Evening star., 1937-12-19

brdskd here presents his Die1DS on
outstanding problems confronting
the Nation. Senator Burke,
Democrat, tDds leader in the fight
against the Roosevelt court plan
and ,oas one OF the signers OF the
10-point recovery plan dra,Dn up by
q group OF conservative Senator's
BY SENATOR EDWARD r.. BURKE.
President Roosevelt and Secretary
Of State Hull are handling the con-
troversy with Japan over the bombing
Of American ships and the loss of
American lives in wise and able man
ner and they should have the united
support Of the American people
Now is no time for division among
the American people, and I consider
it most unfortunate that the House
resolution provided for q referendum
on war should have been brought up
for consideration at this time. The
action taken by the State Department
is the only wise course to pursue and
should have the backing of the entire
Nation.
As to the domestic situation, voted
against the farm bill because of its
compulsory production control fea-
lures, I could never support meas
ure which, by its penalty tax provi-
sionS, would take from American
farmers all that they produce in ex-
cess of what the Secretary of Agricul-
ture thinks they should produce, as
the proposed measure would do.
Supporters Held Mainly Agents.
The farmers of my section of the
country are dead set against the COM
pulsory control feature. 1t may be
that. at hearings in the agricultural
regions, persons who claimed to repre-
sent farmers gave their support to the
compulsory control provision. But
these persons probably consisted main
ly OF county agents of the A. A. A. or
representatives Of the American Farm
Bureau. AT any rate, I am receiving
hundreds of kilograms from farmers
and they without exception condemn
the compulsory features of the pro-
posed farm measure.
AS for myself, do not like the idea
OF limiting production of any food
product, especially when large sections
OF the Nations and the worlds popu-
latlon are underfed. 1t is, of course,
true that there is no use to produce a
sufficient quantity of food to feed the
peoples of the world if, through de-
fects in our distributive system, the
food cannot be placed in the hands of
those who need It, The first step
however, in solving the problem of
maldlstrlbution of food products is to
produce the food. First produce the
food and then tackle the problem of its
distribution.
L may also say that do not favor
permanent subsidy in the nature of
a soil conservation program. Farm
ers DO not need to be given financial
incentive to induce them to conserve
their soil. Farmers are intelligent and
they Will see 10 it, that their soil is
properly built up through crop rota-
ton and through improved farming
methods. Incidentally; it may be OBJ.
served that the soil conservation pro-
gram was originally adopted as a sub
terfuge to get around the Supreme
Court decision which prohibited the
payment of subsidies to farmers under
the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
Hits Ever Normal Granary.
AS temporary measure, it might be
desirable to continue the soil con-
servatlon program for a while. But
1t should be discarded from any per-
manent program for American agri-
culture. The. same is true of the ever
normal granary idea.
In my opinion, all that farmers
need is commodity loans to enable
them to hold their products off the
market until they can dispose of them
most advantageously. What they
need is facilities whereby they can
seal up and hold their grain and
other -perishable products on the
farms until market conditions are
most favorable for their disposition.
The Farm Credit Administration is
already doing fine job in aiding
farmers to achieve this purpose. Farm
credit facilities should, however, be
further liberalized and extended.
AS to the proposed wages and hours
measure, this bill, if put into effect,
undoubtedly would cause the closing
OF many small concerns and thus, in
stead OF reducing unemployment,
would tend to increase it, 1t would
increase costs and the resulting higher
prices would fall with special severity
on consumers. Farmers, in particu-
lar, would not only have to pay higher
prices on what they bought, but the
cost of this additional burden on farm
products handled in Transportation
and in processing would in many
cases be shifted back onto the farmer