In the Department of Agriculture's granary of unfortunate experiments, no case is more spectacular than the 1948-50 effort to support the price of potatoes. The Government bought surplus potatoes for about $1.50 a hundredweight, dyed them deep blue, then sold them back to the producers at 1ยข a hundredweight for fertilizer or livestock feed. Net loss: $478 million. Net result: Congress passed a law prohibiting potato price supports.
But a Congressman's memory of the last fiasco is not always so clear as his vision of the next election. In January, after potato prices had slumped about...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
