The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1945-08-09
"lrL TAKE SARSAPARlLLA"
BY Dewitt Emery

.bout blamed economy, and present Indications are that
before long we'll get another large dose OF propseanaa on
this subject. This time the name will be changed to com.
pensatory economy or some such thing, but don't let that
FOOL YOU. it will be the same old chestnut no matter wnat
it's called or how it may be dressed.
The qong-haired" boys are quite fond Of presenting
p pstionsl Ills ssU and ailments s' They e are firmly convinced that
If we will just turn everything over to them, they'll be
able to plan everything 50 we will at long last actually naya nave ave
been searching for ever since the beginning OF time. They
are 50 much smarter and 50 much brighter than all the
rest of us-sctualy to them we are nothing more than the
our p~ individual lives for Us infinitely better than we could
beyond my comprehension, as none Of them was able TO
earn . decent living before they got on the public pay roll
5Dut, n sS ta;sSva ve eSss sot the to l %os out saef for st them n.s'
The basis of their philosophy, if that's the proper
word, is that whenever there is what they think is too
much Of anything it must be destroyed. If they decree that
Il they think there is too much wheat, cotton or corn, It
must be plowed under and no one need be concerned about
anything at all, the planners have everything under contf"'
In fact, they have it worked out on paper so that
everyone will get more and more for producing less and
less. until eventually everyone will have everything for
producing nothing. Thatll be the day!
But, how about IT, can the planners make this marvel.
planned economy works in this Country is to be found IN
the results of the first five years operation Of planned
economy as applied to American agriculture. The farm pro-
gram. you will undoubtedly remember, was undertaken to
save the farmer, to increase the prices he received for what
he produced. It provided an overall plan to replace the
haphazard method under which each farmer decided 1or
himself what he'd raise and how much. The planners dd
all the planning for all the farmers, fixed crop quotas and
took care of every detail of every kind in their plan, even
to paying the farmers for not raising this and that. That's
q fair sample Of planned economy, isn't it? Now, let's see
how it worked. x@a
According to the official records of the Department OF
Agriculture, the average price of wheat, 1921 through 1882
that's before planned ecOnOmy-was $1.O17 per bushei.
The average price of wheat, 1888 through 1937-during the
first five years of planned ecOnomy-was 85Nc per bushel,
a decline of 1921. During the same period, corn declined
4.3% q, cotton 34.7%, cattle 17.1%, hogs 1897. This sort OF
looks like planned economy had not worked out so well on
increasing farm prices. But. that's only part of the story.
Let's take a look at the Department of Commerce records
covering imports OF hogs, cattle and corn during 1893 as
compared with 1887.
In 1887 we imported 16, 21S pounds of hogs.
In 1893 we imported IA, 658 head of cattle.
In 1887 we imported 494, 945 head of cattle.
In 1888 we imported 160,28S bushels of corn.
In 1887 we imported S~6,337,248 bushels of corn.
In 1887 a bounty was paid out of the public treasury to
hold approximately thirty million acres out of cultivation.
Had our 1887 food requirements been produced in this
country twenty-five million of these acres would have had
to be in cultivation.
That's how planned economy as applied to agriculture
worked out, not in France or England, or China or Germany,
or Russia or Italy, but right here in these United States of
ours.
Planned economy has been tried by nation after nation
right down through the ages since the very beginning of
recorded history, and it has never worked successfully for
any of them, in fact, it .bankrupted practically every nation
that tried it, and it would do exactly the same thing to US.
I'd suggest that the next time someone tries to talk to
you about planned economy in any form, you tell them
you'll take 'sarsaparila."
----.nsA nrAnv ran ARuAEnppAA