(2 of 2)
Representative Dickinson, whose place in the farm bloc in the House is analogous to that of Mr. Capper in the Senate, is a man of 52, bred a lawyer. Last week he took the initiative for the farm bloc by introducing a relief measure in the House. It is not yet certain that the farmers of the West will line up behind his bill, but he gained an important point as regards the prospects of its passage by getting the Administration's qualified approval of his proposal. Secretary Jardine indicated that he disapproved of some features of the bill, but Mr. Dickinson declared he was confident that a few minor amendments would gain the Secretary's approval for the bill.
The Dickinson Bill creates two boards: a Federal Farm Advisory Council, composed of representatives of farm organizations, and a Federal Farm Board in the Department of Agriculture, of which the Secretary of Agriculture would be a member. The Farm Board would determine when there would be an export surplus in any of several crops and would enter into agreement with the farmers' co-operative marketing associations to buy the surplus at domestic prices and sell it abroad at foreign prices. The cooperative marketing associations would be reimbursed for losses on sales abroad from a fund accumulated by taking a part of the producers' returns from sales of their crops as an "equalizing fee."
There are objections to the plan, such as that the loss on the surplus might grow so large that it would eat up all the profit on the grain sold in this country; but if a workable plan for putting it into effect can be devised, the foregoing example shows that it will yield at least temporary relief.
One other farm relief plan was proposed in a bill before Congress last week. Senator McKinley of Illinois was the proposer. He suggested direct loans to farmers from Federal Farm Loan Banks on grain stored, the loans to be up to 75% of its value. By this means farmers in years of big crops could store their grain until there were smaller crops and higher prices. If in the next year there were higher prices the farmers would be gainers, but if prices should go down instead of up, the farmers would lose heavily.
*One of Mr. Capper's sidelines is a Constitutional Amendment for uniform national marriage and divorce laws, providing a two weeks' period after application before a marriage can take place—to prevent hasty marriages and decrease divorces—and divorce for any one of five causes: adultery, cruelty, abandonment, incurable insanity and felony.