The Parity Racket

If the Japanese beetle can be considered an ally of Nippon's Army and Navy, the House of Representatives has made possible a costly invasion of this country. The farm bloc, activated by a selfish desire to get as much as possible out of the war effort, has refused to appropriate a single penny for the Department of Agriculture. Even the funds for necessary overhead expenses and salaries have been denied. This refusal is predicated on two issues: the theory of parity and a resolute opposition to long-range plans for solving the farm problem.

Parity is a simple idea, and an even simpler steal. It means that farm prices relative to industrial prices will never fall below the ratio of the pre-World War I decade. This is about as fair as guaranteeing brokers the same profits they made in 1928. No one denies that farm incomes are low, or that farmers need relief. But no member of either house of Congress has yet acknowledged that the real heart of the farm problem is too many farmers, and that prices are a symptom, not a cause. Any permanent cure for the difficulty must by nature be a gradual process, not a temporary profitable panacea.

Several months ago, farm prices were fixed at 110 per cent of parity, but the government planned to keep them below that level by selling at sub-parity prices important crops held as collateral for loans. Some such strategy was necessary, for rising farm prices mean an enormous inflationary spiral. Not only food prices would rise, but, since half of our farm produce goes into industrial raw materials, all other prices would go up too. The House Committee has refused to pass a Senate rider to the current appropriation permitting the Administration to sell 125,000,000 bushels of wheat at 72 per cent of parity. The whole bill containing funds for the Department has been held up interminably. Meanwhile the beetles are chewing up our crops, farmers can't get the loans necessary to keep their families alive, and the employees of the nation's largest government agency are borrowing money to buy food.

Another issue dividing the House is the appropriation for the Farm Security Administration. That agency exists to enable marginal farmers to pay their way out of debt. The Farm Bureau, lobby of the wealthier farmers, has opposed the FSA since its natal day, and most Representatives have knuckled under without a murmur. As a result, the most important single agency treating the farm problem has been crippled.

The farm bloc's tactics cannot be too strongly condemned. A farm problem exists, and temporary measures are needed, but there is no excuse for an organized attempt to expose the whole population to an inflationary spiral for the benefit of a minority.