The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1939-03-23
The Great Stamp Plan

narQly ndfmOnlZeS WIN Cne SenCl
sments which have exuded from vari.
Gus Administration spokesman in tbs
last few weeks. Or perhaps that ideal
istic and high-minded man, Secretary
Wallace, has not been adequately ap-
praised that the White Rabbit perioG
has passed and the White House is
now anxious to convince the country
that no more experiments are contem-
plated. +"'
Because the new plan of Mr.. Wal
lace to supplement the pay of WPA
workers by issuing to them specially
designed blue and orange colored
stamps with which they can buy food
at grocery stores is certainly the
most complicated, not to say cockeyed
experiment which has emanated from
the New Dealers since Rexford Guy
Tugwell went into the molasses bus;-
ness. 1t is difficult in a short space to
describe the plan and in any space to
prove its workability.
$h%
The features seem to be these-the
AAA proposes to issue these stamps
to WPA workers or others receiving
Federal relief. An estimate of how
much money a man should spend
weekly on food will be made by the
AAA and stamps to that value given
him. Part of this is in addition to his
relief pay. The grocers will accept the
stamps as money and the banks re-
ceive them as money because of the
Government guarantee to redeem
them. SO far as the WPA workers is
concerned the stamps amount to an
outright cash gift from the Govern
ment, but with a string tied to it that
makes it impossible for him to spend
the stamps on anything but food. The
theory of the plan is, first, that it will
increase the consumption of food and
thus use up the surplus crops; Sec
ond, that the increased consumption
will stiffen sagging prices of farm
products; third, that it is method of
feeding the hungry; fourth, that it ell
evates the scale of relief.
1t is easy to understand that this
plan will be acceptable to the WPA
workers, as it increases their pay.
And it is easy to understand that it
will be acceptable to the farmers, as
the AAA proposes to continue to buy
up surpluse crops just as it is doing
now. The new scheme will not sup
plant the old one-it merely supple
ments it. In addition, there is no rea-
son grocers should oppose it. On the
contrary, they probably will be for it
in preference to the present free-hiL-
and-miss distribution of food to relief
workers. In this way they will sell
more food and get more money. So
why shouldn't the farmers, the WPA
workers and the grocers be for it?
49,
However, the objections are so OBJ
vious and the economics so dubious
that it is hard to see why anyone else
should be for it or why it should be at
tempted at all except under desperate
compulsion to do something. In some
respects the new experiment is ride
ulous. For example, it assumes in the
AAA ability to accurately assay the
individual appetite of the WPA re-
cipient Of the stamps. 1t decides how
much food he ought to eat and insists
upon buying it. But the real objec-
lions are far more serious. One, of
course, is the intricate and expensive
administrative bureau which would be
required to put such complicated
plan into execution.
Another is the effect it will have
upon the WPA worker who now gets
$50 a month as relief payment, and
the effect upon the man employed at
practically the same pay in private in
dustry. Clearly, the WPA worker will
be better off on relief at $50 month
with what amounts to free food, than
if he had a real job at the same pay.
Similarly, the $60-a-month employe
of private industry would seem sap
not to get on relief, where this stamp
arrangement gives him a wage in
crease. ***
In brief, this idea, which is to be
tried out in some five cities, may be
pleasing to certain classes, but to the
country as a whole it would seem a
very severe headache, indeed. 1t would
provide an inducement for men on
relief to shun jobs in private indus
try, and for those in private jobs to
get on relief. A greater national dis
service could hardly be imagined. An
interesting point is made by Mr.. Mark
Sullivan, who asserts what is Ger
tainly true, that Congress would not
pass any such legislation as this. Yet,
under the blanket powers conferred
in the name of Emergency, New Deal
burna11c con Tins DTocaed from one