" UNWORKABLE "

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 123, 26 May 1928, Page 12

" UNWORKABLE "

FARMERS AND PRICES M'NARY-HAUGEN IDEAL "livening Tost,," 2UIU May. President Coolidgo wasted no words in justifying his second veto of the M'Nary- ■ Hangen Farm Relief measure. He described the Bill, for all that it hud been ■ much altered from its original shape, as a ■measure that tried to delude the farmer ■with '"a fantastic promise of unworkable Governmental price regulation,'' and one in its altered shape still as repugnant as ever to the spirit of American institutions, both political and commercial: The Bill and its fate possessed particular interest tor jSev." Zealand in tuul it it Had /become law in America it was practtically : certain some similar law would be demanded by agrarians in Australia and in this 'Dominion. What the iM'Nary-Haugen Bill sought to accomplish was virtually a national subsidy of £50,000,000 to farmers to enable them to keep the domestic markets to themselves and to sell their surplus produce overseas at whatever price overseas markets would pay; or, indeed^ to undersell competitors in such markets. The people of the. United States were to pay not only in artificially-sustained high prices but through the -. taxes by way of this subsidy. WHERE WOULD IT STOP? In June, 1027, Mr. Mellon, Secretary ■to tlie United States Treasury, ably pointed out the inequity of the proposal. He "showed that "if a subsidy of this kind is given to five agricultural commodities, the Government could not logically refuse :to give the same treatment to the textile, boot and shoe, scoal, and other industries '■which arc finding some difficulty in disposing of their surplus products. "1 do not believe that the principles .contained in the Bill now under consideration are sound, or that the plan proposed would prove cither workable or beneficial to agriculture. The unfortunate condition in which many American .tanners ni:i. "themselves to-day will be aggravated, \,i! improved, by unsound legislation. \\c c«unot oppose fundamental economic laws.' A NINE-LIVED BILL. .' The M'Nary-Haugen Bill, in its various forms of the one idea seems likely to emu:lilsa the domestic cat. It has been brought up in Congress again and again and knocked out, and it is quite likely to sur■vi.ve two Presidential vetoes. It was first introduced and defeated in 1024; it was a»am introduced with amendments, but 'tub same basic principle in 1926, and again defeated. The sponsors of the Bill in its various forms say their object is to correct the unfair relations existing since 1920 between prices received for farm products and prices that farmers have had to pay since then for all they require. The same '.thing was said in Australia, where, as heavy protection o. primary industries ■is accorded to secondary industries is demanded' and in large measure given, lotexample, the Cd per pound duty on butter, which' will touch Now Zealand. • But no less an authority than an■Tosiah Stamp condemned the proposal as economically unsound; moreover, he pointed out that the scheme might have "international reactions." He referred to dumping, and the Bill, if it became law, was to sell produce .dear at home and sell nt any price abroad, making up losses on overseas trade from prices realised in, the j ■ '.lited States. • ■ ] ACTING IN SPITE OF THREATS. When in February, 1!)27, President Coolu\j,s first vetoed the M'Nary-Haugen Bill i.i'its then slightly modified form, he did so in spite of dire political threats from the farmers. The Bill had passed Con-i gresa, but as the resultoorlr an active and forceful agricultural bloc in both Houses, disregarding party lines and employing ruthless tactics to overcome the opposition. The President then defied the threats by the farmers' leaders of dire political reprisals. He refused to affix his signature to a measure which he and the members of the Cabinet had consistently opposed. The President, in his,veto message, held that the Act was unconstitutional, and lie attached the opinion of the Attorney-Gen-eral to that effect. . ... Since then the agricultural situation in the States has materially improved, but prices have not recovered to those of the booming war period. Nevertheless the M'Nary-Haugen notion is still alive, and it will probably soon recover from the swinging blow of the second Presidential, veto. Its future will continue, to be watched with interest here and in Australia.