lf They'd Vote The W.y They Talk

From the Boltimore Sun

'I'he National Grange an<l the F'arm Bureau F'cdcration have met in c<lnvention. The Grange speakcrs were vastly emphatic on the theme that all the farmer wanted was a fair price. The Farm llureau people say the same.

'l'he pinnacle of farnr self-righteousness rvas prollably rcachetl in the speech in rvhich a Grange lcacler <lenottnce<l Sccretary llrannan's farm plan as a lllot to buy up the farnrer's v<lte. No, no, a thousand times no this gentleman insistcd ; the horny-handed Artrerican agrarian rvas not for sale on the politic:rl auction block and the unsullicd virttte for which 'I'honras Jellers<x kroked to countrl'mcn rvottld rise in arvful nrajesty to squelch any sttch rrefaritlus pr<lposition.

All of which soun<ls su'ell, but a city slicker tnay perhaps lle cxcuscd for asking rvhere thc Grange ntan and his pals in the Farrn lJttreau wcre rvhcn their boys in Congrcss wrote the present grab-grab farm act int<l the statute books? Isn't that act a plot to buy farmers' votes? Isn't it one of the aceptecl explanations for Mr. Trttman's victory in 194tt that he bought the farm vote in crucial agrarian states by promising grain storagc facilities financed out of the public purse ?

Isr.r't the wheat farmer fixing to sell his vote r,vhen he insists on :r continuing high-price srrpport plan tl-rat pushes whcat into llotential <lust-borvl areas, overrvhelms the gran:rries and the taxpaycrs who pay wheat subsidies? Arcn't the clairy farrncrs srvapping their votes for a butter pricc schcrne rvhich lllocks out the imported butter on rvhich some of our IICA clicnts rcly as the only way to rise llrovc their clollar depcndcnce on us? lior ycars thcse farnr outfits h:rvc provecl t<l city people that they can get u'hat they want frorrr Congrcss. If they rkrn't u'ant thc grotcsc;ue and prodigal farrn plans that norv yicld too much rvheat, too nrttch cotton, tocl much corn, t()o mrrch butter, too miiny eggs, too nrany potatoes, rvhy in the world don't thcy vote that way in thc Ifouse ancl Senate roll calls on farm legislation?

On the u'holc, nrost city ttxpayers will bc glad the (irange slreakcr brought up this matter of sclling votes. Is thc Grange rcally against thc sale of votes? Is the Farm llrrrcau? Arc thc other farm groulls? Then why don't thcy excrt thcir political force in Congress to get farm lcgislation less opcn to thc votc-sclling intcrpretation?

No American can vicrv the general prospect rvithout fcelirrg that prcssurc-group politics in America is coming 1o some kinrl of a clirnax. The farrn groups had better lrrace for that climax by getting the voting records of their Congressmen into u'h:rck rvith the rcsounding pacans to farm virtue u'hich the professional farrn spokcsrnen get off :rt convention tituc.

Los Angeles Had Second Highest Buildins Year in 1949

1949 u''as a great construction year for Los Angeles lvhen tlre brrilding permits had a total valuation of $281,377,497. This r':rluation is the second highest in Los Angeles' building history. The peak building year was 1948 rvhen the permits amounted to $373,050,082.

A total of 56,962 building permits were issued during 1949, as compared rvith 64,(139 permits in 1948.

Tlre 12 months of 1949 brought completion ol 26,108 housing units providing for approximately 100,000 persons, City Superintendent G. Ii. Morris said.

lluilding pern.rits for last month totaled 4,239 .r,ith a valuation of $20,183,783, as compared with 4,356 permits r,vith a valuation of $23,731,246 for December, 1948.

S. F. Lumbermen's Club Meets Jcnucrry 24

The next luncheon meeting of the San Francisco Lumbermen's Club rvill be held in the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, on Tuesday, January 24.

