53 2 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



two-price system that would make it possible for families in the "de- 

 pressed third" of the population to buy products at below the prevailing 

 price levels. Wallace likewise hinted that lending rates on farm products 

 should be lowered to a level that would promote sales in the export mar- 

 kets. 



Regardless of what was said against the 1938 act, it was crystal clear 

 that its critics had nothing to offer in its place other than the customary 

 crop of proposals ranging from monetary reforms, export subsidies, and 

 rigid government price fixing to subsidies on domestic consumption, un- 

 limited production, and tariff revision. Numerous bills embodying these 

 and other proposals had been prepared for introduction in Congress. 84 



When Congress convened in January, 1939, it was split four ways on 

 the farm issue. At that time the long-expected "cost of production" bill 

 was introduced, with the names of some eighteen United States senators 

 and fifteen congressmen attached to it. This was the most radical of the 

 proposed farm legislation; it called for the government to fix the prices 

 of a number of farm products and to compel dealers and handlers of 

 these commodities to pay a fixed price on the share of the crop that was 

 sold in this country, the rest to be sold abroad for whatever price it would 

 bring. This plan would discard all the production-control and marketing- 

 quota provisions of the administration program. When all was said and 

 done, the appearance of this price-fixing bill had the effect of sharpening 

 the lines of political battle and also of making the prospects of passing 

 new farm legislation remote. 



The list of senators supporting this bill was formidable and gave the 

 impression to many that there was a good chance of its passing the Sen- 

 ate. The measure was sponsored by Senator Lynn Frazier and Representa- 

 tive Bill Lemke, both of North Dakota. Its supporters in the upper house 

 included ten Democrats, five Republicans, two Farmer-Laborites, and one 

 Progressive; the eight House members included four Democrats, three 

 Republicans, and one Progressive, plus seven more who planned to join 

 the group shortly. 



The four camps into which the farm-relief advocates were divided 

 were roughly these: (i) those who wanted to stand by the existing pro- 

 gram, headed by Roosevelt, Wallace, and other top administration spokes- 



84. Ibid., December 4, 1938. 



