The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-02-25


 Peter Edsoa grain sorghums.
 Action of the congressional sub- committee was such a setback to the President, to Economic Stabili- 2ation Director Jimmy Byrnes and to the Democratic leadership in Con- gress that they cannot permit 1t to go unchallenged. You may there fore soon expect to see some new move made to get an appropriation for incentive back in the budget.
 One reason that the incentive payment plan was killed may be that it was not understood. Economy minded congressman of the House apparently understood the 'addi- tional $1O0 million" part, even though no one yet knows what $l00 million looks like. They understood in 8 vague way the principle of an incentive, and this general idea had been sold to the House and Senate leadership by Wickard and Byrnes.
 The plan is admittedly compli- cated, and to start from scratch, 1t will take three days for this depart ment to explain how an incentive payment incents. We'll get on with the first lesson:
 BIG FARM--SNEALLER CROP
 Begin with the story of Farmer Jones of the mid-western, great plains states JoneseS. Any average farm in the wheat belt will do, but say this Farmer Jones has 480 acres. It has been previously determined by the county's triple A--Agricul- tural Adjustment Administration committee that Farmer Jones in 1o43 will be allowed to plant no mere than 200 acres of his land in wheat If you don't understand how this was determined, don't ask now for you were supposed to learn that when AAA was first set up, nearly 10 years ago, and in understanding incentive payments there are certain things you have to take for granted as so, just because they're so.
 Anyway, Farmer Jones's wheat acreage allotment is 200 acres. Now, under the Department of Agricul- ture'S conservation program, 1t has been determined-again don't ask l1ow-that for the l043 crop, farm. CTS shall be paid 0.2 cents a bushel for every bushel of wheat grown on every farmers allotted acres pro- vided he doesn't plant more than allotted acreage in wheat. Say the 10-year average yield of wheat on this land is 10 bushel to the acre. That would be 2000 bushels for Farmer Jones's 200 acres.
 Two thousand bushels of wheat at 9.2 cents per bushel multiplies to $1S4, which would be paid to the farmer out of the federal treasury and would be over and above what ever he could get on the market for the actual sale of his wheat. Some time during the spring, the county triple A committee will come around and check up to make sure Farmer Jones hasn't planted more than his 200 acres. Some time in the fall, Farmer Jones would get this extra money.
 NEW INCENTIVE"
 Now this $184 is kind of an in- centive payment, but 1t is not the incentive payment we started to talk about in the beginning. This $l84 is an incentive for Farmer Jones NOT to grow more than his quota of wheat. There is already too much wheat in storage. The 9.2 cents per bushel wheat payment is intended to make sure there won't be more than too much, and the new, wartime incentive payment supposed to encourage the farmer to grow more things the country hasn't enough of is something else again, which will be considered in it's proper place.
 Before going on to that, consider what happens to Farmer Jones if he plants more than 200 acres. For every acre above his allotted 200 that Farmer Jones plants in wheat, he may be penalized-yeS, penalized -10 times the amount of the pay ment he gets if he doesn't plant more than 200. The payment is 9.2 cents per bushel. Ten times that is 92 cents a bush, and with yield of 10 bushels to the acre, Farmer Jones could be penalized $9.20 for every acre above 200 planted in wheat. If he planted 2l0 acres in wheat, his 10-acre penalty would be $92, and if he planted 220 acres in wheat his 20-acre penalty would be $l84. which would exactly wipe out the conservation program payment of Sle4 to which he would be entitl- ed if he had planted only 200.
 Here, an important point. A farmer cannot be penalized more than the amount of payment to which he would otherwise be eIl- titled. If Farmer Jones had plant cd 230 acres in wheat. for instance, they couldn't haul him into court and actually fine him eo2. Tn other words. they don't take away from e farmer more than he hasn't got.
 Now that you understand all this hasic stun, you're ready to take up the matter Of real. wartime lneen- tive payments to increase produc- ton of food crops. which viii be Ia l A ..N