Evening star., 1942-10-01
Farm Bloc Victory

assuming Lnat IL Will be accepted
In the House, the price control bill
which finally has passed the Senate
by unanimous vote has the apparent
merit of avoiding an open break be-
tween the President and Congress.
AS passed by the Senate, the bill car
, ries the So-called administration
: compromise of the farm price issue,
and it has been indicated that this
swill be accepted by Mr.. Roosevelt.
Should this prove to be the case, the
form, If not the substance, of con-
cventional legislative processes will
have been preserved, but in other
respects the Senates action is keenly
disappointing.
In his message to Congress last
month the President requested legis-
lation to permit ceilings on farm
prices at parity or at the level of re-
tcent prices, whichever was higher.
'At the least, that language contem-
plated the stabilization of farm
prices at current levels. But under
the Senate bill it is estimated that
these prices will have to rise at least
a per cent before ceilings can be i'm
posed.
This was accomplished by "direct-
Ing" the President to give adequate
weighing" to increases in farm labor
costs since January l, 1941. The
farm bloc had wanted to revise the
parity formula to include all farm
labor costs as an element of parity,
but the President announced that he
was "unalterably opposed" to this
proposal. Hence, the administration
compromises compromise which
gives the farm bloc most of what it
wanted, but in different form. Small
wonder that Senator Thomas of Ok
.lahoma, who led the farm bloc forces
In the Senate, has hailed the COM
promise as victory" asserting that,
except in verbiage it is the same as
his own proposal.
During the Senate debate, it was
contended that the farmer must have
higher prices because his labor costs
have increased. There Is no doubt
that the farm labor question is a
serious one. The migration away
from the farms to highly-paid in
dustrial jobs has been heavy and the
prospects for next year are genuinely
disturbing. But the boosting Of farm
prices little higher is not going to
correct this condition, and no one
seriously believes that it will.
All that the Senate has done is to
pass bill somewhat better than that
originally adopted in the House. 1t
gives the farmer larger slice of the
national income and, by increasing
the Government loan rate on basic
commodities from IS to 80 per cent
puts a higher floor" under farm
prices. 1t also forbids any reduction
of wage rates, although it is far from
clear why the Senate thought it
necessary to write this provision into
the bill
r The net effect Is that, once again,
we have marched boldly up the hill
TO attack the problem of imitation,
only to turn around and march down
again. We have retreated before the
fire Of the pressure groups. The farm
lobby has won another victory; the
people have suffered another defeat.
Meanwhile, the real war-the war
of survival to 60 against
us. We are tol0 that it is being lost
because the people have not under
stood the magnitude of the danger
which confronts us from abroad But
Is 1t quite fair to blame the people?
If 1T be a fact that they have failed
to take the war seriously. is the fault
really theirs? Or should the people
be expected to rise above the example
set for them by their Government?