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The Alamance Gleaner Vol LXIV GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1938 , ) . Weekly News Review Domestic 6 Dumping 9 Favored In New Farm Relief Proposal By Joseph W. La Bine ? Agriculture One feature of the 1938 farm bill calls for U. S. loans on crops af fected by falling prices. When crops are sold, loans must be repaid. Due November 1 are repayments on loans covering 48,000,000 bushels of corn. But by mid-October, with corn selling on the farm from 33 to 38 cents, and at market for M cents, disgusted farmers saw they would be money ahead to default on loans and give Uncle Sam their corn. Thus, overnight, the U. S. govern ment became the world's largest corn broker. This is but one phase of a Chinese puzzle known as the American farm problem. Since 1933 it has been the personal headache of Iowa's Henry A. Wallace, secretary of agricul SECRETARY WALLACE Poor people are also a problem. ture, who can remember the halcyon days when all surplus wheat and cotton ? the two basic crops ? were bought readily by foreign nations. But foreign markets are now glut ted. American farm surpluses must either be dumped abroad at any price foreign buyers are willing to pay, or be left to rot in U. S. gran aries. Most people have favored the latter policy, meanwhile deploring the economic unbalance that allows many U. S. citizens to go hungry despite bountiful crops. The easiest remedy would be to let low prices drive American farm ers off the land, but this is socially inhumane, politically unsound and economically foolhardy. When the New Deal started in 1933, AAA was formulated to pay farmers for lim iting their acreage. Funds came from processing taxes levied against manufacturers, but ultimately paid by consumers. When the Supreme court ruled processing taxes invalid, a "soil conservation" program was sent up to pay farmers for retiring their land, ostensibly to give it a rest but actually to limit produc tion. Thirty per cent of customs receipts were set aside to pay for it. Last spring, with surpluses still piling up, congress passed a new farm law, too late to limit produc tion this year, which partially ac counted for its failure. Under it the government may (1) control produc tion with consent of a majority of farmers; (2) make payments for re tiring land; (3) make additional "parity" payments as a protection against less - than - production - cost prices; (4) loan money against crops. If compulsory control is en forced next year ? as provided ? wheat and cotton acreages must be reduced one half. Agricultural re bellion would result. Still seeking the answer, Secre tary Wallace recently tried export subsidies, which the state depart ment's Undersecretary Francis B. Say re condemns as "the uneconom ic giving 'away of our substance to foreign nations." Though U. S. farmers are being subsidized the difference between export prices and the domestic market price, many observers consider it ridicu lous to sell surplus foodstuffs abroad at a loss when several million Americans are going hungry. Con sequently next winter's congress will be asked to adopt still another farm bill, the most far-reaching at tempt yet made to kill two birds with one stone. The birds: farm problem and poor relief. The Wal lace plan : surplus farm products would be distributed to U. S. low income groups instead of being dumped abroad. Though the federal surplus com modities corporation already dis tributes potatoes, prunes, milk and other minor products not affected by AAA, the new plan would include beef, pork, wheat, com and cotton. Broadly, it would follow New York city's method of selling milk to r? lief families for eight cents a quart, the city paying the difference. If expanded to a national proposition, the U. S. would pay retailers the difference between standard price and cost price. To pay for it, Secretary Wallace asks restoration of processing taxes, which theoretically fatt*on manufac turers but ultimately strike the con sumer. Opponents argue that re tail prices would rise, that consump tion would drop and substitutes would be encouraged, thereby hurt ing the farmer. But since the gov ernment hopes to stabilize farm prices, its counter-argument is that producers would have steady in come and increased purchasing pow er, thereby boosting U. S. prosper ity. These are the arguments next winter's congress will hear. Business Even as U. S. business has been busy reporting declined profits dur ing its third 1938 quarter, neighbor ing columns of the financial pages have chronicled what every manu facturer and banker knew was com ing: A business upturn. At Detroit, General Motors led the way by plac ing 35,000 men back at work, mean while granting 10 per cent pay boosts to all employees making less than $300 a month. Chrysler was a close second, announcing recall of 34,000 men since August 1. The reason was a double one. Oc tober, November and December are normal upturn months, especially in the automobile industry where new models begin coming off assembly lines. The other reason, one that made business hold its tongue in cheek, is that the full force of U. S. "pump priming" is just beginning to take force. Whether this com bined natural - artificial stimulant will keep business going uphill after January 1 is anybody's guess. If it accomplishes nothing else, the upturn has brought a measure of industrial peace. Where a month ago new strike waves were sweep ing the nation, sudden calm has now descended as industry's wheels again start turning. Religion Had October's national Eucharis tic congress gone searching for a