The Princes & the Paupers

In drought-stricken Texas last week, a dust storm blew up over the Government's $150-million emergency relief program. In his weekly Rails Banner, Editor Ernest Joiner declared: "Fully half of the aid given here has gone into the hands of wealthy men. This writer, for one, is damned tired of his hard-earned money going into the pockets of wealthy men."

Feed and Grain Dealer R. C. Young of Lubbock was even more specific. He complained that some of the richest men in Lubbock and Crosby counties were turning up at his warehouse to pay $35 a ton for emergency feed, which he estimated cost the Government at least $70 a ton. "Some of these fellows," said Young, "have more oil wells than most of us have dollars.'' Among them, said he, was Rancher J. S. Bridwell, who is reportedly worth $18 million, and who got a month's supply (21 tons) of cottonseed meal at the Government's low price.

At first, the Department of Agriculture tried getting the ranchers to sign a statement that they could not afford to buy feed at the prevailing price (in the case of cottonseed meal, $66 a ton). But Texas cattlemen refused to put their names to any "pauper's oath." Two days later the ruling was "clarified" so that local relief committees were given broad license to decide who could pay and who could not. The allotments of feed were put on a per-cow basis, with little attention paid to ability to pay. Said Lubbock County Agent D. W. Sherrill: "If we approved only those men actually in desperate circumstances, there probably wouldn't be more than a half dozen in Lubbock County to qualify."