The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-03-22

Wt bNOEukO VA $450 per day plus 3 cents mlle transportation in some western areas for every day they work for the government. Pay varies from s to 80 e day.
 Whatever the rate, most of the committeeman feel they lose money at 1t, and they say they're not poli- tical. They are apt to be Democrats In the South, Republicans in the North.
 For 10 years this organization of farmer committeeman has been the handspring of agrlculture's ac- ton program" says Norris E, Dodd, present triple-A chief. Elected by farmers themselves, the county and community committeeman stand- neighbors work together on prob- lens that could not be handled by individual farmers"
 When there were unmarket0ble surpluseS, the job was to reduce acreage by allotment, Now, when there isn't enough of anything, the joos is to increase production, But 1t Is of course impossible to build ID Q government organization of this kind without someone accusing It of playing politics with public money,
 USED TO SPEND 700 MILLION
 Back in the depression, triple-A at Its peak had an appropriation of 700 million dollars. This fiscal year 1t is only 200 million, For next year, the Bureau of the Budget has ap- proved on appropriation of 292 mil- lion on which Congress has not yet acted But that gives an Idea of how the work has been cut down,
 There are no parity payments to make because all prices are above parity, Calculating Nllotinents on wheat, cotton, corn, rice and tobac- co which used to take most of tho time, Is no longer done. Marketing quotas are removed for all crops ex- cept fiue cured and Burley tobacco,
 All that's left of the old program Is the handling of soil conservation payments, which amounted to $50 per cent of this years budget; the making of Commodity Credit Corp oration crop loans to producers; crop purchases for eco, crop in- surance, the sugar and winter cover crop seed programs in some areas.
 The necessity for soil conservation is stressed now because more acreage is under cultivation and soil Is more intensiVely used,
 Even so, the critics of triple-A want to know why 1t Is necessary to keep this organization of nearly 100000 farmers on the federal pay roll part time when the work Is halved.
 A TWOFOLD COMEBACK
 The triple-A answer is twofold-. It's war and postwar jobs, Com mitteemen have been given the war jobs of increasing acreage under cultivation and increasing produc- tion of the essential war crops - hemp, castor beans, soybeans, pea nuts, and so on. In addition, the War Food Administration last Mo- vember piled onto triple-A a lot of the tricky-track originally assigned to the unpaid county war boards - farm machinery rationing, off-high- way tire and gas rationing, issuance of farm slaughterer permits, distri- button of oil-Sced meal, granting of farm construction permits, certifl- cation of canners who contract to pay support prices, checking dairy feed subsidies paid direct to farm CTS.
 It can be argued that all these things can be done by the county agents In their spare time. but still the triple-A people say 1t will be necessary to keep this organization together for postwar use, when the agricultural products which the United States used to import get back in competition, and the order of the day will be reduce supply to the then-current demand.