Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-03-26
Agricultural
Economy
Wave Baked
Bid TO Save SIS, oQ0a Da,
Starts Complications
BY PAUL MALL0N

~
w The agriculture department
is having more trouble trying
10 get Congress to let ii save
$1,000 a day than Mr.. Roosevelt
had in getting S7000,000,000 for
British aid.
Involved is one of the thou
sands of daily little items OF
management which go to make
up government, the important
detail that gets lost in the rush
of public attention to more sem
sational matters.
The agriculture department.
which has never been noted for
thrift. apparently took Mr..
Roosevelt's "a st economizing
promise seriously, no one knows
why. 1t decided TO sail for bids
on storage of a part of the H.
100000 bales of cotton now held
by its Commodity Credit Corpo-
ration. The bids were so good
the department figured il could
save $1,000 a day by moving its
white elephant fur
YOU could naturally expect
Il the warehouses which would
suffer to put up a struggle. but
not such a successful struggle as
they have been able to manage
in Congress.
Tennessee Senator Mcclellan
introduced a bill TO prevent ac-
ceptance of bids or removal Of
the cotton. In his state is the
Federal Compress and Ware
house Company of Jackson.
Tenn. which holds around
100000 bales of government
owned and controlled fiber. The
company did not enter into the
bidding.
Nevertheless. you might ask.
who could be opposed TO the
government saving $1,000 a day.
Rushing TO the Mcclellan colors
for action have been Judge w.
j. Driver. who learned his way
around Congress in 20 years in
the House as representative
of Arkansas: N. w. Helm.
brother-in-law of Rep. OrVille
thinner m an of Missouri: a
brother of another congressman.
Representative Cooper. TenncS-
see. and some more in-law fno
outlawS1.
/ NDER such impetus the bill
~ went steaming through the
Senate and the House banking
and currency committee. The
impetuses began 10 run into
difficulty in the committee. how
ever.
The vote there was only Is
TO 10 in their favor. all the Re-
publicans being against them,
as well as four of the five top
ranking Democrats on the COM
iiiittee Henry Steagall of Ala
bama being the exception.
The fight to prevent the agri-
culture department from saving
50, 900 a day is. therefore. more
than two-thirds won. and the
other third will be won if the
impetuses hold out a few days
longer.
The agriculture department
cannot be charged with lack of
cOunter-Impetus in the matter.
Secretary Claude Wickard wrote
a Scorching report to the Sen
ate committee. .condemning the
bill
He has also had help from
John c. White, attorney for VIII
Clayton, largest cotton dealer,
now serving Jesse Jones as a
purchaser of defense raw ma
terials. Anderson Clayton e. Co.
control competing warehouses.
THE domestic weeping and
Il Latin-American wailing
over Vice President Wallace
I missing a chance TO cast the de-
Gliding vote on the Argentine
beef amendment, was practically
wasted. 1t could not have made
much difference if the whole
Senate had been absent from
the vote.
The amendment merely speci-
/ fled the navy could not make
Latin purchases if domestic beef
of the same canned type was
available, and il allowed the
navy to buy fresh foreign meats
whenever its ships were in for
eign waters. This is really all
the navy wanted TO do
Undue Importance was at
tached to the issue by western
Representatives who naturally
wanted their constituents to be-
lieve a vital chance was being
effected. The unfortunate re-
suit was another unwarranted
black eye for us in Latin
America.
WHEN the nationalist Senator
w Nye came out for much
! higher taxes to pay the British
/ freight. he pegged Il whole f4fe'p
program for the isolation block.
which will develop shortly.
The plan is to bring home to
the people the true cost of their
support of the administration
program by demanding the ut
most in taxes.
l AS the New Dealers also want
the utmost in taxes, and the old
conservative Democratic groups
believe this is the only way to
n,tnid infla ton the ir,nr,or,dir,rr