Campbell Program

To Washington and the White House last week went tall, wiry Thomas Donald Campbell of Hardin, Mont, to lay before President Hoover a program for solving the wheat problem. Financed by the House of Morgan in 1918, Mr. Campbell applied industrial methods to 95.000 Montana acres, became the largest wheat farmer in the U. S. In 1929 he went to Russia as wheat adviser to the Soviet Government. This year on his Hardin farm, he cut his wheat acreage, substituted flax and beans for grain. As an authority and a supporter of the Farm Board's efforts, he can get the ear of President Hoover whenever he wants it.

In Industrial Farmer Campbell's program the two important points were: 1) tax foreign hedgers 21 -c-(one-half the tariff rate) on every bushel of wheat they sell short in the Chicago market, on the ground that such sales depress prices as much as if the wheat were actually brought into the U. S.; 2) cut in half the tariff rebate (now 40^) on every bushel of Canadian wheat brought into the U. S. under bond for milling and export, thereby giving U. S. wheat a 22(-- advantage for this trade.

Other Campbell suggestions: 1) require "good milling wheat" for all future contract deliveries; 2) eliminate "on track" deliveries and "bids and offers" * in the Chicago market; 3) prohibit Minneapolis trading in four grades of wheat higher in value than the highest grade recognized by the Department of Agriculture; 4) compel short sellers to deliver the same quality of grain as the farmer delivers; 5) declare a six-month debt moratorium for wheat farmers; 6) let the Farm Board pledge no more wheat sales. Declared Mr. Campbell hopefully: "By use of the present laws and my suggestions the price of wheat on the farm can easily be doubled by Jan. 1." For cotton he would, if he were President, increase the Tariff on jute, thereby diverting 1,000,000 bales of low-grade cotton into the production of bale bagging. He opposed plowing under one-third of the crop (see col. 1) as "not good economics."

*Equivalent to "puts and calls" on the Stock Exchange.

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