Evening star., 1949-06-26

MINER. A bill giving Secretary OF
try out his production payment"
ces on certain "perishables" like
Of the Aiken Act pooh-pooh the
idea that under the Aiken Act
perishables, like pork and beef
and eggs and milk and its prod
'ucts, cannot be supported. They
claim. too. that the production
payment" plan which Secretary
Brannan has put forward as some
thing new-at least on the scale
he proposes for the support of
perishable farm products-is per-
fectly possible under the Aiken
Act. They add that the attempt
by the Democrats to blow this
production payment plan into a
great issue is. therefore. nothing
more than a gigantic hoax.
These Aiken Act supporters
point to provisions in the act
which Cd authorize the Secre-
tary Of Agriculture to support
prices of commodities through
loans. purchases. payments and
other operations. They also
point to a provision which seems
to leave open the way to support
prices Of products which come
under the category Of perishables,
yet which can be stored for con-
siderable lengths Of time. like pork
and meats and eggs. With these
provisions In the Aiken Act. they
contend 1t Is ridiculous for Sec
retary Brannan to claim some
thing entirely new for his pro-
gram. and also for him to an
nounce, as he has done. that he
will not support the prices of
such perishableS as pork, eggs
and beef under existing law. The
Brannan position. however, is
supported on the theory that the
intent of Congress. as expressed
in debate on the Aiken bill, was
not to support these perishables.
Cost Unestimated
It has been estimated that the
Brannan program. as contained
in the administration bill, provides
mandatory price supports for
about 10 per cent of the total
agricultural production; the Aiken
Act, about Is per cent. Much,
however, may depend upon the
f1exibility with which the Aiken
Act is administered-if 1t ever
goes into operation.
The chant Of the Brannan pro-
gram supporters is that 1t is twice
blessed, since 1t will. at one and
the same time. aid both the pro-
ducer Of food and the man who
consumes 1t. Under this program
the foodstuffs will not be re-
moved from the market-where
production payments are made
and the consumer will get the
benefit Of lower prices when sup
ply forces them down. The farm
er. for his part. will be paid by
the Government the difference
between the price he receives In
tn market, no matter how low,
and the 100 per cent parity price.
The catch in the plan, however.
Is that these payments will be
made to the farmers with money
taken from taxpayers, who in
clude both the farmers and the
consumers. No one has yet been
willing to say what the cost Of
such a program will be or may be-
come. although critics Of the plan
have predicted a tremendous
drain on the Treasury.
It is perfectly obvious that If
there are surplus crops and fall
ing prices for farm commodities,
under the Aiken act large pay
ments will be made, too, out of
the Federal Treasury, or the tax
payers money If you prefer. The
Brannanites contend t hat their
program is better. since under the
Aiken act, the Government pur-
chases would remove food COM
modities from the market in or
der to keep up the prices to the
farmers. and the consumers would
not benefit. therefore, by the
transaction.
Legislative jam
The whole system of price sup
ports for farm products, under
any and all Of sthese plans-is
intricate and In some respects,
arbitrary. The manner In which
parity" standards are obtained.
for example. In past farm aid
laws. and in the Hope Aiken Act,
parity has been based on a formu-
la involving agricultural prices in
the years 1909-19l4. the only
change being that In the Hope
Aiken Act an effort has been
made to bring the formula up to
date by basing 1t on the relation
ship between farm commodities,
their production and use, during
the last 10 years. Under the modi-
ned formula. parity prices for
grains, for example. are somewhat
reduced, while parity prices for
dairy products, meats and poultry
have been somewhat increased,
while parity prices for tobacco re-
main about the same.
The Brannan program under
takes to set up new parity price
base-the income support stand
ard. The income standard Is cal
culated by multiplying production
by the prices fthe average for the
first 10 Of the last IL years, ex-l
cept that the years 1899 to 1o4S
inclusive are to be used II the
Brannan bill is passed this year. \
Now. the parity prices projected
into 1850, obtained under the
Brannan formula, are approx
mately 3 per cent more than those
obtained under the Aiken Act
formula. The difference, however.
may change from year 10 year.
But the price relationship Of In
diyidual commodities viii remain