The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-03-05
Ry R, H, ehacksord

WaAhinRton, March . -- (UPO -- The time has come to convert Agri- culture to tho same war production basls As industry oe face hunger at homo and unnecessary casualties at the battlefront.
 Talk of labor shortages, food riots and starvation must Do supplAnted with action because too little hAS been done and it is getting late, Q special report to tho senate military affairs committee warns.
 Colonel Lewis Sanders Of the goleotlvo Service Bureau prepared tho report and raised tho danger eignals before the committee while Secretary of Agriculture Claude R WlokArd was admitting to another committee that there is little pros- poet oe American farmers raising evon as much foodstufSs ia i94S aS in i042.
 WieEard admits that regardless oi how much food iS raised this year lt will not Do enough,
 Sanders believes that # the unl- ted States uses It's head as well as lts muscle, all iood production goaiS can Do met-And with fewer farm workers than in io42,
 Ao recommended immediate en- aetim0nt Of Q specific legislative pro- gram for solution of the immediate farm problem as well aS a long. range program for next year and tho poSt-war world. It suggests elm ination of the tremendous waste Of nAnpoWor on farms, farming by counties instead os by indiVidua, small farms, ConSolidA Atloai Of small farms and Roallocation of crops government contracting Of erops, importation Of foreign labor and government insurance of planting costs.
 "Industry has had to reorganiso Itself completely - and to its detFi- lliOnt In many eases - in order to win the war;" Sanders said.
 "AgrieultuF0 iS tho only clement of our economy that can beneNt permanently by the things 1t needs to do to win the war"
 Sanders thesis:-Through com prohensivo planning, agriculture should Do converted to war pros auction the same way washing machine factories were converted to machine gun plants and automo. bll0 plants to tank factories. His alternatlve:-"Reduced food for tho civilian population or a ra- duoed war effort: and Q reduced war eRort iS reflected In Q longer war and increased total oaSualties."
 Sanders report, part of an over al study made ct the direction of the senate committee, blasted "peacotime administrative proced- urOs" Of tho Agriculture Depart mont and denounced WickardS TO. cent lifting of wheat planting reStFiotions despite the fact that there iS . two years supply of wheat h storage.
 He praised the excellent basic principles of the Agriculture De- partment'S program, but intimated that it had begged down ct the paper policy stage as Q result of "too many conferences and too little action."
 Sanders proposed this detailed program for immediate action:
 1. Enact c farmers insurance bill to reimburse farmers for cost of blowing, planting and cultivating acreage they are unable to harvest because of lack of manpower. Guar antee dairy farmers against loss through having to sacrifice herds because of labor shortage, the gov eTnment to agree to buy milk cattle which the owners are unable to handle.
 3. Drastically curtail I043 plant- Ing of short staple cotton and wheat, of which there are large BurpluseS, and plant such acreage to crops which are short.
 2. Enact legislation authorizing the President to appoint an ad- ininistrator for immediate ilnporta- ton of the maximum possible num- Der of farm laborers from Pureto Rico. Cuba and Mexico. This can- not be accomplished under existing procedures in time or in the quan- tity needed because too many gov- ernment agencies have to be con- suited and apporve every move"
 (. Appoint an administrator to contract with Mexico for crops in which there Is Q shortage here and to contract in Africa, Spain, Portu- gal and adjacent territories for pro duction oe food supplies for men overseas.
 & Plan farm operations by counties instead of by individual farms through county farm agents and county farm organisations. the objective being to plant crops in tho most favorable soil for each kind. to cultivate the largest possi. ble fields instead oe small ones and to pool machinery end labor.
 .. Grow crops under contract. Pay farmers eEl acreage Fete ter blowing. planting end cultivatins