Evening star., 1949-07-07
The Political Mil
Fair Dealers Concentrate
On Winning Farm Vote

On Winning Farm Vote
New Legislation Before Congress
Should Lure Many to Truman
By Gould Lincoln
With congressional election coming up
next year. the Truman Fair Dealers are be-
ginning to concentrate on winning the farm
vote. The recent Des Moines conference,
to which leading Democratic politicians from
the Midwest focked was only warming
up gallop. The present program calls for
the enactment of farm legislation before
Congress adjourns, repeating the Aiken Act
RepublcanD with its flexible price support
system, and the substitution of a new Demo-
cratic act putting into effect, on few COM
modities at least, the Brannan production
payment" plan. Take eggs, poultry and
pork, for example. and arrange to pay the
farmers 100 per cent parity prices for them
no matter how low the market price Of
these items may fall-and with such lure
gather the votes of all kinds of farmers.
The farm vote is Democratic necessity in
the 1850 elections if the Truman admin
istration Is to get Congress that will do
its bidding. The 81st Congress. even though
it was elected with a triumphant Truman
and is controlled by Democratic majorities,
has been anything but responsive to the
Presidents long list of legislative demands.
Too many conservative Democrats from the
South. But if the Fair Dealers can pick
up more seats in the House and Senate.
now occupied by Republicans and Southern
Democrats from the farm areas, they will
have turned the trick.
Offering Farmer Plenty.
BY the same token. the Truman leaders
must figure on retaining in the coming
election House seats which they won by
very narrow margins in rural districts Or
ganized labor-certainly its leaders-is al
ready in the Truman corner, bent on getting
rid Of all those members who opposed the
repeal OF the Taft-Hartley labor law. Get
the farmer, therefore, is the latest cry
The Democrats are offering the farmer
plenty. To put it briefly. under the Bran
nan plan the producer-the farmers to
be guaranteed full parity prices; and if the
real market price falls below parity, Uncle
Sam will dig down in his jeans and pay the
farmer the difference Secretary Brannan
has asked Congress for authority to support
the price OF hogs as test. The Democrats
in Congress- however, are planning to ex-
tend this initial operation to cover three
commodities. and they could be eggs, poultry
and hogs.
Nobody has yet been able to get from Mr.
Brannan an estimate of what the cost of
operating his program, or any item of it,
would be. 1t is necessarily difficult to make
an estlmate-for no one knows how much
the market prices of farm commodities will
Huctuate or how great sum would be
required to make up losses to the farmers
from lower market prices
Cost Comparison Sought.
The Democrats insist that the Brannan
plan will not cost the taxpayers more than
the Hope-Alken farm law costs. The Hope
Aiken idea is to have the Government buy
up sufficient quantity of wheat, corn, etc.
to keep the price on the market from going
down to disastrous levels. The Government
takes the surplus off the market. It may
salvage something from these purchases
later. or they may be a total loss.
1t would be sensible. it seems, to pick q
commodity which has been supported under
existing law for trial run under the Bran
nan plan. Then the costs of the two methods
could be compared-and also it could be
determined which appealed more to the
farmer himself. Take eggs, for example.
At present. the support price of eggs is
operated by the purchase of dried eggs from
professors located in the surplus producing
Midwest States. No purchases Of whole or
frozen eggs are now made by the Govern
ment as were made under previous price
support programs. Critics of the present
support program for eggs say that the sup
port prices have fuctuated widely, seasonally
an dsectionally; that the program. operating
the year round, drains off eggs at times
when production is low, and that the opera
ton results in the consumer paying IS to 95
cents dozen during the winter
The Commodity Credit Corporation. since
May /, 1948, up through April 30, 1949 paid
an average of az cents per dozen for eggs
three dozen to the pound of dried eggs,
and received an average of 1894 cents per
pound. selling mostly to England, which has
now shut down on buying these dried eggs.
The purchase of eggs, to support prices to
the farmers, ran into big money. For ex-
ample, $93 3.045. .0S9 from May, 1948 to June,
1949.
If eggs were Supported" so far as the
farmer is concerned, for a similar period
under the Brannan program, the Govern
ment, the country-and the farmers-could
get some idea as to which is the more effec-
tive and the more costly program.