The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-04-13
Price Premium Battle
Grows in importance
War Food Administration Faces increasingly
Difficult Problem Of Getting 'Bashtlp
Beef Cattle to Market.
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. c.
By BAUKHAGE
Neips Analyst and Commentator.

WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. c.
The fight over subsidies-pardon
me, | shouldn't use that word sub
sides, the New Deal doesn't like it,
the fight over price premiums' on
farm products Is once more the chief
concern OF the administration and
the members Of congress who do not
see eye to eye on this painful ques-
ton.
The smoke OF the battle over the
veto OF the subsidy ban included in
the Commodity Credit corporation
bill has settled, and since then there
was another veto (the tax BILLY that
didn't fare so we'll. But the Farm
Bloc members are not so overopti-
mistic as to believe that the Presi-
dent and congress are still far enough
apart on the subsidy question that
another veto could not be sustained.
In the senate, the cooler heads Of
the opposition know this and are not
willing to go through the same futile
process again.
In the house, it is a different mat
ter although this is not likely to
change the final picture. House
Leader Joe Martin, while conceding
no jot or title to the administration
that he can withhold, has made it
plain that price control is neces-
sary, and he isn't going to allow too
much delay on the part of those
who want an anti-subsidy rider at
tached to the QPA bill. He has other
plans Of his own.
War Food administration officials
are quoted as admitting that the
case Of the bashful beeves is one Of
their greatest problems. Concrete
ly, they have the job Of enticing two
or three million head Of beef cattle
off the ranges and into the butcher
shops during early spring and sum-
mera And the only thing that they
know of to make the cattle move is
the good "old reliable that makes
the mare go-cash money. Since
the administration is sitting on the
ceilings and refusing to allow prices
to the consumer to 60 up, Uncle Sam
will probably have to make up the
difference again, if congress will let
him. in the form OF price pre-
niAm' to the stockmen.
The Bankers Stake
And the government is wondering
about something else besides a few
meatless Mondays or Tuesdays or
Wednesdays. 1t is worried about the
banker who has a stake in steaks,
as well as the cattleman and beef
eater.
Cattle on the ranges have in
creased beyond the feed on the
ranges.
The average livestock population
of America in the years 1922 to 1912
was So million head. Roughly let's
say half Of this was dairy cattle.
Now the estimate is 81 million, head
and the ratio Of eating cows to milk
ing cows has increased alarmingly
in the last few years.
And the beeyes are now home on
the range because there isn't price
incentive to lure them to slaughter.
The government feared this; feared
first the famine and then the food.
It now looks as if the famine was
coming and the food is not far be-
hind. And this is where the banker
comes knocking at the door. He re-
members other gluts when the
drouth, for instance, sent all the cat
tie to market at once, running the
industry, making the bankers notes
just so much wallpaper.
But how, the simple citizen asks,
can there be price drop when the
government has placed floor UNI
der prices as well as ceiling over
them? Well, see what happened to
our friend, the hog, The farmer
brought his pigs to market The gov
eminent fixed the price which the
packers were bound to pay. But so
many pigs arrived that the packer
couldn't pack them and the law
didn't say he had to buy what he
couldn't use. So the farmer, rather
than pick up his pigs and carry
them home again, sold them of at
disgracefully low prices to the smart
boys. Finally the smart boys got
the floor price, the butcher got his
ceiling price which the consumers
with full pocketbooks and empty
stomachs were glad to pay All the
farmer got was mad.
This happened why? The govern
ment says simply because some
farmers, seeing as how there was
going to be such good market for
hogs, exceeded their quotas-got too
hoRaish Zone district In Iowa, was
told, increased its pig crop by So per