Evening star., 1938-08-27
WALLACE URGES
WORLD CONTROL
OF FARM CROPS
Proposes Par|ey to Form
Principles to Gain Fair
Share of Income.
DROPPING OF TRADE
BARRIERS ADVOCATED
Holds Price-Fixing and Export
Subsidies Waste Best Efforts
of Production.
By the Associated Press.

ST ANNE DE BELLEVUE, Quebec
Aug. 27-Secretary Wallace Of the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture proposed today that farm officials
Of all nations meet to formulate a
set Of principles designed to assure
farming classes a fair" share OF the
worlds income.
Such principles, he said, should elm
inate barriers to international trade
and assure each agricultural export
ing nation its proper share of the
world markets.
Mr.. Wallace spoke before an inter-
national conference of agricultural
economists at Macdonald College.
Il am convinced" he said, that all
nations could agree on the desirability
of systems of agriculture which will
maintain soil fertility and which will
tend to give the farm section of the
population fair share of the national
income"
Would Drop Barriers.
The Secretary, urging abandonment
Of trade barriers, said:
In the realities of 1898 we find
numerous countries pursuing their pro-
grams of price-fixing and export SUBJ
sidy with little regard to the fact that
when carried to an extreme they have
been mutually self-defeating.
Such programs, when carried out
by a number of countries at the same
time, bring about an excessive increase
in the supply Of products on the in
ternational market and waste human
effort which had best be devoted to
producing something else"
Describing export subsidies as q
type Of economic warfare" Mr. Wal
lace declared they would do more
harm than good to the nation using
them If used on q large scale and for
. long period Of time.
Nevertheless, in certain emergen-
cies, there may be exceptional and
compelling circumstances justifying
the use Of export subsidies for limited
and temporary purposes" he said
adding:
1T is . situation that now con-
fronts us (the United States) in the
case Of wheat"
Tells Of Wheat Subsidy.
Mr.. Wallace had previously indi-
Gated the American Government would
subsidize the export of wheat up to
100000, 900 bushels of surplus whea,
In order to maintain what he de-
scribed as that country's fair share
OF the world markets. Subsidies Of
fered by competing wheat nations
made it necessary, he explained, fol
the United States to follow the same
course.
I'VE do not propose to use any type
Of subsidy which will result in extern
sive overplowing of our hill land OF
our poor land in order to send large
quantities OF our farm products abroad
with nothing coming back in return, u
he said. I'VE must not ruin our soil
for the sake of our exporters and our
foreign customers, and We must not
encourage unduly exports of those
products which our consumers can use
IN larger quantities at home; but
neither must We lose our fair share in
the world trade in cotton, wheat, hog
products, and so on, by failure to take
fully as aggressive action as other
nations in competitive export fields. u
He declared the United States had
powerful machinery for taking action
along these lines and we have supplies
OF certain farm products far beyond
domestic needs"
Idea Not Abandoned.
The Secretary said his country had
not abandoned its international
idealism."
Our trade agreement program Il
proof Of that. We are genuinely in
terested in all moves which look in
the direction of ameliorating world
economic conditions but we know that
we cannot make any worth while con-
tribution unless we straighten out our
own internal economy so 1t will func-
ton more smoothly"
He said the United States was seek
ing cure" for economic depression
by means of a balanced abundance"
in industrial and agricultural produc-
ton.
Mr. Wallace departed from his agri-
culture discussion to remark: AT the
moment we in the United States still
have a tremendous distrust of the
'isms' and the balance of power poll
tics of Europe. ." Any external
lending policy of the United States in
the future will probably be directed
toward countries not dominated by the
'isms' which we consider so unre-
liable"