The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1949-12-01
The ---
American Way
MORE DOUBLE TALK
BY DEWITT EMERY

Secretary of Agriculture
Charles F. Brannan complains
that the 8lst Congress refused to
adopt the Brannan Plan because
the Republicans in Congress
misrepresented the plan by call
ing it "socialistic" and an in
strument of the welfare state.
Mr.. Brannan says these are
scare words used to frighten the
people and defeat his program.
In making this charge, Mr..
Brannan overlooks the very sig
nificant fact that there aren't
enough Republicans in the
House or in the Senate to de-
feat anything the Democrats
want to pass. If this is true and
Congress rejected his program
it did just that-then quite a
few Democrats in both the
House and the Senate must
have thought and voted like Re-
publicanS so far as the Brannan
Plan was concerned.
If his plan, which Mr.. Bran
nan admits is basically a pro-
gram of price supports for farm
products to maintain satisfactory
prices for both farmers and the
consumers, meaning high prices
for the farmer and low prices
for the consumer with the tax
payers paying the difference, is
not socialistic and is not an in
strument of the welfare state as
was charged by some members
of Congress, both Democrats and
Republicans, then certainly it is
up to him to refute these
charges.
At recent meeting of Demo
(, cratic leaders in San Francisco,
Mr.. Brannan undertook to prove
that his plan is not socialistic
and is not in any sense ar instru-
ment of the welfare state. But
strangely enough, what he ac-
tually proved is that his plan is
exactly what the opponents of
| it say it is. Here are his words:
Price supports will never be
a one way street. If there are to
be price supports they must be
backed up with marketing agree
ment, acreage allotments and
marketing quotas for use when
necessary"
This means that if farmers are
to get the high prices they desire
for their products at the expense
of the taxpayer, the farmers
must operate under a system OF
bureaucratic regulation and
control which gives the federal
government the power to tell
them what they may grow, how
much of it they may grow and
when and where and how and at
what prices they may sell what
they grow.
If that isn't socialism and the
welfare state all nicely wrapped
up in the same package, then
what in the world is it?
It's regimentations and totali-
tarianism in a form and degree
utterly foreign to our American
way of life. Americans as mat
ter of tradition and heritage,
have been free, the worlds first
free people, which is one import
ant reason why Americans made
much greater progress in 16O
years than was made by the 9TH
er peoples of the world in the
preceding 5000 years. Yet des-
pite this. Mr. Brannan now
wants to take their God-given
freedom away from American
farmers and put them under full
and complete bureaucratic con-
troll, covering everything they
grow and sell. And at the same
time he assures the American
people that there is nothing Soc
ialistic or which remotely re-
sembles the welfare state con-
nected with the Brannan Plan.
This is more of the same kind
of double talk which the Amer
lean people have been subjected
to for a good many years. This
double talk is based on the idea
that the average citizen is "too
dumb" to understand anyway,
so it's perfectly all right to tell
him anything you want to and
the poor sucker will swallow it
whole no matter how far from
the truth it may be. Then when
he wakes up, if he ever does, it
will be too late as by that time
the federal government will be
master of his life and his soul.
So far, the double talk has
worked pretty we'll for the vel
fare state crew, but even so |
think Lincoln knew what he
was talking about when he said,
q. but you can't fool all of
the people all of the time"
When you're average, you're
as close to the bottom as you