FARMERS' RELIEF

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1933, Page 11

FARMERS' RELIEF

LEGISLATION IN U.S.A.

PARITY, BONUS PROPOSAL

WASHINGTON, 12th January. As the first move in. legislation for Telief of agriculture propounded by Mr. 11.I1. D. Roosevelt during the Presidential campaign, the House of Representatives to-day passed a so-called "Parity plan" Farm Relief Bill by 203 votes to 150. The plan in effect provides for the payment of bonuses to the producers of seven commodities, such bonuses representing the difference between the present world prices and the average prices prevailnJig before 1914. The commodities include wheat, hogs, cot-, ton, tobacco, rice, peanuts, and butterfat. A bonus will be paid by processors, such as millers, meat packers, etc, to the United States Treasury, which in turn will make refnnds to farmers upon the fulfilment of a pledge to reduce acreage or production by 25 per cent. The final passage of the Bill is doubtful, as opposition, to it in the Senate is strong, while a Presidential veto if it is passed is .considered probable. Whether Mr. Boosevelt will favour the legislation! passed is. unknown. It is drafted in general terms, but is not specific as-he outlined. ' Opponents of the Bill are vigorous in their denouncements, alleging that it would cost the consuming public approximately a billion dollars annually; also that the administrative expense which farmers must bear would be excessive owing to the necessity of strict supervision to enforce the reduction clause. ■■•'•. ■■••■. •-.'■; Many predict that the Supreme Court will declare the measure unconstitutional. If enacted it would peg the price of wheat and rice at 75 cents a bushel, cotton at 9 cents a pound, and hogs at 5 cents a pound.