National Affairs: Take Your Choice

Beaming, bald Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan rode back to Washington from the tall corn country last week, basking in pleasant visions of the future. For two days an all-star cast of Democratic brass had hobnobbed in Des Moines with 3,000 farmers, labor leaders and party bosses from 16 Midwestern states, whooping up the Brannan farm plan, which, to hear them tell it, would give the farmer a high income, the consumer low food prices, and the taxpayer practically no pain at all (TIME, April 18). There was almost no chance of its passing Congress this session, but the Democratic faithful didn't mind too much: they decided to make Brannan's dream scheme the major campaign issue of the 1950 congressional elections. Brannan had staked his own future on it and knew it. Said he: "For me, it'll mean either a palace or a backhouse."