V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

Never in the past have I mixed politics with business. But show rne the man who can separate business from politics in this country today. In the past the business man has usually dodged politics. But I'll tell Mr. Business Man one thing, (and I mean Mr. Big Business Man, and Mr. Little Business Man, and Mr. Every Other Business Man), and that is that he is going to get into politics from now on. Because now, for the first time in our history, business IS politics, and politics IS business. You can't separate them any more than you can unscramble eggs. And the business man who thinks he isn't going to play politics in the years to come, is just whistling in the graveyard.

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Yes Sir, politics has gone into business-into every businsss-2nd so business must go into politics whether it will or no. The camel has his head under the tent today; only a master effort will keep the body out. And business men will have to fight this political game from now on until the Executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative departments of our Federal Government go back into their former places and take up their former occupations; until the Government has gone out of business; until the law of supply and demand comes back to business and to agriculture; until the bureaus go where the woodbine twineth; until men get paid for what they DO and not for what they DON'T; until equal rights, such as we used to have, come back to all men; until we again raise and use rather than destroy and abort the good things that God sends us; until Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness become again our national ambition. Until that time I'm afraid my business writings must be tinctured with politics. I don't like it. In fact I hate the thought of the whole business. But it's here, and we've got to meet it or go hide in the hills. ***

Just as an example of what's going on, have you read the new Potato Control law that was passed by the recent Congress? You should read it just as an example of what may happen in any other direction any day. Did you know that the Government, immediately after that potato control law was passed, received a communication from a certain group of loyal farmers that read as follows ! "We, the undersigned men and women, American citizens living on our own land in West Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, conscious of our American heritage and determined to preserve it, hereby solemnly resolve: That we protest against and declare that we will not be bound by the 'Potato Control Law', an unconstitutional measure recently enacted by the United States Congress. We shall produce on our own land such potatoes as we may wish to produce and dispose of them in such manner as we may deem proper."

And what is this new Law whictr "Time" says was passed without an hour's discussion in either house of Congress? To give you the short of it, I quote from the September 9th issue of "Time": "According to the new law, no one may buy or offer to buy potatoes which are not packed in closed containers approved by the Secretary of Agriculture and bearing proper Government stamps. Penalty: $1,000 fine; for a second offense a year in jail, an additional $1,OOO fine, or both. No farmer, under the same penalty, may sell potatoes without such containers and stamps. No farmer can get the necessary stamps unless he (1) pays a tax of 45 cents a bushel, or (2) receives tax-exemption stamps from the Secretary of Agriculture. No farmer can get tax exemption stamps except for a potato production quota allotted him by the Secretary of Agriculture. No farmer can get a quota unless he makes an application supported by evidence (1) proving that potatoes were raised on his farm in 1932,1933, or 1934, and (2) showing how rnany potatoes he raised and sold in past years." ***

"And the Star Spangled Banner, Oh long may it wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Ilere's another e*arrrple*of tn"*an,rrr" that go on, a letter from a small cotton farmer in Texas to his local Democratic newspaper. He says: "I have a sixty acre farm. Fourteen acres I plant to cotton. A committee or commission or whatever they call themselves, fix my allotment to two bales. My fourteen acres will probably produce seven bales. Now I must either pay the Government six cents a pound on the additional five bales, or I must buy tags from those over supplied that will cost me 5 cents a pound. Can you tell me why I must pay $25 a bale to these other farmers who have not planted the cotton, nor picked it, nor hauled it to gin." Try and answer that one. :f*<*

Right now $re are spending untold millions of dollars paying farmers NOT to raise crops; and preparing to spend I

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