PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

Evening Star, Issue 22030, 16 May 1935, Page 9

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

FARM POLICY VIGOROUSLY DEFENDED SENATE COMPROMISES ON N.R.A. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright WASHINGTON, May 14. From the south portico of White House President Roosevelt addressed 4,500 farmers who gathered in the Capitol from 20 States for a demonstration in support of the Administration's agrarian programme on the occasion of the second anniversary of the establishment of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, , Often digressing from the prepared text, the President vigorously defended his farm policies. Twice he used the word “lying” in connection with criticisms of curtailment of the programme. He was particularly caustic concerning charges that food and cotton were destroyed when a great number of people were suffering from under-consumption, saying that no cotton had been ploughed under since 1933, when the surplus exceeded 12,000,000 bales, and such animals as were killed were processed and distributed to the unemployed. He flatly declared that the Government would continue every effort to maintain as near a balance as possible between production and consumption, thus maintaining farm incomes on a parity with other occupations.

Despite a plea from President Roosevelt for a two-year extension, the Senate passed a resolution on the voices extending the N.R.A. for nine months as a further experiment before a definite policy is adopted. Mr Richberg, on behalf of N.R.A., had declared that such a compromise would be folly, but the Senate leaders insisted that a complete review of this important part of the recovery programme during the current session of Congress was impossible, and a temporary 'extension was the only feasible course of action.