Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1949-06-03
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-Four Against One

TOUR OUT OF EVERY five peo-
L pie in the United States live in
cities or towns, and one lives on
farm, according to Wheeler Nc
Millen, editor of the Farm Journal.
The job of the one who lives on a
farm is to provide food for himself
and for the four who live in cities
and towns. He will do that so long
as doing it is profitable. When it is
not, he will, quite naturally, lay
down on the job, let his plant (his
farm) 60 to pot, and the four in
the cities and towns will suffer the
tortures of hunger and famine.
The four in the cities and towns
object to paying an artificially-
created high price for the food
which the one on the farm produces,
whether they pay direct or pay as
taxes what the government passes
along to the one on the farm from
the United States treasury. They
want to pay only such price as may
be determined by supply and de-
mand-a low price when supply
Is in excess of demand, and high
when the demand is in excess of the
available supply. The four in the
cities and towns remind the one on
the farm that they have four votes
to his one with which to enforce
their wishes.
Should government continue
to resort to temporary exped-
tents as a means Of satisfying
the fair demands for a profit
for the one on the farm, it will
but speed the day when those
four votes will be used, though
1t result in hunger for the four
In the cities and towns.
The answer to it all is: increase
the demand SO that the supply will
not SO exceed the demand as to
create Improbable prices for the
one on the farm. That can be &C.
complished by one of two, or both,
methods, preferably both.
ONE-The world demand for
food can absorb all the excess food
the one on the farm can produce
# the hungry and starving people
Of the world had the means with
which to buy. It is not impossible
for governments Of the world to
create world food pool to which
any excess supply from any coun-
try could 60, and from which the
hungry can draw at whatever may
be the prevailing price at the time
OF purchase by the government of
the nation for which the purchase
is made. 1t would mean but another
Tnforn afiNr,ol hnrI ~, ,v,,i@I Io<
prospective seller and buyer gov
ernments would provide the capt.
tai, and through which the financ-
ing Of food purchases would be
made. 1t would provide a demand
that would keep pace with supply,
and assure a profit to the one on
q farm. all
TWO-Another permanent assur-
ance Of demand-creating is the ap-
plication Of more farm crops to
the purposes of industry. There
are, undoubtedly, many things the
one on the farm can produce which
industry can utilize as raw mate
rial. Soy beans are comparatively
recent example. There are thous ands
Of plant species that are, or could
be, grown on American farms and
could possibly be used by industry.
A comparatively small sum used
tor research purposes might dis
cover some of these species, and the
industrial use to which they could
be put. That would be another
means Of producing demand for the
one on the farm, another method of
keeping him and his acres profitably
busy and assuring him price, with
out a government subsidy, to which
the four in the cities and towns OBJ
ject.
To attract the vote Of that one
ON the farm, our political lead
ers have resOrted to temporary
expedients Of either direct or
Indirect farm subsidies.
Now that the four in the cities and
towns are showing signs of revolt
at being forced to pay what they con-
slider artificially-created high prices
for food products the political lead
ers are proposing that supply and
demand should regulate prices, but
when such prices are lower than
the government feels the one on
the farm should have, the differ
ence will be paid to him by the
United States treasury. To that the
four in the cities and towns. object
because, indirectly, they are pay
ing it.
The four in the cities and towns
object to being taxed that the one
on the farm may get more than a
supply and demand price. That the
one on the farm also disapproves is
demonstrated by the strenuous op-
position to the proposed law on the
part of the two 1argest-Farm Fed
Grafton and National Grange-of
the three farm organizations Of the
nation. They ask for a permanent
remedy for the farm problem, not
another temporary expedient.
Sixteen billions for defense; five
billions for European recovery;
two billions for rearming Europe;