discussion theme, it could have found none better than that which Nazi Germany tossed into its lap a fortnight earlier. In Vienna, Theo dore Cardinal Innitzer's St. Ste phen's cathedral had been mobbed, his palace invaded in protest against the cardinal's strong anti-Nazi stand. By the time 100,000 U. S. Roman Catholics assembled in New Orleans, enough sentiment was crystalized to make the Eucharistic congress a stomping ground for de mocracy and an unpopular place for dictators. Messaged Franklin Roosevelt : "We still remain true to the faith of our fathers who established re ligious liberty when the nation be POPE PICS XI He flapped at Dictator Hitter. gan ... I doubt if there is any problem in the world today that would not find happy solution in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount." But the keynote came from Pope Pius XI, whose six-minute broad cast from the Vatican was a direct slap at Dictator Adolf Hitler, whose lieutenants had tolerated the Vienna outrage. Said the pontiff: "We see many men who hold as valueless and reject and spurn those divine precepts of the gospel which alone can bring salvation to the human race. Scarcely can we refrain from a tear when we behold the eternal majesty of God himself set aside and outraged, or with unspeakable wickedness held up, as an enemy, to reviling and to execration." Defense Though the Munich agreement was aimed to preserve Europe's peace, its immediate result has been feverish rearmament. Great Brit ain has made plans for conscription and new airplane factories; France has appropriated 1,320,000,000 francs for military spending and 887,000,000 more for her navy; Germany is rushing fortification of her Belgian frontier ; Italy speeds barriers in the Alps. Few Americans have hoped that the U. S. can avoid similar prepara tions. Loudest persuasion of all has come from Britain's Winston Churchill, whose short wave broad cast urged the U. S. to take a com manding lead against dictators, to join Britain in stopping "isms" be fore it is too late. Added impetus has come from current U. S. espion age investigations (m DOMESTIC). BERNARD BARUCH Be tainted billions for defense. Growing louder, this voice finally reached White House ears, coinci dental^ bringing comment from Capitalist Bernard Baruch who chairmaned the war industries board in 1917. Emerging from a White House conference, Mr. Baruch started ob servers thinking by warning that U. S. defenses were inadequate. Though most Americans regard "defense" as successful repulsion of a North American invasion, a broader con ception calls for protection of the entire Western hemisphere. Mr. Baruch's defense program includes: (1) immediate construction of a "two ocean navy"; (2) increased air power; (3) better equipment for 400,000 regular soldiers and the na tional guard; (4) subsidies to pro tect U. S. trade interests in South America; (5) industrial and milita ry mobilization law; (6) a special tax to pay for these expenses. Though it lacks official confirma tion, President Roosevelt plainly fa vors the Baruch program. The sug gested tax boost comes dangerously near election time, but administra tion leaders minimize this political hazard because: (1) most Ameri cans regard democracy's security as more important than financial security or political partisanship; (2) a speeded-up military and naval program, financed by special tax, would decrease relief rolls and pos sibly create what Germany has been facing, an actual shortage of labor. Thus WPA and PWA costs could be slashed and the budget balanced. Domestic Inescapably connected with the government's new emphasis on mil itary defense against Nazi-Fascist world powers is President Roose velt's interest in espionage. For 20 years the U. S. has disregarded spies, though the increasing fre quency of arrests has made Amer icans fearful of Germany, Italy, Ja pan and Russia. Heightening the tension have been: (1) the Munich agreement which placed democra cies on the defensive; (2) arrest in mid-October of four Germans tak ing photographs in the Canal Zone; (3) trial in New York of four al leged Nazi agents, with coincident efforts to prove indictments against 14 others who escaped the spy net and fled to Germany. Greatest interest in the espionage trial lies in red-haired, 26-year-old Johanna Hoffman, who reportedly transported spy messages from New York to Germany while serving as hairdresser on the liner Europa. Second interest lies in Guenther Gustav Rumrich, former U. S. army sergeant who deserted and made a blundering attempt to secure 35 passport blanks last June. Though New York's spy trial ap pears commonplace, its significance is tremendous. Not only does it mark an emboldened U. S. defense attitude, but legal expert* also ex plain it is the first time America has named a supposedly friendly power (Germany) in direct charges. Since indictments are filed against heads of the German secret service and naval intelligence, the trial is a potential international dynamite Bruekmrt'a Washlmgto m Dlqeut Wallace Proposes Two-Price Plan To Market Agricultural Surplus System Would Create Class Distinction in This Country and Open Road to More Graft and Corruption; Farmer* Rebel as Various Schemes Prove Unworkable. By WILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Bervioe, National Frtmm Bid*., Wutalnrtoo, D. a WASHINGTON. ? I Just cannot help wondering what the verdict of history is going to be, say 50 years in the future, concerning the pres ent secretary of agriculture, Mr. Henry A. Wallace. From a current perspective, it appears that Mr. Wallace can get out on more limbs ?'way out on them ? than