
thirds of the witnesses appearing
in those hearings were sought out
by Department of Agriculture
agents and they told their story.
Which was all hunky dory from the
Wallace angle, but Senators Pope
and McGill have been left holding
bag and they did not know it's con-
tents until too late. The amazing
thing about it is that neither sena-
tor can now get back off of the
limb. Politically, they have some
thing to remember Mr.. Wallace by.
Each of them is up for reelection
next fall.
Unless the usual signs at the cap
itol fail me, the vast majority of
the farmers of this country do not
want to have their production linn
tied. Probably, the best general
statement that can be made on
that phase of the legislation was
made by Senator Borah of Idaho, who
attacked the theory of compulsion
vehemently in speech. Aroused to
use of his full oratorical powers,
Senator Borah declared to the SEN
ate:
''This bill, if enacted, will &C
complish two things. First, it will
place the farmer under complete
bureaucratic control. Second, it will
bring about reduction of crops
when millions are hungry and in
need"
That thought will be echoed more
after the country has tasted of the
fruits of the bill than now according
to my way of thinking. Therefore,
it seems to me that rather than
face economic suicide as Senator
Borah predicted, congress could
very well lay plans to permit I'M
restricted growth of crops and cou-
pie with that the means of taking
the surplus off the hands of the
farmer. The government is spend
ing billions for relief. Why not use
part of those funds to buy the ex-
cess of crop production? It looks to
me like wheat and corn and cotton