Evening star., 1938-08-28

the reciprocal trade program
Now we have another example Of
the vacillations of Mr. Wallace. In
the newspapers of August Is ap-
peared headlines to this effect: Wal
lace Drafting Plans for Subsidy of
Wheat Exports" The stories beneath
those headlines announced that within
week or so the Secretary of Agri-
culture hoped to have ready a plan
to subsidize the export of 100, ,000, 900
bushels Of wheat during the current
crop year. BY the time these remarks
are published Mr.. Wallace in all
probability will have announced his
plan.
Wallace Denounced Plan.
The amazing thing about this under
taking Is that on August ll-one week
before the newspaper reports cited
aboVe-Mr. Wallace denounced as
sharply as any one could schemes for
subsidizing agricultural exports. Speak
ing before q conference of A. A. A.
State committeeman. he characterized
such proposals as price fixing" and
export dumping schemes
rs it sound policy" he dema nded to
know, ito attempt greatly to increase
our production OF export crops. to in
crease our expectation of soil fertility
abroad, and get nothing in return?
All OF these programs envision that
we use American money 50 that we sell
larger quantities OF our stun abroad
without getting anything in return for
those larger quantities.
Now Is it worth while to plow up
the hills OF the South and the Great
Plains-the hills of the South for cot
ton. the Great Plains of wheat and
the hills OF the corn belt for corn-and
allow that soil to wash into the rivers
and lose billions of tons Of topsoil into
the rivers, and send hundreds Of mill
lions of tons OF phosphorus. potassium
and nitrogen into the European mar
kets. with the United States getting
nothing back for it, merely for the
sake Of making the railroads feel bet
ter. because they are hauling some
stuff to the seaboards. and making
certain exporters feel better?'
Wallace Said Mouthful
All Of which constitutes q mouthful
OF words But that Is what Mr.. Wal
, lace said according to the verbatim
stenographic transcript Of his remarks
made available by the Agricultural
Adjustment Administration.
Indeed, he doubted whether any
nation would permit this county to
dump agricultural products into 1t
under a Federal subsidy. because, as he
said nearly every country in the
world is trying to protect its farmers
in as active a way as we are"
They have" he added, methods that
they can use which they won't hesitate
to use to keep obviously subsidized stun
out of the market
Mr.. Wallace also denied that such
schemes would avoid scarcity and
avoid regimentation" Actually, he
argued. such a program means scar
city to the poorer half OF our people
because under it the price would be
, held up much higher to all the people
of the United States" He added that
1T is terrible threat to the bottom
one third in whom the President is
much interested "A bewildering state
ment to come from the man who Spon-
SOred the A. A. A.
And then Mr.. Wallace made q most
significant remark. one which in effect
was confession that his present farm
control plan does constitute regimen
tation.
Worst Kind Of Regimentation.
These various price fixing pro-
grams are scarcity programs in the
worst sense OF the term" asserted Mr..
Wallace. Il wouldn't say all OF them,
And they would be the worst kind of
| regimentation programs. You would
have to have regimentation Of the
farmer All Of them would have to
have their quotas, just the same as
now, every last one Of them. Then
you would have to regiment them with
regard to when they could sell and
where. Then you would have to regi-
ment all the group OF middlemen.
Il can't understand what gets into
some of the middlemen pushing this
kind of thing, because you would have
to regiment that entire group. OF
course. it may be that for certain pur-
poses it is a good thing to regiment the
middlemen."
A little further on Mr.. Wallace,
wonder among wonders. urged his
listeners not to "close the door in any
prejudiced manner to any approaches
OF this sort" He went on to say that
maybe on a small scale with certain
commodities it might be used for =
limited purpose for limited time" and
that Il can conceive, for instance, that
we might possibly use certain amount
of export dumping with wheat"
You decide whether all of that makes
sense.