The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1943-08-13
CCo.pptig2?als:
F.U.O.T.A..
Doubt Is Evident.
Won't Go 1t Blind.
Not With Mirrors.
The Four Proposals.
The Shadow of 1914.

Not with mirrors.
The Four Proposals.
The Shadow of 1914.
There must be some doubt in the
mind of Marvin Jones, war food ad
ministrator, that the farmers will
comply with the federal government
request for a mountaineering planting
of $50 million acres this fall and next
spring. Else why would he have
called in the heads of the four farm
organizations - Patton of the f. u.
G. and Benson of the F. C.-to talk
over ways and means of getting the
farmers to plant more acres? 1t arg
ues that the feeling prevails that
there will have to be an incentive
before the farmer goes all out on pro-
duction, with less farm machinery,
shortage of labor and price that
unless congress acts = will be less
than cost of production.
Ht llitl 10 uOl INC llt SlOl
keeper who explained to a customer
that he could sell canned goods below
cost because he sold so many of them.
big sales volume, does it, said he.
The farmer knows if he gets Is per
cent below cost for the wheat he
grows on 160 acres, he is out money
and that if he plants 200 acres, he
will be out that much more. So be-
fore he goes in for more acres he
will have to know that he can make
living out of it. He will look be-
fore he leaps. He takes enough
chances without going it blind on
price and taking another That is
something that the government is be-
ginning to understand and it is some
thing that the congress-particula
the house will have to understand
unless it is ready to see this country
and the war-torn world go hungry,
year hence When nations start ra-
tioning bread, it is the beginning of
the end as the fate of Mussolini
shows.
So Marvin Jones and the big farm
four got together to see if they could
fix up some sort of inducement for
the farmers that would get by con-
gress. The first move was to get the
big farm four to agree. That, in the
light of what has happened since con-
gress met last January, is a trick that
can't be done with mirrors. But they
talked together and out of that came
four proposals which, one or all,
might be put up to congress when
it convenes next month. By that |
time farmers in the winter wheat |
states will be planting and without |
any assurances of a price above IS |
per cent of parity. The doubt re-
mains that they will increase the
acreage they plant on such a slim
for fair price.
OF the four proposals discussed at |
the meeting, one was the old incen-
tive payment idea. Congress, at the
of the Farm Bloc, killed
that This revives it and suggests in
centive payments or subsidies to be
paid to those who produce crops of /
which there is shortage. This neat
~ detours wheaton that crop is not 1
yet short A second one is for the
government to buy all crops and re-
sell to professors and consumers at a
ower price. This is a variation of
The "rolEback" plan, which congress
kicked out of the window, month
Dr. so ago. A third Is mild form of
subsidy - the farmer who increases
MS acreage to the amount the gov
eminent asks is to get priority on
arm machinery, labor, transportation
md labor, with fertilizers and insec-
icides thrown in. The farmer who
will not increase acreage will take
what's left. The fourth proposes gov
price support or guaranteed
minimum price, with higher prices for
leeded products. That's price fixing
,ut if the prices are fixed at parity or
urn in and plant the increased acre
ge. That is what the Farmers I'm
on and the GTA would accept for !
he wheat growers.
Nobody can tell-and least of all
n official in Washington-what con-
ress will do. 1t may return from its
isit home enlightened and in a
1ilder frame of mind. 1t may play
olitics and, fearing that anything
one for the wheat farmer will be
redited to the administration, may
efuse to move finger. The shadow 5
1914 elections hang over the heads Z
f the politically-minded members.
tut the shadow of low income, of less
han cost wheat price and of low liv-
lg standards hang over the produc-
RS of the 1914 crop.