Imperial Valley press., 1944-04-12
BUREAUCRATIC RULE GETS
WELl-AIMED WALlOP

wedge into the ever-increasing bureau
cratic control this week when they "eX-
ploded the whole nefariOuS system
sQuarely in the faces of the four house
agriculture committee members who
halted in the valley while on tour of
guayule projects. Reverberations from
this meeting already have travelled to
Washington. 1t well may be that this
bit of empire down here in the south
west has started a move that will grow
into an avalanche Of protest that will
bring an end to the restrictions and rules
that are thrOttling the farm industry
over the whole country.
TIE growers plain-spoken blasts met
hearty response from the congressman,
and the two administration members,
caught in a cross-fire. were as emphatic
i'm their criticism of bureaus conduct as
the growers themselves. Both Represer-
tative Wickersham of Oklahoma and
Poage of Texas, Democrats. impressed
the growers with their determination to
be farmers first and administration
Followers second"
The explosion took place at an early
breakfast Everybody present simply
Gflet their hair down and talked turkey"
There was no mincing of words and no
punches were pulled. The growers served
notice that unless the whole set-up at
Washington is changed and compre-
-hensive program established and direct
Sd hv board or one man. thew are
prepared to shove the whole kiboodle of
auureaus overheard and start farming as
farming should be accomplished.
g Representative Phillips, ablv backed
by Representative Johnson of Illinois,
sounded the key note when he bluntly
i1old the meeting that a bill to throw out
all the conflicting bureaus and their
directives for a one-man director lies in
a pigeon hole and is kept there by the
administration leaders Following his
eoft-spoken protest on the mutitudinous
!hureaus and croSS-purpoSe rules and the
'tlictatorial power assumed and used by
these bureaus, Phillips told the Valley
protestants that congress rapidly is get
ting to the point where each and every
time p bureau takes on the prerogatives
Of legislators and proclaims their impos-
sible rules the lawmakers will hail the
bureau directors before that body and
discipline them.
=" Specific cases were cited before the
.congressmen and when they left they
were in a position to answer the slur at
Washington when administration lead
GERS and bureaucrats say either bring
sus something concrete or keen your
snouth closed" They learned that the
swhoe business of strangling agriculture
lis no longer a theory but that it is con-
EDITION.
I; 1t is high time the entire agriculture
.jnduStry rises un and says its piece like
.the Imperial Vallev growers did here and
Ito set off such blasts wherever con-
sc~~~~ro"n hornnnS TO be. The nations
food growers have been patient and long
ssulleIlng and Imperial valley producers
shave some further in this vein than many
sotl1ers.
The worm has started turning and it
ais to be hoped that the initial turn which
sstartad here will spread across the coun-
stry with speed and demands for action
blooming this disgracefu and devastat-
sing situation wherein coterie of what
pots tells farmers what to do and what
rot to do when these bureaucrats would
at know farm from Figi.
Good work has been started. And good
for Imperial Valley, that this has been
The starting place.
With the capture of Los Negros island
we have advanced approximately 1900
miles northwesterly from Tulagi, dis
tance of not much less than that from
Stalngrad to Berlin, in 19 months of
huch-maligned island hopping.-Col.
Warren Clear, War Department generals