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"BugB" Baer, famout columnist, humorist, and sound philoropher, gets my vote for asking the beet queltion of the past year. Whcn Paul Hofrman, administrator of the European Recovery Program announced in a epeech that the cost of the Marshall Plan in Europe would be fifteen thousand million dollars, Mr. Baer wrote, "After that program WILL THERE BE AN AMERICAN RECOVERY PROGRAM?'' rl.**

I want to hand that same Mr. Hoffman the grand prize for the greatest understatement of the past year. Discussing the European situation in a speech during the recent holidays, Mr. Hoffman described the Soviet government ag "bad sports." Imagine describing that bunch of gorilla men who would suck the life blood of every free human on earth as simply "bad sports" !

*rf:l f sometimes wish that another William Cowper Brann might arise in this country to do verbal justice to the opportunities of today. Brann, publisher of "The Iconoclast" at \ily'aco, Texas, could do the best job of name calling in decent language of any writer in American history. Boy, what he would have said about Stalin and Vishinsky !! They would truly have been grist for his mill.

Just to give you " ."-j" ; ;. way Brann could throw verbal atom bombs, he said once about a man who had won his disapproval, "If he had been sired by Satan, mothered by Sycorax, and born in the lower left-hand corner of Hell, he would shame his shameless father, disgrace his graceless mother, and dishonor his honorless birthplace." All other name callers pale into insignificance when compared to Brann. Ffowever, he finally was shot to death for some of the things he wrote, so maybe being a specialist in skilled criticism doesn't pay. But I WOULD love to see such a writer turn loose on the Stalin aggregation.

To show the way r", L"Lolan program works, some publicity has been given to one small example. We handed Belgium-Luxembourg $7,000,000, which is just small change in our financial doings. But it's the principle of the deal that is interesting. They in return bought $2,000,000 worth of machine tools, $2,000,000 worth of electrical stuff, and $3,000,000 worth of oil, all in this country. So they spent the seven million we gave them for seven million dollars worth of our goods, and the seven million came back to this counry. And the boya with the sharp pencile lay that what Europe has bought from us in late years is just about the amount of money we have given them. But how do you keep the booke on a deal like that? ***

I knew somc folks once who joined financial forces to buy out some undesirable neighbors.. They made the deal and divided the loss of some ten thousand dollarg.. One of my friends said he was dclightcd to be associated with so fine a group in so worthy an enterprise, but he feared they would havc to build up a whale of a volume of that sort before they would show much of a profit. The same goes for our Europe"" "";raT.t;

Senator George, of Georgia, a Southern Democrat who has long been critical and fearful of monumental government spending, is using a psychological trick these days. fnstead of referring to our national debt as "more than 250 billions of dollars" as is usually done, he refers to it as "more than a quarter of a TRILLION dollars." Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Truman have gotten this nation to a point where just to mention billions has become commonplace. We have forgotten how much such a sum really is. So now we speak of TRILLIONS. Other notables, including Senator Taft and Bernard M. Baruch, have taken up the "trillion" idea. So have some of the strongest American newspapers, giving the thought lots of publicity.

The idea is clever; but is ta i,*", You don't suppose, do you, that the word "trillion" will give that Washington gang a new idea that might explode in our faces? Those folks are ambitious, and, whoknows, the idea of running the debt up to a full trillion might intrigue them. We used to tell about the colored brother who was told he had no ambition, and who indignantly replied that he .WAS ambitious; so much so that he wouldn't rest until his wife vras doing every washing in the entire neighborhood. Ambition sometimes works in strange directions.

Business men talk mostly of the new year, and what it will mean to business, both generally and particularly. Speaking generally, it seems certain to me that business is going to continue on a high level for some time to come; how long I would not attempt to guess. But I am utterly convinced that there is no thought behind the things that are being done and those that will be done in Washington, except elections, and votes; and so I think that even though it takes every dollar of cash and credit this country has, the high economic level is going to be kept up. It has GOT to be kept up if those in power hope to continue so. The

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