any man who ever has helped bungle govern mental policies. He seems to have a penchant for jumping from a fry ing pan into the fire, as we see the thing as of today. This capacity- for jumping here and there has placed the head of the department of agriculture out on another limb. This time, as has been announced, Mr. Wallace is giv ing serious consideration to a pro gram that seems certain to create a new mess. Having made what ap pears to be a terrifically bad job ? at least that is what tens of thou sands of farmers think ? of efforts to rehabilitate the agriculture indus try, Mr. Wallace is now proposing to enter the consumers' field. He and his window box farmer aides are seriously considering es tablishment of a two-price system in this country. That is, they are proposing that agricultural sur pluses should be sold to " ordinary " consumers at one price and that the same commodities should be sold to "lower income " persons at a lower price. The federal govern ment would make up tin differ ence where losses occur in the sale of farm products to the lower in come groups, swallowing that loss as m subsidy disguised under the fine words " maintaining a sound market for American producers." Opetu the Road to Mora Graft and Corruption The thing is so cock-eyed that it seems strange it would be given a serious thought anywhere. It opens the road to more graft and corrup tion than can be measured, more govermmental pressure and regi mentation of people, more vote buy ing. But my objection goes deeper. I object, and I think the plan ought to be laughed out of the window, be cause it is proposing to destroy the very reasons for establishment of the United States as a free nation. Everyone knows that the earliest settlers fled England because of the oppression resulting from the class system. Other reasons expanded the desire for freedom, but fundamen tally the motivating force that brought colonists to American shores was the class system and the damages done to the lower classes and untitled persons. The current thought, advanced by Mr. Wallace, will create class distinction in this country? and no one can tell where that will lead. I suspect this new limb on to which Mr. Wallace and his crew have climbed sprouted from the fail ure of some of the other visionary schemes tried by the professional farm planners. It is unnecessary for me to recount the numerous plans that brought, flrst, the scarci ty plan for raising prices; that brought, next, such sweet refrains as "the more abundant life" and that brought various and sundry de lightful outlooks. Rain clouds blew up, however, and the schemes that were to solve the farm problems were like the letters in a leaky mail box after a downpour. Bat always there were checks, government checks, and I never would blame anyone for taking them. I believe surely, however, that it was only the existence of those checks that kept the farmers from moving en masse upon the beautiful grounds of the department of agriculture, de manding fair treatment. Farmer* Rait* Voice i u Sehemet Prove Unworkable As the latest schemes from the department have proved unworka ble; 'the farmers with their better knowledge "of what is good for the industry have raised their voices in objection, notwithstanding the checks. Mr. Wallace and his the orists have had to look quickly for something new. They have hit upon the two-price system, largely in a hope that they can stall off a gen eral farm uprising, but also because the Idea of governmental purchase of farm crops has piled up such tre mendous stocks that the boys are afraid their lives will be snuffed out by cave-ins. In other words, the small houses they were building have turned out to be skyscrapers. It is not only my conclusion that such things as the recently tried ex port subsidy idea have failed. An other, and very important, agency of the government apparently has reached the same conclusion. Only recently, the department of state took a slap at the Wallace policies on export subsidies. Assistant Sec retary Francis B. Sayre was the voice of the department of state in this instance, and he said in a New York speech: "In many minds, export subsidies offer a plausible solution ; but such a method is as unsound at bottom as it is plausible on its face. Practi cal experiences in numerous coun tries have shown that this method creates more problems than it solves. Export subsidies are pow erless to move exports in the face of foreign quota restrictions, li censes, etc." And so forth. Now Mr. Wallace said that quotas, licenses and that sort of thing had forced the export subsidies, but apparently the depart ment of state thinks it is the other way 'round. Mr. Sayre, of coarse, was supporting the reciprocal trade agreement program that is fostered by Secretary Hull, and whether you believe in that idea or not, you can hardly dodge the fact that trade treaties at least seek to pat a stop to the building ?f more trade re strictions. Mr. Wallace's export sub sidies invite new action against our shipments . Baying Sarpftu Product* To Care for Destitute Again, assuming that it is neces sary to care for the destitute ? and nobody can deny that either the states or the federal government must do so ? why is it necessary to further complicate the present prob lem of feeding the poor by this half baked scheme? The surplus com modity corporation has been buy ing surpluses from the open mar ket. The purpose was to take off a price depressing influence. It was designed to make a price for the farmer somewhat higher than would have obtained, whether it has ac complished that end or not. In any event, the