The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1954-05-14
A Farm Leader Speaks

| Former Secretary of Agriculture
| Henry A. Wallace, who for many, was
the torch bearer of farmers rights
when farmers were engaged in a bitter
| struggle for survival, in an article in
the NEW REPUBLIC has got around
| to endorsing Secretary Bensons slid
ing scale parity formula.
| Lest the admiration of many present
and former Wallacites succumb to the
obscurity of his arguments his article
may well bear analysis.
His first shot is aimed at SURPRISES,
in which he maintains that unlimited
SURPRISES will eventually destroy the
Ever Normal Granary, which he in
stigated in the 30's. That high agri-
cultural prices will stimulate over
production and throw farm economy
into tailspin, presumably by pricing
the farmer out of the market (the
dogma of the Bensonites) and that
citizen Farmer should be happy with
$50 of parity. My! My! That goes
Bensons 1870 one better!
. Continuing the argument, in regard
to feeding the hungry, Mr.. Wallace
states that no people can expect char
ity from us as matter of duty, and
then contradicts himself by saying
that he hopes "our gifts to starving
millions will be very large"
Mr.. Wallace argues that compared
to the 1910-1914 base period, one man
produces fully twice as much, and
that on this score his income should
be adequate. But he no more than says
this when he follows it with the OBJ
servation that his Che farmer's) ex-
penditures have gone up MANIFOLD and
he has become very vulnerable to a
squeeze between fixed costs and vio-
lently fluctuating and the whole
declining prices for his product" He
recognizes the trend toward big farm
mo hn oiaIi rzo+
ture and that the small farmer will
eventually be pushed off the land.
All well and good. Mr.. Wallace rec
ognizes these serious problems. But
alas! His only answer is the sliding
scale, which is not much better than
parity in the open market" which
we have enjoyed within the memory
of many stalwarts, and in which we
slid up and down-mostly down-until
it required block and tackle to pull |
us out on top
1t was amazing, to say the least, |
that Mr.. Wallace made no mention of |
the Brannan plan and what it's portent
might be as means of dealing with |
SURPRISES and at the same time main |
tain a level of farm income common
surate with other industry. 1t is |
strange that the now familiar Bran |
nan Plan for dealing with SURPRISES |
by putting the surpluses on the open |
market at market price and SubSidiZ- |
ing the producer by production pay
ments on a unit basis has been so
ignored by the halls of
Congress. 1t is even more strange that I
Mr.. Wallace has found nothing in it
worthy of mentioning. This is the
farm program supported by the Ma
tional Farmers Union, with emphasis
laid on the family sized farm
Words often appear clever when put
on paper, but weighed against the
background of human events they are
often found shallow and impractical.
1t is more logical to learn from past
experience. In all the history of Amer
lean Agriculture, the farmer until re-
Gently, has struggled against poverty
and debt. AS long as the price which
he gets lags far behind what he has
to pay he will be faced with bank
ruptcy and foreclosures.
The contention that high price sup
ports stimulates overproduction has
not been entirely born out by past
events But on the otherhand when