THE FARMER’S WOES

Wairarapa Age, 31 May 1928, Page 3

THE FARMER’S WOES

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ISSUES. FIREWORKS IN AMERICAN POLITICS MR. HOOVER’S QUAJQSARY NEW YORK, May 29. With a suddenness not at all uncharacteristic of American politics one old—a very old —issue has suddenly leaped into prominence, and just now promises to overshadow all other issues. As preparations are being made for the opening of the Republican National Convention a fortnight hence the Coolidge veto of the McNary-Haugen Bill has had the effect of concentrating all political attention on the American farmer and his woes. Two months ago corruption in high places promised to be the pivotal issue in November, but to-day it seems completely forgotten, and the prediction that corruption 4 ‘will not change a single vote in November” seems unanswerable. The interesting thing now, however, is the political manoeuvring behind the sudden rise of agricultural aid as* such a burning issue. It is, accurately shaking, just “politics,” and while serious enough it can safely bo said that it will not decide the choice of the next President, just as it 'was not a paramount factifr in J 924. A MARCH OF FARMERS? The newspapers in the past few days have been full of accounts from the Middle West depicting 100,000 farmers ready there to lay down their implements and march upon Kansas City to present an ultimatum to the Republican Party regarding farm relief. There is no question that just now the farmers feel ready to do this, but on June 12 there will be no hundred thousand, or “V4H a single thousand, farmers encamped before the doors of the con-

vention. A dispatch from Chicago :o-day states that the farm organisations throughout the West are choosing a committee to send to Kansas City to present the following thesis: “The party is facing the greatest crisis in its history, and if the Eastern Republican leaders will listen to the voice of the West and heed the demand for economic justice, victory will follow, but if they continue indifferent to the needs and rights of the Maize Belt and the farming States, if they force the nomination of a candidate opposed to fa'rm relief, no matter who he is, then defeat is invited and disaster will follow.”

Buch a committee will undoubtedly be present in Kansas City. A similar committee came to Cleveland in 1925. but a hunched thousand encampol till ers of the soil is too highly imaginative even for American politics. HOOVER’S PROBLEM Both the technical experts and more moderate Democrats agree that President Coolidge was wholly right in vetoing the McNary-Haugen Bill. They say, that is, that the farmer is sick Bnd needs the doctor. Congress in the form of this Bill sent a crystal gazer to diagnose the disease of the agriculturalists, and the President rightfully kicked 4he magician down the front steps of White House. The great cry from. the West, ’however, has its political roots in the quick-mindedness of Hoover's enemies in again concentrating their intack ,upon him. Hoover is against this Bill, therefore Lowden’s henchmen have shaken the farmer wide awake ■and said to him that from Hoover he can get as little as from Coolidge. Hoover is in a quandary if he wishes •to get Coolidge’s personal support, and this is the important factor. He cannot reply to hi« enemies. It is interesting to note that Senator Curtis, who announced his candidacy on the plea that he is the friend of the farmer, also voted against the Bill, for the reason that he is Coolidge’s friend and would like to get Coolidge’s personal support for his candidacy. Lowden, with Dawes as the so-called 11 dark horse” bellindh im, thus again looms as an important figure. The" question is what will Lowden be able to do at Kansas City. THE CORRUPTION ISSUE Thus it is that the farmer has the unique opportunity of becoming the pampered child of the Republican Party, not because he is loved for himself, but because he can be used by one faction of the party to defeat another. The Democrats, meantime, look with broad satisfaction upon the row in its neighbour’s house, for if it grows intense enough it may mean victory for them. The Democrats frankly never liked the corruption issue too* much. The “machine politicians” among the Democrats looked upon it as a twoedged knife. The Democratic Party is itself not without corruption, and if corruption becomes too much discussed, it will frighten away those rich aspirants for various public offices who are willing to make large contributions to the parties, and it is these contributions that make life easy for the- machine politicians. Sober-minded Democrats say that Coolidge and the Repub lican Administration have only been interested in aiding big business, and that the voter next November can choose between the party that is pledged to work for one group in the nation and the party that will, if it gets into office, work for the entire nation. This is in the meantime, however, a very het and excited campaign, not kicking in fireworks.—(Australian Press Asso eiation).