Evening star., 1937-11-01
HOUSE UNIT TAKES
VOLUNTARY PLAN
|0F CROP CONTROL
Wheat, Cotton and Rice to
Be Regulated Thus in New
Farm Measure.
TOBACCO PROGRAM
TO BE COMPULSORY
Program for Peanuts and Potatoes
Also Sought by some-Corn
Presents a Problem.
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
To White House insistence last
summer on q netD crop-controI lau
Congress paid no attention. But
House and Senate leaders did agree
TO make crop control the first
order OF business OF the merit ses-
sion If the administration ,oould
make q cotton loan to bolster the
price of the king crop. The loan
uas made, and not long afterpard
President Roosevelt called special
session for November IS. Crop
control is one of the first items
on its agenda.
b the Associated Press.
The House Agriculture Committee
agreed today on the principle of VOL
untary control Of wheat, cotton and
rice crops in the new farm bill.
Chairman Jones, Democrat, of Texas
said the group also has virtually ac-
cepted proposal for compulsory con-
troll Of tobacco.
The question of compulsory or vol
untary regulation of crop production
has been one of the most controversial
before the committee, which is draft
ing a bill Tor presentation at the
special session of Congress Nov. IS.
The skeleton bill outlined by Rep
resentative Jones also provides for
continuation Of soil conservation pay
ments. financing the new program by
some form Of tariff equalizing taxes
and setting up marketing quotas in
emergencies.
1t differs in many respects from a
measure already drawn by Represent
ative Flanagan, Democrat. of Vir-
ginia, providing for compulsory crop
control.
Penalties Of 50 Per Cent.
The Flanagan bill would operate
chiefly by means Of marketing quotas
and the imposition of penalties on
farmers selling crops in excess of those
quotas.
Committee members said the tobacco
control system under consideration
would place penalties Of so per cent
OF the value on buyers Of surplus to-
bacco rather than on the farmer.
Some sentiment was said to have
developed for similar penalties for
peanuts and potatoes. There also was
opposition in the committee on the
ground that If these eCihmodities were
given special treatment 1t would open
the way to demands for special han
ding of additional crops.
The difficulty of drafting provisions
for corn remained one Of the major
problems.
Undecided on, Eon
. Representative Codd Otklocrat, of
Nebraska, member ofs6 subcommittee
handling corn, said the group was as
undecided about the commodity as
when Congress adjourned last August.
Eighty-five per cent of the corn
produced is fed to stock and poultry
without leaving the county in which
1t is grown. This factor presents
a difficult problem of control and
taxation. if processing levies are to
be imposed.
While the House committee pro-.
ceeded with drawing a bill largely
on the basis of voluntary control, one
member of the Senate Agriculture
Committee said a majority of farmers
wanted compulsory control.
Senator Ellender, Democrat, of
Louisiana said sentiment in the South
was largely for compulsory control,
but in the Northwest many farmers
felt voluntary control would bring the
same results. He has been attending
subcommittee hearings in various
parts of the country.