Evening star., 1938-10-16

For the country's farms the first New
Deal is over and the second New Deal Is
on the way. The Agriculture Department
has been reorganized, and an old familiar
menace. surpluses, is beating on Secretary
Wallace's door, The theme OF Secretary
Wallace's first annual report to President
Roosevelt was the dilemma Of the sur
pluses" That was in 1888, and the inter-
vening years supposedly brought the end If
not Of the surpluses at least Of the dilemma.
But only two days ago Mr.. Wallace said:
Here we are We American farmers with
ever before, waiting and almost begging for
buyers"
The dilemma Of having too much and
nothing to do with it was the dilemma for.
which agricultural adjustment sought q
conclusive solution. The first A. A. A. went
after surpluses with a scheme for elm
mating surpluses. The second A. A. A. law
proposed to deal with surpluses by super
vised storage But weather laughs at the
statutes, and there is too much cotton and
wheat to store. The temporary answer Is
simple Let the Government subsidize the
surplus producers by purchasing the sur
pluses for distribution to the poor A more
scientific answer is IN the process Of evolu-
ton in Mr.. Wallace's department.
Production Control Still Basic.
Whatever variation of the agriculture
program is offered in 1889. Mr.. Wallace is
dst> hat of
production and marketing control. He made
that clear last week in a speech to corn
growers in Springfield, H., the capital OF
the corn belt, when he implied that the
present dilemma is attributable to the Su-
preme Court for its action in outlawing the
first A. A. A. In his testimonial of faith in
the current Farm Act, the second A. A. A.
law, with It's marketing quota system and
its "ever-normal granary" provision, he
said
THE new Farm Act, which in structure
Is not complex but simple. has helped all
agriculture and the whole Nation this year.
1t has come to the country's rescue just
when we needed help the most. With the
help Of the farmers program, farm cash
income this year will be only about IL per
cent below the peak Of last year, and farm
buying power will be only 8 per cent under
that of last year. In the face Of business
situation in which factory employment and
pay rolls have been down over 80 per cent,
to hold farm income so nearly steady is
a real achievement"
Mr. Wallace's departmental reorganisa-
ton encased the foundation Of the Agri-
cultural Adjustment Administration in the
Bureau Of Agricultural Economics, an
agency of the pre-Rooeevelt department,
when the departments main function was
still educational Into that old bureau 60
the planning activities of the A. A. A.
And out OF the reorganization Howard Tol-
can agriculture, sitting on the star where
George Peek and Rexford Tugwell used to
perch.
Mr.. Wallace and Mr.. Tolley will carry the
battle for controlled agriculture against the
forces in Congress which are preparing to
upset the farm law Of 1885, the enemies Of
the law would substitute two-priee system
invoking = subsidy for produce sold in
America, with the farmers selling abroad
for what they can get. The farm program
fight promises to be one Of the most in
tense that will develop during the 1899
congressional session. Mr.. Wallace calls
this two-price system the soak-the- con-
sumner, sink-the-farmer" plan.
Socialized Program Debated.
The approach to the second New Deal
in agriculture involves readjustment Of
freight rates in the South and perhaps even
4 socialized agriculture, with the Govern
ment owning, ut least in wheat, all the
produce grown. In = talk recently at
Hutchinson, Kans., in the heart OF the
wheat country, Mr.. Wallace, admitting he
was discussing last resorts, outlined the
socialization program thus:
"A plan might b worked cut whereby
TIE Government w1uld by st Azed price