Evening star., 1939-09-03

1t was just another vignette on the
junkpile Of the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing-so ancient that no one
recalled whether the full-length female
figure represented originally Columbia,
Liberty or goddess of old Greece. On
q hurry-up order, it was amputated
downward from the shoulders.
Now the bonneted head, with flowing
tresses, has become the symbol of pro-
gram which enthusiasts of the Depart
ment of Agriculture expect gradually to
envelop the Nation. They warn that it
is not panacea for what Stephen Lea
cock defines as the dilemma of wealth
and want" But they think 1t may in
time solve the problem of surplus in
flexible commodities like fruit, vege-
tables, butter and eggs, and perhaps in
some degree offset overproduction of
wheat and corn.
Surplus Sal" as the print has been
christened, decorates the left-hand mar
gin of new food stamps which the Fed
eral Surplus Commodities Corp. placed
In circulation at Rochester, N. Y, on
May 16; Dayton, Ohio, June S; Seattle,
Wash, July S, and Birmingham, Ala,
August l. Within the near future it is
planned to introduce them in Des Moines,
Iowa, and Pottawatomie County, Okla
That widespread expansion of the
movement is anticipated, at rising tenn
po, may be judged from the recent ap-
pointment of directors for the Middle
West and Pacific Coast-Paul H. Jordan,
Jonathan Garst, with Offices in San
Francisco. The Government announces
that during the next year it hopes to
extend the scheme to upwards of 100
communities. The only limit appears to
be that the $50,0O00 900 or $50 900, 900 now
available for the experiment may not
be sufficient to meet applications from
cities eager to try it.
Large Cities Applying.
In view of the fact that st. Louis
volunteered months ago to serve as a
laboratory for the food stamp plan, it
embrace the cult of Surplus Sal" Re-
tail and wholesale grocers, both as in
dividuals and in association, together
with groups of business men, entered
application through Representative John
j. Cochran, Democrat, of Missouri He
enlisted the support of Representative
Clarence Cannon, another Missouri DEM
ocrat and chairman of House subcom-
mittee on appropriations Mr.. Cannon
wields considerable power over congress
sional largess to the Department of
Agriculture.
This is perhaps the only New Deal
measure of recent years to win equal
applause from the underprivileged and
from merchants, brokers, bankers, trade
associations and chambers of commerce
1t proposes on the one hand to continue
Government subsidy to the food budget
Of the unemployed-and perhaps eventu
ally of the lowest income groups. On
the other, it aims for the first time to
transmute these millions of gratis contri-
buttons into active buying power, by
canalizing them into normal channels
of profit-taking commerce. Health au-
thorities are interested because one Of
troduce greater variety, with necessary
vitamins now absent into the larders of
the submerged tenth.
The inventor is Milo R. Perkins, a ma
tive of Wisconsin who began his career
as bag salesman in Texas and worked
UP to partnership in his own firm. He
came to Washington in 1885 as Assistant
to Secretary Agriculture Wallace, ard
two years later was appointed assistant
administrator of the Farm Security Ad-
ministration. Last January he was pro-
NOTED to president of the Federal Sur
plus Commodities Corp
The establishment came into being in
1888 as an agency of the National Re-
covery Administration, under the name
of Federal Surplus Relief Corp. 1t was
transferred by Congress in 1885 to the
Department of Agriculture and endowed
with the new title of Federal Surplus
Commodities Corp.
Long Remained Obscure.
Housed in two-story barrack of con-
crete and beaver board at Twentieth and
D streets, with staff of fewer than 100,
1t remained one of the most obscure of
New Deal mechanisms until some months
ago, when the public learned that during
the preceding year the F. S. C. c. had
exported to Nazi Germany 1,179505
bushels of wheat at prices under those
paid by domestic consumers. The cor
poration then revealed that in the period,
on similar terms, it had sold abroad
90,168000 bushels of wheat, plus 26,8l7,-
900 bushels in the form of flour. To the
United Kingdom went 26 BIT 693 bushels
of wheat, to Belgium. 1888, ,497; to China,
6,l59447; to Holland, 6029,653, and to
Soviet Russia, 3,O20,756. The loss to the
Federal Government of this subsidized
export program was placed at $25 ZOO 900.
The corporations function, from the
beginning, has been to shore up prices of
agricultural products, weherever they
threaten to collapse, by purchasing
enough of the surplus to thrust plank
under the market. Through State relief
agencies. the commodities thus acquired