surplus products that were used to feed the poor were giv enMo them and that action has had very little effect upon the stability of prices. But Mr. Wallace is not satisfied with that arrangement. Why? Well, apparently, he is getting afraid of the huge piles of government-owned products, acquired because of the fuzzy character of his earlier prom ises to make agriculture safe for democracy, or the New Deal, or something. Mr. Wallace's experts have Just concluded a survey which leads to the conclusion that if everyone in the United States had an "adequate diet," this country would consume all that is produced on farms an nually, and in addition would re quire the production of two addition al states of the size of Iowa. We must assume that their findings are correct, but questions will occur to everyone about them. First, what is an adequate diet? People have different ideas about that, especially the fat man or the fat woman who wants to hold the belt line within reason. But the more important question Is: If there is that addi tional production needed to insure an adequate diet, why does Mr. Wal lace still cling to crop control, to a scheme for cutting down produc tion? The two systems do not rhyme in my humble mind. How Will Hutory Regard Policies of Wallace? So, when we see Mr. Wallace's ov.-n policies doing a contradictory loop-the-loop ; when we Dad him try ing to promote foreign trade by kill ing the goo** that laid the golden egg, and when we find him turning to the development? or, considera tion, at least,? of a scheme to cre ate class feelings within our own population, I wonder what the end will be. To repeat, I cannot help wandering how history will regard him and the policies ha is now seek ing to carry through. Speaking of Sports New Football Theories Get Trial at Penn By HERB ROGERS JDEAL18M and theory never have * rotten very far in the hard-boiled hasineas of football coaching. Per haps the exception to the role will itself at the University of Pennsylvania this season, where tt y ear-old George Monger is han dling a varsity coaching Job for the ?rat time. Munger is an idealist and a the orist. With a background of only GEORGE MCNGEB Bve years of high school and frerit man coaching, be has moved into one of the top-notch football berths at the country. Back to the Boys Ok ?f the wrel ideas Oat M Ba rer has already fat hi effect is gtr tog the game hack to the beys. The team eapteia attends all rurt^ eearferences aad huinte to the A card index system is another innovation. Every player haa a rat ing sheet His good points aad faults are listed and no player is shifted from one team to another without knowing the reason. thesries that are as yet tee natried to completely Justify themselves Be has devised a stogie wing back style ef attack that is basically toe uaa as Harvey Harm an Had at Peas last year, bat has different black ing issign meats fraos start te Infeh. The tall back is pasted behind the weak side gnard aad the tacking back behtod the strong side gaard. '38 Teams Tougher? Switching from the youngest ma jor college coach in the country to the oldest brings us to Amos Alaoxo Stogg. football's grand old man who is now in his forty-ninth year of coaching at the age of T8. AMOS ALONZO ST A GO Staff, who baa probably coatrlb ?M mora to the progress ef toot ball thaa any living maa. reeeatly |an his Ideas on eurreat treads of the sport. Be beHeres that Ike most progressive development is not tbe lateral pass, bat the return to the old single wtog back. "Any good class B college football team of 1938 could beat the 'im mortal' football teams of 30 years ago by two touchdowns," he said. "The boys of today are bigger, stronger, faster and more agile ath letes than the men who made up the squads of old Yale, Princeton and Harvard. "Thirty years ago, football was aa exclusive sport far the few yeaag ?tea whe could afford to go to cal lage. Today tt is the !???!? maa's apart aad bsian mare bays are Ptoytog It, 11 aataralty ?aat be be* Baer Again V/l AX BAER, pacifism's | ivi Jaek-to-the-bex, la make another try tor heavyweight rklsipt? ?M tog to latest reports. Promoter Mike Jacobs i that Baer has agreed _ winner of the I isll Nm-1 Parr hoot, ichedaled tor Ibt Square Garden to New Ink, December 1(. Jacobs said the winner of the I and either Nova or Farr battle wbuld be matched with Joe Louis for the heavyweight championship. However, there are a few mtoar details to be irooed oat befare Jt com can arrange a match with Joe Louis. He got hi* first big set-back when Manager Julian Black de manded a guar antee of $900,000 for Champion Louis to risk his crown against the California play boy in ? Sao Francisco match next April. Here and There ? C an opening tnothen (amc wBmam Lou Little 1330 . . . Geferi*i past Frisch Ruth in all-time world I Total takes: Roth. Hl.MS; $38,480; Lazzeri. $37,350: 133. 607 . . . George Tt State athletic diiecf . : cleats are the chief amuie of i football sitj at Wis of its last 29 matches, will be tional collegiate 30, 31 and April L Pocket Billiards A com binatio* kiss and blank shot. Place balls as per diagram. Make certain the object balls arc frozen (touching). The balls In the triangle must be carefully spotted and frozen as the chart indVstes. Be sure and strike the object ball In dead center? in order to get per fect results ? and don't be too anx ious to draw your cue from the ta ble. This fc one ot the most glaring blunder* In the game of pocket bil liards. Keep your cne en the Una of
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Oct. 27, 1938, edition 1
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