Ugly Facts

Three old men of the prairie bestride the back of U. S. agricultural economy: Corn, Wheat and Cotton. Of these the most corpulent is Cotton. At the end of the cotton marketing year on July 31 the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau set out to measure him. Last week they reported the 'awful facts. In spite of the reducing corset which AAA pays him to wear, he has battened on bountiful crops, gobbled the rich cream of New Deal crop loans and, deprived of the exercise of foreign trade, grown more ugly and obese.

Henry Wallace's Department of Agriculture winced at the facts. The Department of Commerce reported that only 3,327,000 bales of the 1938-39 crop were exported, a 60-year low, 40.6% less than the previous year, 69.4% less than the high of the 20s (10,927,000 bales). To top this, the Census Bureau announced its count on the U. S. carryover of cotton: a record total of 13,032,611 bales, up 1,499,172 from last market year's hoard.

This year's cotton crop is estimated (as of August i) at 11,412,000 bales. Average U. S. consumption (1928-38) is 5,919,000 bales. So a bad situation seemed certain to grow worse. If Europe fights it may grow still worse, for war normally reduces cotton exports. The only means now available for reducing the huge cotton surplus is the use of $50,000,000 appropriated by Congress for export subsidies (with its aid Henry Wallace wishfully hopes to get exports back to 6,000,000 bales). Last week Columnist Hugh Johnson roared:

"Taxing the American people to provide a way to sell American cotton, wheat and whatnot to the British, Japanese or German people at much lower prices than we pay at home stinks."

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