NEW DEAL: LATER STAGES 533 



men, along with the head of the American Farm Bureau Federation, 

 E. A. O'Neal; (2) those who wanted outright repeal of the existing farm 

 program, including eastern Republicans, some conservative Democrats, 

 and such inveterate foes of the New Deal as Dan Casement and C. C. 

 Cogswell of Kansas; (3) adherents of the domestic allotment plan of pay- 

 ing subsidies and dispensing with production and marketing control; 

 (4) the group backing the cost-of-production bill, including such senators 

 as Frazier and Nye of North Dakota, Shipstead and Lundeen of Minne- 

 sota, La Follette of Wisconsin, Capper of Kansas, Gurney of South Da- 

 kota, and Burke of Nebraska. 85 



Senator Wheeler of Montana, also a supporter of "cost of production,'* 

 said, "This country will not be able to maintain a democracy unless farm- 

 ers get the cost of production for their products." Opponents insisted that 

 it would be difficult to fix prices for a long list of farm products on 

 millions of farms. Wheeler replied that the government already had made 

 it possible for labor and industry to fix prices. "You can't have industry on 

 a price-fixing basis as it is today and agriculture on a competitive basis." 

 "If agriculture is destroyed with its vast purchasing power then industry 

 will be destroyed." 86 



Keen interest was expressed by senators from the wheat states in the 

 suggestion made by Secretary Wallace that the Frazier-Lemke cost-of- 

 production plan might be tried on wheat alone as an experiment, espe- 

 cially if Congress was favorable to the idea. Senator Capper of Kansas was 

 inclined to follow the suggestion to experiment with wheat. Senator 

 Frazier said that it would be better than nothing, but hardly fair to the 

 other farmers. At the same time he expressed surprise at the Wallace testi- 

 mony that the domestic consumption of hogs and cattle would decline 

 more than 50 per cent if prices on these products were raised to cost-of- 

 production levels. 



Two good reasons were advanced for suggesting that the plan be tried 

 out with wheat first. One was that wheat consumption fell very little as 

 prices went up, while with products like meat, consumption often fell 

 as rapidly as meat prices rose. A second reason was that the support for 

 price fixing was centered largely in the wheat areas. 87 



85. Pioneer Press, January 13, 1939. 86. Ibid., February 9, 1939. 

 87. Ibid., February n, 1939. 



