EDITORIAL 



Ho Huml 



>^N a leading editorial entitled "No More Gushers," 

 [/I the Saturday Evening Post (Dec. 4, '37) gives its 

 ^^ official okeh to production control in the crude oil 

 industry, made effective by the cooperation of government. 

 Government oil proration, the Post emphasizes, is defen- 

 sible because it conserves a valuable natural resource and 

 produces more oil than would be the case with unrestricted 

 competition. 



So far so good. Every fair-minded person will sub- 

 scribe to this theory. But the real reason oil proration laws 

 were enacted was to prevent overproduction from wrecking 

 the price level, the same object farmers have in mind in de- 

 manding surplus control legislation. 



All the arguments advanced by the Post to defend 

 control of production and price in the oil industry can be 

 used to support production and marketing control in agri- 

 culture even to the point of conservation, for soil fertility 

 is a valuable natural resource. Yet this publication has 

 been most bitter in attacking the efforts of farmers to pre- 

 vent cut-throat competition in producing basic farm crops 

 from mining the soil and demoralizing farm prices. 



By what mental gymnastics, the Post can justify oil 

 proration and condemn farm crop adjustment is beyond 

 comprehension. The inconsistency of this editorial and 

 attitude is typical of many critics of crop surplus control. 

 Production and price control in every other industry except 

 agriculture seems to be considered good business practice. 

 It's only wrong when farmers attempt it. 



Next time you read of a new organization set up to 

 "educate " the farmer and save him from regimentation or 

 something equally as heinous, don't get excited. Take it 

 easy. It won't last. They never do. 



The Age Of Propaganda 



)OING through some old files the other day, we ran 

 across a folder full of literature and news clippings 

 of propaganda agencies that have passed out of 

 existence. 



We were reminded that five years ago the so-called 

 American Federation of Business sponsored largely by the 

 grain trade and other middlemen groups were stumping 

 the state in the hope of discrediting cooperative marketing 

 and the Farm Bureau. This agency fizzled out like many of 

 its predecessors and today appears to be dead and buried. 



Another abortive effort to turn farmers against their 

 best interests was made by the "Farmers' Independence 

 Council, " an offshoot of another has been, the Liberty 

 League. The Council seems to have passed on, too. 



It's an old trick for a trade group that wants to mould 

 farmer opinion in the "right" channels, to create a paper 

 organization with a misleading name and get someone 

 with an R. F. D. address to front for it. Cooperation of 

 the friendly newspaper is easily arranged, the propaganda 

 mill starts grinding, and presently the air and the mails are 

 full of words. 



Farmers have seen many such organizations come and 

 go. But there seems to be no end of them. This is an 

 age of propaganda. At this moment a new one is prob- 

 ably emerging ready to battle for the rights and privileges 

 — mostly privileges — of this, that, or the other estab- 

 lished method or institution. The rank and file of busi- 

 ness men are easy prey to propagandists and job seekers. 



Those Processing Taxes 



^*^^ OLLOWING a recent exhaustive study of proc- 

 ^"--^ essing taxes levied on farm products under the 

 ^^_y original Triple A act, the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Economics concludes "that there is little evidence to indi- 

 cate that the processors of any of the commodities upon 

 which the processing taxes were levied bore any appreciable 

 proportion of these taxes, with the possible exception of 

 certain corn and tobacco products. 



"In most cases," it was pointed out, "the evidence 

 seems to be conclusive that the tax was passed on to con- 

 sumers in the form of higher prices, or was taken from the 

 price which otherwise would have been paid for the raw 

 material, or was shifted partly "in each of these directions." 



The study shows that margins obtained by the proc- 

 essors increased either immediately before or at the time 

 of the imposition of the taxes, by amounts about equivalent 

 to or greater than the respective taxes, and decreased by 

 like amounts upon removal of the taxes. 



This conclusion by an impartial fact-finding agency 

 which has been quoted and lauded on numerous occasions 

 by opponents of crop adjustment is noteworthy. It sup- 

 ports the contentions of farmers who generally believe that 

 the processors had no right to the processing taxes retained 

 as a "wind-fall " by the Supreme Court decision. 



Reduce The Industrial Tariff ' 



|OL. FRANK KNOX, editor of the Chicago News 

 is to be warmly commended for his recent candid 

 address at Cleveland advocating a retreat from the 

 high industrial tariff. Tracing the history of the tariff 

 movement and its influence in political life. Col. Knox said: 

 "This grouing domination of government by 

 powerful interests enabled them to enjoy a monopoly 

 of the domestic market. This provoked resentment 

 among the consuming class who complained they were 

 compelled to pay excessive prices. This was paralleled 

 by a growing sense of dissatisfaction among farmers over 

 high tariff rates that provided an indirect subsidy to 

 highly protected industries, increasing the cost of every- 

 thing the farmer must buy, the while he was compelled 

 to sell his surplus products in a free world market." 

 The argument that a reduction of high industrial 

 tariffs will deprive workmen of jobs does not hold water. 

 On the contrary it will force the monopolists to find ways 

 and means of lowering production costs and prices. The 

 ultimate result will be greater consumer demand, larger 

 production, and more employment for labor. It has been 

 proved time and time again that low cost, large scale pro- 

 duction results in greatest profits and highest wage scales. 

 Henry Ford and the motor industry is an outstanding 

 example, an industry that has developed in this country 

 without protection. 



L A. A. RECORD 



