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back prices, and subsidizes this and that group by direct pay- 

 ment or by hidden increases in incomes. Gradually the indi- 

 vidual becomes dependent upon the State from the cradle to 

 the grave. The extension of these State benefactions soon be- 

 comes synonymous with the extension of State powers. 



For a time a beneficent AAA paid the farmers more for 

 wheat than it was worth. Ultimately, an autocratic AAA de- 

 vised ways of "liquidating" the non-co-operator. They fined 

 farmers who did not comply with the program. An Ohio 

 farmer, who was fined forty-nine cents a bushel for producing 

 too much wheat, took the case to court under what is known 

 as the "due process" clause. Our Constitution states that 

 property cannot be taken from an individual without due 

 process of the law. The lower courts sustained the farmer, 

 but the Supreme Court overruled them and rendered a deci- 

 sion in favor of the AAA, handing down a very significant 

 opinion : "It is hardly lack of due process for the Government 

 to regulate that which it subsidizes." 5 



Different values are placed upon liberty. Some people 

 fight and die for it; and others sell it for a mess of pottage. 



5 Italics by the authors. 



Supreme Court of the United States, Number 59, October term, 1942. 

 Claude R. Wickard ... vs. Roscoe C. Filbura : November 9, 1942, page 14. 



