Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-07-17
Farm, Labor
BIocs Must
Be Crushed
Best Interests Of All u. S.
Menaced by Lobbies
BY PAUL MALL0N

BY PAUL MALLON
WASHINGTON, July 17.-one
day last week the farm
lobbyists trooped unobserved
into a closed session of Senate
appropriations subcommittee.
In line they came, representa-
tlves of the American Farm
Bureau Federation, the Grange.
the United States livestock
group. The newspapers did not
find out about il.
Next day a peculiar amend
ment loaded with poison arrows
for Leon Henderson, the price
d m illustrator, appeared
strangely in the annual appro-
priation bill for the Office of
Price Administration which the
subcommittee had been ham
ding
This amendment said Mr..
Henderson shall not fix the
price ceiling on farm products
or even proccssed goods. like
cotton shirts and leather shoes
WHICH does not reflect 40 per
cent of parity back to the
farmers.
LIVERY one said it was merely
a restatement of existing
law, but no one bothered to ex-
plain why the farm lobbyists
felt it necessary TO restate such
law in an appropriation bill
dealing with other matters. To
the initiated in this peculiar
political farm business. however,
it was evident that the farm
lobbyists had set out to break
up Mr.. Henderson's price policy.
The amendment would cause
Henderson to abandon his pres
ent- program reopen thousands
of price items in the farm and
process schedules, and this time
follow Agriculture Secretary
Wickard's direction TO fix much
higher prices than now allowed
prices which would give the
farmer that 40 per cent parity
index.
The farm lobbyists and their
congressional bloc felt justified
in playing this and other little
tricks on Mr.. Henderson, be-
cause he has not followed the
law they wrote for him in the
first place. They feel tricked,
too.
COME months ago they sue
~ ceeded in enacting provisions
which they thought would give
Agriculture Secretary Wickards
veto power over Henderson and
would assure the farmer his 10
per cent. Mr.. Roosevelt stopped
that by ominously informing the
world in general (but particu-
larly Mr.. Wickard) that Mr..
Wickard worked for him and
would be expected 10 follow his
wishes.
Henderson never consulted
Wickard on anything except
wool at the outset and later on
fruits and vegetables.
Lately, Mr.. Wickard has re-
joined hands with farm lobby
lists and is supposed 10 be work
ing on Mr. Roosevelt TO get an
approval of the pending separate
bill granting 100 per cent loans
10 farmers. Mr.. Roosevelt's
budget director has approved
this. although some authorities
suspect that such a permanent
step would put all private trad
ing out of business.
IN the other hand and in the
~ other corner, Mr.. Hender-
son is mad as a hornet. He is
particularly angry at Wickard
for having written him the re-
cent letter forcing him TO boost
the prices on dried and canned
fruits, which he had set to re-
fleet less than 10 per cent
parity He held an off-the-
record press conference to vent
his anger. Some of the words he
used were hotter than the
American airmen cuStomarily
employ when they 60 into a
dive on a Jap ship.
All this back and forth news
devolves down into the issue of
whether the administrations
price program will be allowed TO
stand. There is some Justice in
the arguments on both sides.
The farmers goal for years
has been 100 per cent parity,
and now that the war has
brought il in sight, the farm
bloc seems greedy in seeking
the 10 per cent. Yet the aver
age farm income is much less
than the nations average. Farm
labor costs are practically