Evening star., 1950-04-08
kon-PoIiticaI Survey
Proposed for Crisis
In u. 5. Agriculture
PorubIe of Water Tank
In BeIIomy's Equality
Applies to Situation
By Dorothy Thompson

By Dorothy Thompson
The so-called Brannan plan
for agriculture seems to this
writer more logical. at least, than
what we have been doing, which
recalls the famous parable of the
water tank, in Edward Bellamy's
Equality" written half a CEN
tury ago.
In this parable, owners of water,
following a drought, employed
men to find springs and haul
water for a great tank the mar
ket). For every penny paid to
the haulers of water, two pennies
were charged the consumers of
water. So the water tank, which
was the market, eventually over
flowed. seeing that for every
bucket the workers poured in they
received only so much as would
buy half a bucket. Then the
owners said to the people: Bring
no more water until the tank is
empty" and they put on an ad-
vertising campaign to urge thirsty
people to buy water. But since
the people earned no more money
by hauling water. they could not
buy, and perished of thirst, while
watching an overfoWing tank.
Program Complete Mess.
The United States agricultural
program is a complete mess. The
Government having subsidized
farmers to produce more of every
thing than they would otherwise
have done. and having taken off
their hands what if dumped on
the market would depress prices.
finds itself stockpiled with enough
surplus food to nourish another
nation. The Government holds
enough wheat to make every citi-
zen a loaf of bread a week for a
year; there is a quarter as much
corn as was fed to United States
livestock last year; there are suf-
ficient dried eggs to last United
States bakers five years. and more
butter, it is said, than Russia nor
mally produces annually. There
Is seven-month supply of cotton
for the Nations cotton mills, and
huge stocks of tobacco, dried fruit,
turpentine. soy beans and turkeys.
Most Of this produce has been
bought from the largest farmers,
and, according to Fortune" pay
ing for it is responsible for most
of the $1.S billion deficit in the
last budget.
The subsidy is contributed by
the taxpayer-consumers. Yet the
people, having paid the farmers,
cannot even get back some of
their money by lower food prices
The program has produced pre-
posterous inequities.
The value of land has been
keyed to price supports; the sup
ports go to growers who have
already obtained quotas, and it is
almost impossible for newcomers
to chisel in. Factories in the fields
where labor conditions are worst
are chief benefciaries. Socially,
the system initiates against the
small farmer who has been the
backbone of American stability.
Fallacy Even in Prices.
The family farms, growing eggs
for themselves and neighbors,
pay so high a price for grain that
the eggs cost more than they
bring. Butter is beyond the reach
of low-income families, though
the Government holds 100 million
pounds surplus.
Americans could consume much
of this if prices were within reach,
though there is a fallacy even
there. The human stomach is not
an infinitely eXpandable market
Poorer Americans would like more
of some things but then would
eat less of others, and everything
is in surplus.
Conservative economists advise
abandoning all price supports.
Even if that were politically pos
sible-it would demand a bipar-
tisan agricultural policy!-it re-
quires second thought. Nowhere
in the Western world, at least,
are people willing to pay at the
stores the economic cost of the
food they buy-as reckoned by
any manufacturer, capital invest
ment, interest, maintenance, labor,
taxes, profits. If all price supports
were abandoned and food brought
its full economic value. prices
would first rise, consumption
would fall, land values (the chief
basis of taxation in farm States)
would tailspin, and the law of
supply and demand eventually
would wreck the producers.
This country needs an institu-
tion similar to the British Royal
commissions, formed of distin-
guished citizen experts, to take
this problem under review, and
publish report from outside par
tisan politics. For the present
policy is a failure, the proposed
reforms dubious, and the problem
complicated for the average lay
man or politician.
Releaed by the Bell Syndicate, Inc)
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