Evening star., 1946-05-19
America Will Fulfill
Promises to Hunqry
Writer Commends Anderson for
Meeting Commitments
Bu Rdymond MOley.

Meeting Commitments
By Raymond Moley.
The Secretary Of Agriculture, Clinton
P. Anderson, has now been in office
approximately a year. He accepted the
job in the face of challenge. As .
member of the House, his reports
sharply criticized the food policies of
the administration. The President
thereupon told him to take over and do
it better. Mr.. Anderson's common sense
over the past year has been in sharp
contrast with fumbling in other depart
ments Of the Government. ..--
The following picture of the food
situation is based on conferences with
Secretary Anderson, with some of his
aides, with experts in foreign agricul-
tural affairs, with people in the u. N.
| food and agricultural setup in Wash
ington and with others. The general
lied picture which emerges differs in
many ways from most current opinions
that we hear. 1t is measurably more
! reassuring.
Secretary Anderson probably is right
in saying that after all the sen-re-
proach which we have heard in the
United States for having done too
little and too late" the final result will
be fairly satisfactory. The American
performances are as follows:
The set, after the deliberations
of the Famine Emergency Committee in
January and February, 1916, was $780,
600 tons for export from the United
States from that time until June 80,
1916. The commitment actually taken
over by us was only 5,500,000 tons.
Despite the problems arising from the
shortage of time, this commitment ap-
proximately will be met by June 80.
Former President Herbert Hoover al
ready has reported that he had TO
'def1ate considerably" part of the re-
quirements of foreign nations. In some
cases, when Mr.. Hoover left particular
country for instance. Finland, its gov
ernment made it known that it could
do with less than the original estimate.
So far as Europe is concerned, nobody
pretends that any really great number
starvation.
What will happen after the new crop
comes in, of course, cannot be predicted
We expect another bumper wheat crop
Of 1000, 900 900 bushels, which certainly
will be more than enough for the
United States. Since, however, we have
assumed an unWritten obligation to be
-
crops in other continents should not be
suffcient-or even if their methods of
collecting and distributing the food
within their own countries should not
be suficient-we have now issued plan
which requires that no less than one
quarter of our expected wheat crop, or
up to 25OOOO,0O0 bushels, be set aside
and exported.
The crux of the whole food situation
is whether the United States is going
to maintain its greatly expanded popu-
lation of cattle, hogs and poultry, which
is decisive for tolerable world feeding
T or starvation.
- Figures are startling: The average
i935-1944 cattle population was approx
I
1916, it was nearly 80O00,00O. The hog
= population averaged. from 1885 to 1914.
! about 55O0e,000 head, This year 1t was
100000 head.
Despite the bumper crop OF corn
(Which lost part Of its feed value be-
cause of MOISTURE. animals ate. last
| year. almost so per cent as much wheat
as the entire human consumption of
wheat in the United States. Therefore.
the central aim of the Secretary of Az
riculture must be to reduce the number
and the grain consumption of our meat
animals.
Reintroduction of rationing of meat
and a new rationing of bread, yociferous-
ly demanded in some quarters, fatty has
been opposed by the Department OF
Agriculture The decisive point is not
what human beings eat, but what ami
mails eat.
In attacking the black market in
meat, the Secretary wants to increase
deliveries to federally inspected slaugh-
ter houses. During the past few days,
he says, the movement of hogs to
slaughter houses has increased so that
this part of his program, in his opinion,
is likely to be achieved.
Far from proposing to lift the price
ceilings on meat, Mr. Anderson intends
to use the price inter-relation between
corn and hogs to reduce the many mil
lions of animal guests which we have
invited to our national grain table. He
is convinced that the new price policy,
which he inaugurated last week by rails
ing the price of wheat by IS cents a
bushel and that of corn by Is cents a
bushel in addition to an increase for
other grains and protein feeds, will be
sufficient to make the sale of grains
more profitable than using them for
feed.
The new program, which requires the
Government to buy Is per cent of the
whole wheat supply, seems to give an
unexpected answer to the question OF
the price of the principal grains during
the next 18 months. A year ago every
one expected and feared a sudden sharp
fall of grain prices, and the Department
OF Agriculture figured that the farmers
income might be IS per cent less in
1916 than in 1945. But as long as the
Department of Agriculture is the buyer
OF Is per cent of all wheat, it almost
surely can set the price, at least to such
an extent that no serious decrease can