Evening star., 1947-03-09
THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. C.
SUNDAY MARCH 9, lsH
Federal Bureaus at Odds
On Subsidy Definition
Congressional Proposal to Cut 'NonessentiaP
Items Starts Scramble Among Agencies
to Justify Various Outlays
Ry Sierid Arne

W c0CSAA
BY Sig,
President Truman asks for So
way through the year starting next
Some in Congress say this can
ing "nonessantial expenditures"
and business special attention.
An attempt to pick subsidies o
flying.
None of the Government depart
ments can agree on what a subsidy
is. The Budget Bureau draws
sparks out Of the Agriculture De-
partment by some Of its decisions
The Maritime Commission sends in
a report on subsidy operations that
doesn't make sense to the Budget
Bureau. The Treasury Department
hickers with the bureau.
Subsidy Payments Confusing.
. And they all turn on the COM
mittee that Senator Byrd Of vir-
ginia is directing, the Joint Com
mittee on Non-Essential Expendi-
lures, which Is currently trying te
sleuth its way to some notion OF
Federal subsidies.
The Budget Bureau, on request
from Senator Byrd, has worked out
one list Of 81 subsidies. But no one
agrees with 1t. To thicken the fog
there's bakers dozen ways to pay
subsidies. Some keep prices up
Some mail checks directly to people
Some the Federal Government
shells out to States, and the States
in turn shell out to both agencies
and people.
Senator Byrd's committee experts
have arrived at some overall
figures, but to do it they had to be
arbitrary about what Is a subsidy?'
= This must be kept straight: Sub
sides are not relief" in Washington
thinking, although both are Gov
ernment handouts. Subsidies 60
to various financial ventures,
whether sthey are farming or
running shipping company. Relief
(of which there has been very little
since the war; goes out to keep
persons alive and eating.
Incidentally, the outright relief
measures of the 30s spent a good
deal less than the various subsidies
to business in the years 1934-1945.
All told, relief cost about SO, 500, 900, :
900. Subsidies to business totaled
$1s, ,0O0. .ooo, 900.
Farmers get three times as much
subsidy as other forms of business.
Their figured take" would be much
higher if the list were broadened to
include such items as land reclama-
ton.
Investigators Are Bafied.
Items in the Presidents budget
that can be identified as subsidies
totaled $4,000, ,00o, 900 for the Il
months ending last June 80. That
figure dropped of to s71s. 900 900 fol
the current II months. and the
budget calls for s442 ,000, 900 in the
next 12-month period. Most of that
drop is due to the lapse of wartime
payments to keep prices on an even
keel. What's left is mostly con-
tinued benefits to farmers who got
most of the subsidy money through
out the sos as we'll.
Here's how some subsidies work,
and one of the reasons Byrds in
vestigators feel like Alice in Won
dcrland:
1. BY far the largest subsidy is
through the soil Conservation pro-
gram Farmers get Government
checks for planting less of certain
crops and Tor using modern plant
ing methods. 1t was devised to bal
ance the farmers income with the
city, while getting him to stop the
old soil-wasting methods he used to
employ. .-.
The Presidents budget shows that
in fiscal 1946 some $273 900 900 went
out for conservation practices. but
it took Sal ,OO0, 900 to administer"
the plan.
2. Parity payments. Through
these the Government makes up the
difference when farm prices drop
below set formula.
3. Through the war there was a
complicated set of subsidies devised
to. keep prices down for the house.
wife, to prevent union restlessness
and thus to prevent strikes.
More Of the Same.
Farmers and livestock men COM
planned they couldn't make a profit
under some of the ceiling prices. So
the Government paid the food pro-
cessors (mostly Gamers, packers and
cheese Makers, certain sums OF
money that actually made up the
difference. 1t helped them to sell
at ceiling prices and yet pay the
farmers enough to keep him happy
Government analysts say this pro-
gram cost about $l,7oo, 10000 but
that it saved the housewife about
81 900, ,oco. 900.
Here's more Of the subsidy wilder
ness:
Through the war livestock men
were paid not TO rush their cattle
and sheep to the market until they
had enough weight on them.
Cheddar cheese: The Government
bought 1t at high price and re-
leased It at lower one to keep
prices low.
The same system was used fol
Cuban and Puerto Rican sugar, pea
nut oil, prunes, milk and soybeans