The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1943-01-29
BY ALBERT LENA>

WASHINGTON = Sharp
rationing of food may have
an unexpected result: it is
likely to jolt subway strap
hangers and tenement dwell
ers into recognizing the i'm
portance of agriculture in
the war scheme. Previously
city people, smarting from
charges of sixty five cent
sirloin and thirty-five-cent
brussels sprouts. would read
about the activities of the
farm bloc in congress and de
nounce it savagely without
knowing much about its diff
ficulties. Now that urban
ties begin to realize only
super harvests can fill l943
dinner plates, they are more
inclined to favor a sane ma
tional attempt to help the
rural belt.
New York wholesalers, for ex-
ample. repeat many of the hard
luck stories they hear from
friends upstate. Dairymen kick
because ignorant regulation
boards allow them enough gaso-
line to get their trucks to market
but not sufficient for the home
trip. Chicken raisers require
special feeds but the government
overlooked this need and the sup
ply has dropped to one-third at
a time authorities are begging for
more eggs.
A new OPA ceiling on corn
may prompt growers to withhold
the ears from customers and
give the crop TO the hogs. Ferti-
lizers are scarce and deliveries
tangled by freight traffic jams.
Although big machinery is fire.
quently available, small tool,
a strand of wire or a gadget for
mending a gate is often hard TO
get.
The agrarian wants higher
profits so ne can pay better
wages and prevent defense
Industries from pirating his
hired men. Hard boiled
economists reject this move
arguing that 1t would blow
the roof off the cost of living
and start frenzied initiation.
Those suggesting subsidies
from the citizens pocket en-
rage everyone who must pay
an income tax on March 15.
The administration is likely
10 permit a modest price rise
AS IN the recent cases OF
flour and milk - which
shaves down margins of mid
dlemen and controls charges
close 10 the source.
Politics also haunt the barn
ward. One of the chief reasons
for the COP choosing Harrison
f. Spangler as its new national
committee chairman was that he
comes from tout where the tall
corn grows" Insiders say he is
a genius in stirring up the grange
country.
As a campaign official two
years ago he began touring
county fairs with a loud
speaker and DINING into the
ears of audiences revelations
Of the dangers" in allowing
the opposing party to flood
the nation with Argentine
beef and to write reciprocal
trade treaties. Election re-
suits showed that thousands
Of backsliding farmers re
turned TO the Republican
fold.
DtUlutFdLS al I'll teAE ~ mp
ping. They plan to continue dis
tributing-quietly Of course-the
old vote-getting mama of bene-
fits. soil conservation checks ano
lucrative blessings Of the AAA
program. Those IN the know
prophesy that special bonuses for
bumper harvests and extra till
age viii spur output and enc
grievances.
Diplomats who read between
the lines infer that something
ominous is in the wind on th'
bleak Siberian Manchurian from
tier. They base their bunch OF
the report published in Toky'
that General Yoshijiru Umetsu
following a long conference viii
Premier Hideh Tojo, left IN
eapital 10 command the Kwan
tung army in the Asiatic DANCE
zone.
What makes his arrival 10
disturbing is that he II no
torious Red hater and cannot