Montana labor news., 1944-01-06

-%ncients, in the great populous centers,
were well aware of the food problem.
Else why, in the dead of winter would
they appeal TO Saturn to grant the boon
OF planting and the subsequent harvest?
Food, for them, was an e%ver-present
anxiety. They were without the NAM
moth storage towers, such as the GTA
terminal elevator at Superior, Wis.
Theirs was a hand-to-mouth existence
and famine swept the nations when
Saturn seemed to deny their petition
and withhold the fruits of the soil and
when there was no transportation avail
able. Note that Jacob and his sons, at
such a time, went down to Egypt to get
food, instead of having the grain shipped
in from the South. Later in Roman
history, ambitious candidates for public
office ran on a platform of free grain
for the needy, which was put into
effect with grain shipped from North
Africa. That should have given Saturn
something to think about
Smile as we must at the antics Of
the ancients, it could be wished that the
town folk Of this nation would show as
much concern over the production of
the food, which they now seem to think
comes as easily to them as mama de
scending from the sky. Modern systems
Of supply, of transportation and of in
dustry have made, for them, the petit
ton: Give us this day our daily bread"
an empty phrase. It is not so in Greece
where our American Red Cross is land
ing food for the famine stricken people.
It is not so in India, where vultures
feast on the emaciated bodies of hun
dreds of thousands Of famine victims.
It is only a little less so in Norway, Po-
land, France and Denmark where a
hair divides hunger from starvation.
Yet our city people remain complacent
and u%nconcerned. They have so long
been able to rely on the farmer that
they feel no need to call upon Saturn
or the Cod Of our Fathers for assurance
Of food. That attitude is reflected in
Vic COAlBACooi WAl4CA AlCA OtCcllDCI
81 for its Saturnalia-it meets again
January 10-when the matter Of secur-
ing the food of this and other nations
was the issue before it. Under the pres
sure of the farm bloc, it slashed out the
crop insurance appropriation and told
the farmer to take his own chances; it
took the $751; SOC, 600 appropriation for
loans to farmers and cut it to $780, 600
thus Gripping farm production; it took
the conservation appropriation of $780,
600 and slashed it to 81, 900, 900, to limit
irrigation and cut down food production.
All that and more, in face of a fast
diminishing wheat crop and extreme
shortage of feed for live stock.
AS if to show complete independence
of the nation for its food, Congress ad-
iourned with a law in process of passage
which, if it be enacted, will deprive the
farmer of any subsidy, either as an in
centive to further and greater produc-
ton Or to keep the price of food and
feed within the reach Of the consumer.
If Saturn still haunts the seat Of the
gods on high olympus, he must smile as
he notes that the only subsidies pro-
hibited by the bill are those granted to
agricultural products. It may be heath
enish 10 propose it, but Congress might
do worse than return to the pagan era
and give the god of seed sowing a little
attention-that is, if the people Of the
world are to eat with any regularity
during this grand glorious 1914, which
we have just entered. Otherwise, it is
going to be mighty easy to go from a
feast to a famine.