Evening star., 1941-07-09
Urqes Farmers Aid
For Price Fixing
Writer Says Aerurion Bloc
Can Serve Interests Best
By Policy Of Cooperation
To the Editor of The Star:

To the Editor of The Star:
At the present time the Office of Price
Administration and Civilian Supply Is
seeking legislation which will give it
more direct authority in keeping prices
from getting out of hand. That such
legislation is absolutely necessary should
be doubted only by those who have
learned nothing from what happened
during and after the last war. If We
are going to let things take their nat
ural course we will be in for one Of
the most disastrous periods of imitation
and collapse that the world has known
because we are going into defense pro-
duction on a scale never before at
tempted. The job which has been as
signed to o. P. A. C. S. by the Presi-
dent is going to be extremely difficult
even with the best possible cooperation
which Congress, industry and the public
in general can offer. If Congress gives
it only the most limited authority and
hamstringS it at every turn, thus en-
couraging every economic group to
clamor for higher prices for itself and
lower prices for every one else, the public
is going to lack confidence in its efforts.
o. P. A. c. S. is going to have thank
less Job at best. 1t is going to be damned
by industry and other economic groups
for keeping prices too low and damned
by the public in general for allowing
them to go too high.
When the defense program Is over and
the reconstruction problems are solved
those in Congress who are planning
on limiting its power to the absolute
minimum may we'll be glad that they
saw the wiser course and that they
gave Mr.. Henderson and his staff ample
authority under the right kind of con-
gressional supervision to hew to the line
and let the chips fall where they may.
When the legislation comes up in Con-
gress the members must be prepared to
forget the petty sectional and group
interests with which they identify them
selves and take farsighted view Of the
interests of the country as a whole both
now and when the defense program is
over.
But there is every indication that this
will not be so. There is an indication
that many members who regularly sup
port certain group or sectional interests
will attempt draStically TO limit or ac-
tually 10 scuttle the whole program with
the hope that the group which they
support will gain more than it loses in
the mad initiation scramble. Strange as
it may seem to those who have seen the
farmers of this country ground between
the lower milestone of low prices for the
things they sell and the upper milestone
of high prices for the things they buy.
the members Of Congress who represent
the predominantly agricultural areas
and who have become known as the
farm bloc seem prepared TO fight every
attempt TO control prices in any way.
There is probably no other single group
which has so much to lose through in
fationay rises in prices and an after
war collapse as are the farmers and who
have so much TO gain through an orderly
control Of these conditions.
AS an indication of the way the wind
is blowing in Congress the recent resolu-
ton introduced by Representative Casey
of Massachusetts is a good example
The resolution would have created a
congressional committee to investigate
the prices paid for the necessities of
life, but it was defeated by a vote of
200 against to 100 for it. The so-called
farm bloc voted against it almost to a
man. Many spoke against it and de-
nounced it as an attempt of the repre-
SentativeS OF the industrial centers TO
beat down agricultural prices in spite of
the fact that those who sponsored it
claimed that they were as much in
tereSted in protecting the farmer as they
were in protecting the consumer. But
this did not satisfy the rural representa-
tives such as Representatives Coffee of
Nebraska, H. Carl Andersen of Mime
sofa and JED Johnson of Oklahoma. Mr.
johnson went so far as to say that the
sole aim of the attempt to get legiSla-
ton for o. P. A. c. S. was to beat down
agricultural prices.
Mr.. Henderson has given agriculture
no reason for any such fear. He has
recognized that farm prices have been
too low during the past decade and that
they should not only be allowed to rise
but actually should be increased where
thpV tOn lOT thora ic
which Mr.. Henderson would not stand
Tor and that is unnecessarily high farm
prices brought about by speculatory
markets. Neither should those who have
the long-term interests of the farmer
at heart be contented to see farm prices
pushed up in that manner Speculative
price increases never helped any one for
any great length of time and always hurt
more than they helped. When Repre-
sentative H. Carl Andersen of Minnesota
said that he was against the Casey reso-
luton because it would give spectators
chance to drive prices down he came
very near touching upon the whole secret
OF the problem. The spectators could
not drive prices down unless they were
already pushed up artificially high by
this same speculatory factor. The farm
ers should not want prices whose sole
basis depended upon the whim of a
group of spectators who have no ones
interest at heart except their own and
who are always as willing to speculate
on a falling market as they are on a
Go. II