PABCO GYPSUM WAtt BOARD

0ffers 4 Big Advontoges

his paper published his findings, together with names, facts, places, amounts, etc. Take your hat off, Junior, before I start quoting some of those facts and figures, because if you don't these things will t*"t.* ". heck knock it off.

Aroostook County has a population of between ninety and one hundred thousand people. In that County in the year that ended June 30th, 1949,4503 farmers qualified for government price support. In order to keep up the price of potatoes and for no other reason claimed or otherwise, the government, to which I am sending my income tax remittance, fixed the nt":.t_P"_aatoes at $2.92 per bushel.

The potato farmers of Aroostook County, Maine, sold to the United States Government last year 60 per cent of their entire crop at that price, getting checks for SIXTYSEVEN MILLION DOLLARS in payment. Yes, Junior, SIXTY-SEVEN MILLION. Yes, Ifncle Sam bought over 25 million sacks of potatoes wiighing lfi) pounds each from this County. In June the goverrlment figures on potatoes showed their average price to be 93.6 cents a PECK; the highest in all history, made that way entirely by government price suPports.

The report says that at least one and perhaps several potato growers in that County got as high as half a million dollars from the government for potatoes during that year. A dozen or more got about $150,000 each. A farmer that got less than $1fi),000 was just "small potatoes" as the old saying goes. The potato money that Uncle Sam sent into that County last year amounted to $670 for every man, woman, and child in the* CountY.

Yes, Junior, this little check I am sending in to Washington is certainly putting me on the Maine benefactors' list. ft's something to know that we generous folks are showing our appreciation of the farmers of Aroostook County by putting them all in the Cadillac Car column. It is true that 999 out of every thousand taxpayers who foot the bill can neverhope to own a Cadillac, but that doesn't keep us from buyin* ln"? for our friends in Maine.

You understand, of course Junior, that the Potatoes which Uncle Sam buys in this fashion can never be used for human consumption? I've told you that before in this column. Some are sold for cattle feed, some to industrials, some are destroyed. In fact, it was frankly suggested in Washington recently that the government pay the farmers for the potatoes and just leave them in the ground to rot. That suggestion *"". "T"?tly made.

There was a famous book once in which one of the characters, when asked why he acted so strangely at times, replied that one side of his brain was all right, but that the other side was just potato. I often wonder if he was the guy who thought up this 1otXao price support program?

Isn't it strange that so few voices are raised against the unholy thing? Politics, of course. Someone has'said that our trouble is that in Congress we have no statesmen, just politicians. The way I look at it is that we have neither.

All we have are candidates for office. The minute thiy get elected, they start running again, so they cast no suicidal votes. And it would probably be suicidal for a lawmaker to vote against giving unearned money to the farmer. Getting a hog out of the trough once you've let him in, is next to impossible until the slop is all gone.

There are a lot of farmers in this country, and they vote, especially since their votes now mean cash in the pocket. So do their wives, and their sons, and their daughters; they all vote. Just why this one section of our people should be so favored, no man sayeth. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker would be laughed to scorn if any of them suggested that all men are equal under our Constitution, and they would like some of this gravy. All these old fashioned notions went by the board in the year 1933. Equality no longer exists. Votes are all that count'

We send in our tax money, and part of it is used to keep the price of food high. Then we are taxed again when we pay the high price of these supported foods. Double taxation, without representation.* *

Reports from Washington say that even among those who favor these ruthless price supports a feeling of apprehension is growing as to how long the public will stand for them. Even Senator Lucas, Democrat, came out recently with the declaration that the government had gone too far with its price supports. Price supports stink. Stink to high heaven. That's what I always say, isn't that what you always say, Junior?* * {<

But don't get the idea, Junior, that I have been financing only the potato growers. Perish the thought ! Right before me is today's newspaper, and it offers the prediction that the "corn mess" will soon be as bad as the "potato mess." Uncle Sam, dear old soul, is soon going to own eight hundred milliort dollars worth of surplus corn. I'm helping with that. And I've helped him buy seventy million pounds of eggs, just to take them off the market, and keep the price of eggs high. And then there are wheat and other grains, bnd still other foods as well. I help pay the farmer for his products, and then take them off the market so as to make the consumer's dollar shrink when he shoPs' :r * !F

I protest and shall always protest that bounties and subsidies are dangerous instruments of totalitarian power and have no place in the life of a free people. A nation that tampers with such things is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. A farmer has no more right to a_ subsidy than the newsboy on the corner, or any other citizen under our fag. We are treading dangerous paths. They all lead downward'

Wish I had time and space, Junior, to tell you about more of the wonderful things that are being done with my tax dollar-and yours. Makes me feel wonderful to know that my money is being used, through the Atomic Energy

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