PROTECTION FOR FARMERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 23 August 1926, Page 5

PROTECTION FOR FARMERS.

ANGRY SENATE DEBATE. NEW YORK, July -2. . The proposal of the Government to establish a fund of £30,000,000 for the purpose of stabilising the price ofwheat, conn, cotton, and pigs' for the benefit, of the. American - farmer, ; ; was defeated in the Senate yesterday, when: the Southern cotton-growers deserted the ranks and the Western farmers voted against -the .measure. •!. The Bill was bitterly, fought in Congress, and its defeat, according to political experts, will probably tost the Republican Government dearly when it appea's for re-election-in l - the-fanning States. .... .v-. .-U :•> The Secretary of Commerce, Afr,Hoover, who from the first has advocated' t-hiei passage''of sat measure to permit the farmer to enjoy '.a protectiDir' equivalent to that given to the nratni-' facturer by the tariff, was'denounced yesterday as an “imported- Britisher,” anxious to_ provide, a means for Europe obtaining . dirt-cheap American cotton and food products. “A more damnable outrage,” said ' ‘his 'critic, Senator Reed, “was never perpetrated upon the American people.’-’ ; - ' • - The defeat of the Bill is. attributed to the reluctance of the cotton-growers to pay a tax of £2 per bale on -cotton which would be used by. thi©... Gqyernnient as an equalisation fee to support prices in time -of surplus production and sell the commodity abroad nt, a. loss, if necessary. The eot-ton- planters de-~. clared that such a. tax would ruin the small growers, and to overcome the difficulty it was proposed that the collection of the tax be inoperative for three years. When this p ropo sal -.was lost the Senators from the Southern States indignantlv cast their votes against the entire proposal for farm relief, with the result that it was defeated- by 45 to 39. . ... ...