Surprise Package

Last week the Senate and House reconciled their little differences over the great Farm Bill of 1936, wrapped it up neatly and sent it to the White House for signature. As this surprise package lay on the President's desk, not one citizen in the U. S. knew precisely what sort of farm program would be pulled out of it. As Citizen Roosevelt read the 3,500 words of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, he discovered that the Secretary of Agriculture was authorized to:

1) Pay farmers not more than $500,000,000 a year.

2) Spend the money for purposes which Congress only hints at, for fear that a flat statement of the Act's purpose would be unconstitutional. These purposes are, loosely, to improve soil fertility, conserve land, minimize wasteful exploitation and soil erosion and to re-establish the 1909-14 balance of purchasing power between farmers and city folk.

3) Do what he is supposed to do in two steps. For two years he is to pay farmers, including tenants and sharecroppers, for doing what he thinks will "effectuate the purposes of the act," except that he cannot make contracts with them and cannot pay them to effectuate the 1909-14 balance of purchasing power--both of which were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

All this did not fool Franklin Roosevelt one bit. He knew what Congress wanted: crop restriction and fat checks for farmers. Neither he nor Secretary Wallace yet knew the details of how they were going about it. As he signed the bill, he hopefully declared: "I feel that I am approving a measure which helps to safeguard vital public interests, not only for today but for generations to come. . . . Aiming at justice for agriculture . . . the plan seeks to salvage and conserve the greatest values in human life and resources with which this country is endowed."

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