The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-01-14
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National Topics Interpreted - fTTTTTTTm
by William Bruckart ASnr11fHT
by William Bruckart

when such tossing is done without
any evident continuity of sound pol
icy.
I referred to Secretary Wallace's
spending proclivities. Mr.. Wallace
has been going
Wallace about the country
Talks Money lately talking Of
the necessity for
soil conservation and the payment
of a subsidy to farmers to accom-
plish that end. He has been talking
about money in sums as large as a
billion dollars year for crop in
surance-a program in furtherance
of Mr.. Wallace's "ever normal
granary" idea.
In theory, there is much to be
said in favor of spreading uppredict-
able losses of farming through in
surance. A large part of the dis
tress found in agricultural regions
is due to the destruction of crops
by causes over which the farmers
have no control. If the consequences
of these hazards could be minimized
by adjusting losses over wide areas,
and by using the surplus of one
year to Offset the shortage of the
next, one major farm problem
would be solved. But, as matters
now stand, there is a natural tend
ency to regard this move with a
skeptical eye. This is necessary be-
cause, like so many theories, the
Wallace crop insurance, ever nor
NAL granary plan seems to omit
the one element that is necessary
to be included. If this proposition
is to be successful, there simply
can be no doubt that it must have
almost unanimous support. It does
not have it and never will. The
reason is that it calls upon the
government to pay part or all OF
the cost and human nature newt
ably resents taking from one to give
to another.
Mr.. Wallace's ideas were adopted
by the Pree.dent's crop insurance
committee. That committee was
supposed to have the interest of ag-
riculture at heart. Its recommen-
dations indicate that it had not only
such an interest but an even greater
interest, namely, making sure that
the farmers were given everything.
From all of the discussions that
I have heard, / believe it is quite
apparent that the committee went
too far. It went so far, indeed,
that it is arousing resentment from
the consumers who think that they
will have. to pay the bill. There
fore, by proposing a program that is
too extreme, the crop insurance
committee and Mr.. Wallace have
forced a cleavage between producer
and consumer and that is likely to
result in a renewal of warfare be-
tween these two segments of our
national life. 1t will cause a re-
Vival of an age-old quarrel instead
of healing of old wounds.
No one can deny that the farmers,
as a class, have not been getting
their fair share. From the attitude
of many thinking farmers, however,
I rather believe that agriculture
would prefer to have farm aid
program which would permit it to
produce and sell to the consumers
under harmonious conditions and
regulations rather than get too
much and earn the hatred of the
masses who are to buy the farmers
output.
To advert to the original theme,
Mr.. Wallace likes to pass out mon
ey. He knows, as all others in pub
lie life know, that the government
will be generous with agriculture
and I am afraid that fact has
caused the otherwise genial Sec
rotary of agriculture to lose his per-
spective-to forget that he is foster
ing program that will change ira
ditions and practices on the farms
of America as surely as the sun
shines.
Farmers are human as everyone
else is human. Some of them, like
some of us, who must exist among
modern cliff dwellings of concrete
and steel, entertain a fear that Q
policy of government payments
equivalent to dole, may have the
effect in the end of destroying
rather than saving the business of
agriculture.
g Western Newspaper Union.