AAA & Amishmen

The brown Pennsylvania earth was stirring gently last week and the skunk cabbages were popping up by the brooksides, but the Amish Mennonite farmers of Lancaster County were not made happy by the first touch of spring. Plain-dressed, plain-thinking folk, they were faced with a vexing question before they could begin to cultivate their fields. Amishmen, unlike members of other Mennonite sects, do not sign contracts. An Amishman's word is as good as another's bond. Yet contracts were waiting for them to sign as part of AAA's crop-reduction program.

Forbidden by their religion to use motorized farm machinery, Amish husbandmen raise corn and tobacco which are best adapted for the efforts of man and horse. Last year the Pennsylvania Amishmen joined in the reduction of crops by voluntarily curtailing their tobacco acreage. They puzzled many a Washington official, played hob with many an AAA balance sheet, by refusing to accept any Government benefit money. Since then, however, as result of a referendum held in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Ohio, tobacco-growers who do not sign contracts are liable to a 33 2/3% tax on the sale price of their crop. Other Mennonite farmers have therefore signed. But not the Amishmen, despite the fact that a tenet of their religion requires meek obedience to the law of the land. Last week AAA officials in Washington were perplexed over the matter, finally decided that the thing to do was to have Congress amend the Tobacco Control Act exempting the Amishmen as "conscientious objectors."

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