Evening star., 1938-02-15

Court. The new -.
legislation, judged "''" """'e"'e'
by old constitutional precedents,
would be equally invalid but the
trend now is to accept Justice Stones
historic remark in his dissenting opin-
ion on the A. A. A. case: The remedy
for unwise laws is not in the courts
but at the ballot box"
Certainly, the new law will ulti-
mately be appraised in some national
election by the voters. and there are
even among administration friends
some predictions that many parts of
the law will break down through their
own weight of unworkability.
Better Than No Law at All.
The administration didn't exactly
sponsor the new farm control law,
but the measure has in it just enough
f1eXibility and discretionary power to
make Secretary Wallace feel that it
is better than no farm bill at ALL
Likewise it was recognized that a
desirable compromise could not be
worked out in few weeks and that
it would be better to feel the way by
experience, leaving imperative those
clauses of the law which, upon prac-
tical test. seem in the future to be
unwise and pushing ahead on those
clauses which offer the best means of
production control.
What America is doing in the new
law is not novel. Other countries
1icfi int of viz
and most Of them have it nowadays
find it necessary to keep production
from defeating the subsidy which is
usually granted to hold the price up.
Clearly, if there is to be price control,
there must be production control.
In all the discussion of what is to
be done for the farmer, the opponents
of all subsidies and regimentation have
been on the defensive. They never
have suggested a plan which would
do for the farmer what the new con-
j, troll bills aim to do-namely, to keep
prices up and hence to assure stable
income to the farmer
Politically Important.
Politically, the measure Just passed
is Of transcendent Importance because
1t tells the Republicans that. If they
insist on high tariffs and subsidies
as public policy. the farmers also
will continue to insist upon them,
The Republicans have been loath to
suggest schemes of RECOMMENDATION and
regulation and have argued for natural
laws and a removal of restrictions on
. farm production. but they have never
come across with a direct bounty to
farmers in the form of price regula-
ton or subsidy. In other words. the
Eastern Republicans from industrial
areas argue for protective tariffs and
freedom from regulation. but the
Western States and farm regions
everywhere are being lured slowly but
surely into the belief that. when it
comes to spending or lending money
to keep the farm income up. the DEM
ocrats are actually offering financial
aid unreservedly.
It is true the new law gives the
farmer less Of say about it than
before, when 1t comes to regula ton,
and that regimentation is far more
comprehensive this time than even
under A. A. A. But. as between
lower farm income with no regimen
tation and higher farm income plus
regimentation. the farm organizations
which backed the new law chose the
latter course.
Thousand and One Powers.
The new legislation has In it
thousand and one powers and ideas.
Thus, crop insurance for wheat, with
premiums paid for in the commodity
itself Is provided for, this being really
the first embarkation on the crop in
surance plan. Maybe it will some day
be extended to other crops Likewise,
some parts of the law will be found
reminiscent of the old farm board of
Hoover days, with its market stabiliza-
ton schemes. Then there's a pro-
vision which compels the Government
10 hold OF the market about 100000
bales OF cotton, which is just twice
as much as the subsidized surplus of
hoover days, which was so bitterly
crltlclzed by the Democrats in 1892.
IL Is difficult to encompass in any
single article, or even several articles,
the many technical features that have
neen written into the new farm control
law Let it suffice to say that agricul-
lure becomes more than ever before a
Fedora! function and that a small
group OF men in the National Gov
!. ernment are now to operate a man
aged economy 50 far as the entire
agricultural situation is concerned. Is
IL question of time before a reau-
lated industrial situation will be forced
as a natural sequel to a regulated az
riculture? This question might we'll
be asked, along with the query as to
whether the new policy will become
permanent.
Out Of Tune With Hull.
The answers will be found only in
the evolution Of the next two or three
years. The experiment in nationally
managed agriculture has begun, and
Its basic principles are nationalistic
and isolationist, which is, of course,
out of tune with the co-operationist
and international doctrine of Secre-
tary Hull. But doubtless he condones
the practice on two grounds: First,
that it takes care of an emergency till
the world and our own ultraconserva-
tives begin to see the need for breaking
down tariff and trade restrictions;
and. second, if you give farm control
rope enough it may kill itself in due
time, when the clarf1or for increased
production and recapture Of foreign
markets becomes again the demand of
the farmers themselves.
Copyright. 1881