The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-06-23

GbLE CuGU08 OOOll AL O4lO SuU
of Washington. including particu-
larly the War Food Administration
and the Office of Price AdminiStra-
ton who are in fact sitting up
nights worrying what to do about
| it.
The situation is briefly this:
Corn prices are frozen under an
OPA ceiling. The price to the
farmer in the corn belt is approx
mately 81 bushel, as corn. If, how
ever, the farmer chooses to feed
that corn to pigs, he can get $135
bushel for the corn in the form of
pork.
The reason for this is that the
government guaranteed floor price
for hogs is $13.75 per 100 pounds.
Actually, it is closer to $14.50 and
has been as high as $3.50. The
price has been permitted to stay
high to increase pork production.
HOGS HOG THE CORN
The effect of this ceiling on corn
prices and floor under hog prices
has been to increase the hog popu-
lation of the United States from
around 104 million head as of
year ago to nearly 100 million head
/ as of today, and this tremendous
hog population is threatening to
eat up all the corn in sight not
only all of the holdover from last
year, but all of this years crop as
well, plus a certain amount of
wheat and other feed grains to boot.
Eventually, that might even affect
the production of wheat flour and
the supply of bread.
Sooner than that it might force
shutdown of corn products plants
making industrial acohol and
starch and such things, because
they can pay only 81 bushel, while
the hogs, in competition, can pay
$1.35. The hog is therefore now eat
ing the country into something ap-
preaching national disaster, and
its effects will be widespread
A large part of the poultry and
dairy products are raised in areas
which don't produce feed Corn isn't
coming into these areas because the
price is frozen at 81 to the farmer.
The dairymen and poultry raisers
must therefore buy other feeds at
higher prices, and up goes the cost
of butter and eggs.
There is one relatively bright
spot here in that as of July l, 1913,
! there will be an estimated carryover
of some $50 million bushels of
wheat. But If that is drawn on free
ly for livestock feed, it can be re-
duced to $50 million bushels in the
next year, and could easily become
a deficit.
DYNAMITE IN HUSKS
Industrial alcohol will take 100
million bushels of corn, other corn
products like starches will take 100
million, corn milling and cereals
160 million. That adds up to only
480 million bushels or about Is per
cent of the total supply of three
and a quarter billion bushels avail
able up to October l, but it is an
important Is per cent and to cut off
even pqart of it to feed these
hungry hogs would seriously impair
the war effort
The alternatives which the price
fixers and the government manipu-
lators faced were:
l. Increase the ceiling price on
corn.
2. Lower the price on hogs.
3. Or both.
4. Or figure out subsidy that in
some mysterious way would keep
corn down and hogs up, at the
same time giving the farmers more
money for their corn while making
porkchops cheaper for consumers,
still providing enough corn which
isn't here for the hogs which are
here to eat
Anything decided on was bound to
make somebody mad. No l would
please the farmers, but raise the
cost of living, making the consum-
ers mad. No. 2 would please con-
sumers but anger farmers. No. 4
might hit the taxpayers an awful
jolt in the long run. And if the pigs
are permitted to keep on eating up
all the corn, eventually, when the
corn is gone, the pigs will have to
be sacrificed, which will make the
farmers sore.
That's why corn is such political
dynamite. One thing sure. Nobody
is apt to come forward with another
suggestion for killing off the surplus
baby pigs. What happened the last
time that was tried is still remem-
bered with pain in some New Deal
parts.