Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-04-12

us long complicated process
getting cup of milk or chapati of
bread out Of country close to
drowning in its own surpluses and
into, child hungering on one of
Asia's million streets.
It should be a simple process, but
OF simplicity q minor British poet
wrote few years ago:
what strange simplicity that
compelS complexities in it's solution"
Since the war, there have been
several methods of putting the sur
plus and the hunger in the same
room. But none could last. The
situation so acute today-too much
food in this country and too few
dollars abroad to buy it-has been
in the making a long time.
1t is a problem so serious that
one can say without exAggeration
that the fate of men and nations
depends on its solution.
The UNRRAs and ECAs that
helped to postpone the day Of
awakening have gone. So what
now? Agriculture Secretary Ezra
Benson, alarmed by the one third
drop in farm exports, suggests that
we buy more foreign industrial
goods. But take dollar short India
and PakiStan, for example. They
need our food, but have few in
duStrial exports to sell us. Mr..
Benson's other partial solution is
for greater crop restrictions. But
this leads to farmer arguments Of
unemployment and depression de-
spite parity loans.
Still another approach is needed
If the problem is to be controlled.
Food Reserve Ideo
Could creation Of an Interna-
tional Food Reserve be the answer?
Twenty-four Senators think it is.
Theirs is a simple suggestion, but
it definitely courts completely in its
solution.
It is born of that Yankee mixture
of self-interest and idealism. And
it combines some of the best fea-
lures of UNRRA and ECA.
Senator Murray, Democrat, Of
Wheat-producing Montana leads 10
Democrats, three Republicans and
Wayne Morse in sponsoring the
idea. The reserve, according to
their plan, would be composed of
SURPRISES from this and other coun-
tries. It would be administered by
the Food and Agriculture Organiza-
ton of the United Nations. The
SURPRISES would be stored in various
parts of the world. Hungry nations,
after they have exhausted their
dollars in regular trade purchases.
then could purchase the food by
paying for it in their own cur
rency, whether rupees or piaSterS.
FAC would apply that local cur
rency to technical assistance and
point-four type projects within the
country. Also, some Of the local
currency might be used by the
United States or FAC for purchase
of strategic raw materials.
The sponsoring Senators feel that
their plan is in the cause OF en-
lightened self-iptereSt. Unless sur
pluses can be disposed Of beneficial
~, crop restrictions may be the only
alternative. These they do not
want. They feel that such restric-
tions lead to depression. Senator
Murray maintains 1--WE cannot afford
to let temporary SURPRISES brighten
us into scarcity policy" Twenty
five million AmericanS-more than
20 per cent Of United States work.
ers-depend on agriculture for their
jobs.
Warnings Of crop restrictions and
q possible change in the current
price support policy are being
hoiSted. Secretary Benson said Tues
day in Colorado: ''You cannot hold
prices at abnormally high levels
without eventually having to re-
strict production"
The temporary" surplus in wheat
means that the Governments Com
modify Credit Corp. has in
vested about billion dollars in buy
ing up half billion bushels of the
wheat crop. And nearly half bill
lion dollars have been put into corn
and cotton. Cotton, in short supply
throughout the world, is also in the
Senators plan.)
Causes Of Surplus
The surplus is caused by q variety
Of factors. One Of the principal ones,
Of course, is the one-ttird drop in