FARMERS: Human Ingenuity

On the first Supreme Court decision day of 1936 Mr. Justice Roberts, reading the majority (6-to-3) decision on AAA, declared in slow, precise words: "The tax, the appropriation of the funds raised, the direction for their disbursement are but part of the plan. They are but means to an unconstitutional end." For nearly two years since the Supreme Court swept away that New Deal mainmast, the Administration's farm policy has been sailing under jury rig.

The temporary mainsail has been the Soil Conservation Act, discovered in the New Deal's legal lazaretto by two smart Washington correspondents, Felix Belair Jr. of the New York Times and James Russell Wiggins of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Patched by Congress with amendments, it enabled Secretary of Agriculture Wallace to deliver the checks the Farmers wanted—a maximum $400,000,000 worth annually. Whether it has conserved $400,000,000 worth of U. S. soil annually has been beside the political point. But one thing the Soil Conservation Act has not been: an effective tool for crop control.

After lean years come fat years. This year the land is particularly fat with corn and cotton. Last week, therefore, the corn surplus was dumped squarely on the White House portico. Heading a delegation of midwest farm leaders, President Edward A. O'Neal of the American Farm Bureau Federation informed President Roosevelt that Government corn loans of 60¢-per-bu. were imperative. Said Farmer O'Neal: "The condition of farm crop prices is one reason for the stockmarket being so jittery." Both the talk of corn and the talk of jitters were advance publicity for the belated refitting of the New Deal's battered agricultural ship. For when Congress convenes in special session next month a new, permanent farm program will be the first legislation considered.

Already this year one more odd piece of canvas has been added to the New Deal's present makeshift policy. To meet the threat of a 16,000,000-bale cotton crop, which knocked the price from 15¢ to 8¢ per lb., the New Deal broke out a well-worn storm sail in the form of loans to cotton growers (TIME, Aug. 23). Hastily arranged just before Congress adjourned, the cotton-loan program was financed by Jesse Jones's RFC through the Commodity Credit Corp.

In corn the market price has plummeted from last spring's high of about $1.35 per bu. to 62¢. Prices on the farm, always lower,are around 45¢. Last year's abnormally short crop of 1,500,000,000 bu. was nearly a billion bushels below average. This year the estimated crop is a bumper 2,500,000,000 bu.—and there are fewer hogs, chickens and steers to eat it.

Last week it soon became apparent that a second jury sail would be broken out: that corn loans would be granted, though not at 60¢ per bu. Secretary Wallace discreetly observed that if figured in the same relation to so-called "parity prices" as cotton, the corn loans would be about 46¢ per bu. Only problem was to find the money—a problem complicated by President Roosevelt's announced determination to balance the budget (see p. 17). After a huddle with the President and Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau, Mr. Wallace declared with engaging vagueness: "Money undoubtedly can be found somewhere. Human ingenuity can meet the situation."