Word: ccc
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...keep its promises . . . to the American farmer under the present price support program." With these politicking words for the folks on the farm, Michigan's Republican Congressman Jesse Wolcott, 28 years in Congress as "a friend of the farmer," last week suggested a bill to raise the CCC's borrowing power to $5.7 billion, an increase of a cool $1 billion...
Would even that whopping sum be enough to pay for the support program? As farmers wound up the harvest of the second biggest crop in U.S. history, CCC's present bankroll seemed none too fat. The corn crop alone might hit 3.5 billion bushels and granaries were still clogged by last year's 805 million bushel surplus...
...bumper crops would not bring cheap food; the support program would keep most prices up, despite the huge surpluses. During fiscal 1949, CCC poured out $3.1 billion for loans and purchases to keep up prices on 31 commodities, just about five times the outlay in 1948. At the fiscal year's end in June, the agency had $2.3 billion tied up in loans and inventories, showing a paper loss of $356 million for the year at current market prices. Most of the support money went for only seven commodities: cotton, $822 million; corn, $470 million; wheat, $640 million; flaxseed...
Some Potatoes. In theory the $2.3 billion already laid out will be recouped when CCC sells its holdings, but in actual practice the taxpayer has been hit with some fantastic losses. Because of a potato surplus in 1947, the Department of Agriculture last year restricted the acreage. But farmers simply planted rows closer together and presented CCC with a bumper crop of 446 million bushels. Net loss to date: $203 million. In the coming potato season Congress may get tougher and tell farmers, not how many acres they can plant, but how many bushels they can grow...
...such solution is in sight for eggs. To maintain the market for shell eggs, CCC offered to buy dried eggs at $1.27 a Ib. This was such a handsome price that CCC had to buy nearly 30 million Ibs. of dried eggs. Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan is afraid the total cost may run to $200 million. Despite the enormous surplus, wholesale prices this month were the highest in a quarter century. Mourned Brannan: "The prospects for the year ahead are still more discouraging...