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He thinks that the war can be won by feeding Britain and starving Europe. He thinks that then a peace can be written as the U.S. wants it written, by the formation of a sort of International Triple-A, based on world-trade agreements. He further thinks that this Peace of Plenty can then be enforced by the club of threatened U.S. production and subsidies.
The Fate of the Farmer. This is a large order. Most of Claude Wickard's fellow citizens don't know that this program is already under way. Still less do they know that feeding Great Britain involves changing the entire agricultural structure of the U.S. It further means that farming will now be brought wholly under Government control—as a matter of fact, has been already, except for details.
The first revolutionary reversal is that of the economy of scarcity. By last week the U.S. farmers were only beginning to realize that the lid is off. Production is now to be encouraged, not discouraged. Henry Wallace's Ever-Normal Granary now becomes Claude Wickard's Ever-Normal Granary for Ever-Normal Food Supply.
But the five basic crops which have always dominated U.S. farming, although they make up only one-quarter of the nation's entire agricultural business, will no longer dominate it. Wickard wants less wheat, less cotton; more meat, more fats, more fruits and vegetables, more dairy products.
To effect this huge transition, complete control is necessary. Last week Claude Wickard had that control, and the signs of it were manifest in a wheat farmers' revolt that was spreading throughout the Midwest. The AAA tells every farmer how many acres of wheat he can plant. Penalty for planting more: 49¢-a-bushel for all excess. A farmer cannot sell that excess to anybody until he pays the fine—which is about 50% of the price. He may not even feed that excess to any steer or hog which is to be sold off the farm, or to a cow whose milk is to be sold off, or a chicken whose eggs are to be sold. Without a marketing card, no dealer will buy a farmer's wheat, for fear it is bootlegged. The only way in which a farmer can escape paying the fine is to give his wheat to the AAA, or to store it, which is merely postponement of the penalty.
This is the law of the land, and many a farmer last week, seeing the disappearance of his Constitutional, God-given right to plant what he pleased, groaned or raged under the burden of the law. But there was a reason for Wickard's cracking down on wheat. The world has too much of it. The U.S. has 400,000,000 bu. now carried over from last year. This year's crop, fifth largest in history, will be 923,600,000 bu. adding 913,000,000 bu. more to the carryover. Canada alone has a surplus of 529,000,000 bu., has another enormous crop coming along this year. Wheat is rotting on Argentine docks. If the dislocation were not too painful, the U.S. could get along indefinitely with half as much wheat as is now in production.
Cotton is a similar tragedy of overproduction and underconsumption. Here the U.S. is a little better off: this year's crop, partly due to spring rains, partly to AAA control, is 5.4% less than last year's.