The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-03-09

all subsidies and the payments fol
which are made to the professors.
| Commodity Credit directs the pro
grams covering subsidy payments OF
barley, rye, corn, cotton, dairy prod
ucts, eggs, fruits, hemp, oil seeds, to
bacco, wheat and wool.
| So quietly did the CCC bill pass the
senate that most of the nation did mo-
even know the subsidy issue was up
This silence was by no means acct
dental Senator Taft signaled the re
publicans against making an attach
on food subsidies and said on the
senate floor as the bill came out, q
have never been entirely against sub
Sides"
Soft-pedaling of the subsidy issue
reflects the change in attitude on the
part of the opposition. Farmers now
realize that subsidies make it possible
to stimulate war food production with
out opening the door to initiation
Thus, the dairy subsidy offset higher
feed costs and prevented the &c a
quart increase in retail milk prices
proposed by the dealers, which would
have cost the nation more than five
times the amount of the subsidy.
None of the farm organizations op-
posed the continuation of the subsidy
programs this year. Instead of using
food subsidies as political football,
the opposition therefore concentrated
on whiting down the amount and
I, ,f.f,1c riTa % 40
program.
Taft made this clear in explaining
the amendment which he succeeded in
adding to the bill as passed by the
senate. He said:
$50 the administration is not abso-
lutely tied hand and foot. But, in
substance, the policy of the bill is to
freeze the present scale of subsidy
payments.
Secretary of Agriculture Wickard
asked the house banking committee
to remove the shackles imposed by
the senate draft and ito permit the
operations of the Commodity Credit
Corporation to be more flexible" He
also asked that the half billion of bor-
rowing power be restored in order to
prevent higher retail prices.
The CCC bill continues the guaran-
tee that 800 of parity will be paid
farmers for two years after the war.
Since farm prices are now 114% of
parity and only a few instances of
temporary gluts have occurred, little
attention has been paid to this guar
antee.
But there is big, and as yet I'M
answered, question here: How much
production is guaranteed the 9O% min
imum? All that the farmers produce
or only some part of the total?
The administration position is that
full production should be the postwar
objective, and even though some
changes will have to be made in war
production patterns, a policy of abun-
dance is both practical and necessary
Thus, Ivy Duggan, governor of the
Farm Credit Administration, urged
that congress clear up this point and
make "a public commitment on the
volume of agricultural production on
which it would support the price"
On the other hand, the anti-admin-
forces are still thinking
along the old lines of Surplus" and
scarcity In discussing price-support,
for example, Senator Taft avowed,
.. think after the war we must
have to consider some more
drastic method of dealing with the
surplus problem
1t is no accident that in his two
hour speech attacking Wallace on the
floor of the senate, Taft showed no
or faith in the admins
program to continue full pro-
1uction for America. Sem Claude |
Pepper (D.-Fla.) described Taft's har-
angue as an echo of "the economic |
and political philosophy Of. Herbert
Hoover"
During the election campaign, Sen
ltor Taft joined with Dewey in sing
ng the prases of an economy of abun-
lance. Now that he has been elected |
or six more years, however, Taft |
would have the farmers believe that
postwar SURPRISES are inevitable and |
hat drastic methods must certain
y" be used
The Farm Bureau, Farmers Union,
md Grange have taken a different
position, holding that return to scar
;ity can be avoided. The recent con-
erence at Yalta where President
Roosevelt met with the leaders of the
United Nations, has once again shown
hat the freedom-loving nations of the
World have taken their stand on the
idle of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. for Farm