Wheat Moratorium

In Santos, Brazil fortnight ago 530,000 sacks of coffee were burned up to reduce the Brazilian surplus, relieve the market, up prices. At about the same time in Washington, James Eli Watson of Indiana. Republican floorleader of the Senate, was beseeching the Federal Farm Board to reduce the U. S. wheat surplus, relieve the market, up prices by drastic action upon the Board's 200,000,000 bu. of wheat. Senator Watson as spokesman for the Senators from wheat-growing States did not seriously propose that the Board destroy its vast holdings by fire, much as such a spectacle might delight U. S. husbandmen, but he did strongly urge the Board to cease selling wheat for at least a twelvemonth.

Ever since the Board declared it would not peg prices for the 1931 wheat crop, its 1930 holdings have threatened the market with a selling avalanche. What, became the big wheat question, did the Farm Board propose to do with its supply? Hold it off the market? Dump it at every price rise? Dribble it out steadily?

The Board would give no specific answer. It belligerently maintained a broad right to sell as much as the market would absorb without a major price decline, despite the fact that it would lose 30^ at current prices on each & every bushel thus sold. To the pleadings of Senator Watson that all wheat be withheld from sale, greying, strong-jawed James Clifton Stone, the Board's harassed chairman, turned a deaf ear. The Board, he said, would follow its selling policy regardless of political clamor.

Senator Watson has been in politics too long to be easily discouraged. He marched straight to the White House, saw President Hoover. The President, said the Senator, should declare a wheat moratorium to match his debt moratorium. The Farm Board's policy, he insisted, was making all sorts of political trouble for the President. He advised the President to influence a change. At first the President was reluctant to interfere. But when Senator Watson finished explaining how wheat growers held the Farm Board--and the Republican Party--responsible for low prices (35^ per bu. in Kansas), the President dispatched a message to Chairman Stone in which he "suggested" that "in view of unusual conditions growing out of the Depression ... it would be wise for the Farm Board to consider a more definite policy in respect to sales."

At first Chairman Stone was huffy at this presidential "suggestion." Said he: "This is an independent board under the law and not subject to interference from the President or anyone else. Whatever we do bility." or don't do Nevertheless is he our own quickly summoned a board meeting, called in for consultation Alexander Legge, onetime chairman, whose stabilization program got the Board into its present difficulties. They sat long & late. There was much wrangling, many a dispute. Three days later the Board framed a statement of policy which Chairman Stone took to President Hoover for approval. The President ordered changes. Another long Board session followed. Finally late one night last week Chairman Stone met newsmen, handed them a statement. Explained he bitterly:

"We've not modified our program and have not surrendered to the President or the farm associations. We have simply amplified our position."

Surrender or not, what the Farm Board promised was to limit its sales, exports excluded, to a cumulative maximum of 5.000,000 bu. per month or 60.000.000 bu. per year. By this arrangement the Board if it saw fit could cease all selling for ten months, then dump 60,000,000 bu. on the market in 60 days.

But the Board's limited sales policy hardly satisfied wheat-growers and their political representatives who wanted the Board to sell no wheat at all until the price rose 30-c- or 40-c- per bu. In Kansas Vice President Charles Curtis, who rarely speaks out on administrative matters, de- clared: "I think they [Farm Board members] have made a mistake in not fixing a price of from 85-c- to $1 per bu. at Chicago as the minimum level at which stabilization wheat holdings would be sold. I can't understand where they got information which would induce them to take the course they did."

The Vice President's sudden interest in wheat quickened rumors that he would seek his old seat in the Senate, instead of standing for re-election on the national ticket. He and Kansas' Senator. Capper entrained immediately for Washington where they planned to urge the President to stop all Farm Board wheat sales. In Idaho Senator Borah growled: "Nothing could be more unfortunate than this policy. This surplus of wheat should be taken off the market."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.