Here Comes Clint

After dawdling for four weeks, commodity prices turned and headed upward last week. The change in direction was largely due to the deliberate maneuvering of Secretary of Agriculture Clinton P. Anderson, who, especially in an election year, is against falling prices when they strike at the farmer's hoard.

The Government, which has been out of the market since last month's sharp break, was stepping back in, busy Mr. Anderson announced one afternoon last week. The Government, he said, was going into the market to buy 326,500 long tons of flour (equal to 9,300,000 bushels of wheat) for April export. Ordinarily, the Government keeps its plans to itself. The reason for this announcement, said Anderson, was to give the trade an opportunity to study the program before the market opened.

The trade--and especially the speculators whom Anderson's boss, President Truman, likes to thump--did not need much study to know what the program meant. When the Chicago market opened next day, May wheat promptly jumped the permissible daily limit of 10-c- a bushel, with other futures not far behind. The rise in wheat pulled up corn, oats, soybeans and lard. By week's end, profit-taking by traders had reduced some of the gains. But Anderson held out hope for another rise. The Government, he hinted cheerily, might resume wheat-buying fairly soon.

A sharp price rise in cotton last week was also sparked by the Government. The rise was based on a deal for the Government's Export-Import Bank and private banks to extend credits of $120 million to Japan for the purchase of U.S. cotton. Next day cotton futures soared as much as $1.75 a bale, to $172.30, highest closing price in a month.

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