AMERICAN FARM RELIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22351, 24 February 1936, Page 8

AMERICAN FARM RELIEF

When on January 6 the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Agricultural Adjustment Act was unconstitutional and therefore void, the whole of the Government's machinery for administering farm relief was thrown out of gear. With the annulment of the Act went the means to finance farm relief as well as the powers to regulate and control production, which were the essence of the agricultural new deal. President Roosevelt was faced with two problems if a large part of his policy was not to go for nought. He had to find a legislative formula by which he could legalise his -scheme of crop restriction and also the money to compensate farmers for keeping land out of production, money that previously had come from the processing taxes now declared illegal. In the Soil Conservation Bill, which seems assured of a safe passage by Congress, the President has provided a solution of both problems. The bill appears to be a transparent device for getting round the Court's veto and should meet its contention that Congress can levy taxes only on behalf of the general welfare and not that of any section. Soil conservation, a national issue, is to be the cloak covering the continued administration of farm relief on the old lines. The bill allocates £100,000,000 for this purpose. The remaining difficulty, that of finding the money, has been left to the Treasury to overcome. As it has been deprived of the revenue from the processing taxes and has to find anything from £200,000,000 upward to cash veterans' bonuses in the immediate future, the Treasury's task is not an enviable one. The Government's credit and the personal prestige of Mr. Roosevelt have undoubtedly declined in recent-months. In addition, the President's earlier hopes of setting a date for restoring the budgetary balance have been seriously disappointed by the Court's decision and the bonus legislation.