Power Over Food

When Agriculture Secretary Claude Wickard got his new powers over food last week, he was traveling up & down the country trying to whip up enthusiasm for his 1943 production goals* without much success. Barring a miracle, Claude Wickard's fellow farmers (he raises corn and hogs in Indiana) did not see how they could keep production steady, much less increase it.

Armed with his new Presidential order, patient, stubborn Claude Wickard can now offer them more help than he could promise last week. Food controls which have been scattered through eleven Washington agencies are now mostly in his hands. He has full supervision of setting food requirements for Army, Navy, Lend-Lease and civilians. He takes charge of food marketing, distribution, priorities, allocations and decisions to ration. His cumbersome Agriculture Department, with all the bureaus that have grown up over the years, is simplified into a production division and a distribution division--a framework that will permit Wickard to reshape his organization for greater efficiency.

But over two of the farmer's greatest needs for increased production Claude Wickard's power still must be wangled through and around other Washington agencies. For farm labor he must go to Manpower Commissioner Paul McNutt. For farm machinery he must go to WPBoss Donald Nelson.

The best hope for Claude Wickard, in these still hazy areas of divided authority, was that the general tightening-up process now under way in Washington would clear the air. Citizens will be able to tell, six months hence, by looking in their market baskets.

*Examples: 17% more meat, 2% more milk, 26% more poultry, 32% more peanuts--but 2% less wheat, 6% less cotton.

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