The End of Haugen

Variations of the Haugen Farm Relief Bill have put the Senate in a verbose broil for six weeks and have achieved the distinction of being voted down with mechanical regularity.

The final appearance of what Senator Fess calls "this Dawes-McNary-Haugen plan," the darling of them all, was to be managed by a well-oiled coalition of the South and the Corn Belt. In the night before the voting, a plan was hatched. It sounded good: $150,000,000 was to be set aside as a revolving fund to aid in the marketing of farm products. This was to be paid for by an equalization fee. But to lure the Dixie Senators, one-half of this amount was to be used for cotton marketing, and their equalization fee was to be deferred for three years. This alliance was supposed to be potent enough to bring at least a tie vote. Thereupon, Vice President Dawes would probably cast the deciding vote in favor of the bill. Mr. Coolidge would veto the measure, and embarrassment of the Administration, if nothing else, would ensue.

Next day, Senator Reed, (Dem.) of Missouri, stood up again: "The attempt to pass such a bill as this makes me sick all over--I hope to God that the Dawes' plan which he worked out for Europe is not so rotten economically as this."

Senators Wadsworth (Rep.), Underwood (Dem.), Robinson (Dem.) added various shades of damnation to Mr. Haugen's Bill. Party and sectional lines were snapping. "Hell and Maria" Dawes sat uneasily in his chair-- perhaps he wouldn't even get a chance to vote. He didn't. The bill was pronounced dead by a score of 45 to 39. The corn belt had lost its grip because three cotton fibres had deserted it, and the corn belt Senators were wroth.

At the White House breakfast next morning, the President with the aid of good friend Senator Butler, decided that something-ought-to-be-done. Secretary of Agriculture Jardine and Secretary of Commerce Hoover were summoned. They thought so, too. A Coolidge statement was sent out urging agrarian reform on a "sound basis." Congress was urged to adopt the Fess Bill which would set up a co-operative marketing bureau, financed by a $100,000,000 fund.

The farm bloc scoffed, called it "a sop to the farmer vote." If they couldn't have the dear old Haugen Bill, they would see to it that no agricultural legislation got through. Senator Watson (Rep.) of Indiana, always a good schemer behind the scenes, tried to have the World War Veterans Bill given the right of way and thereby shelve all farm matters. Senator Willis of Ohio objected and prevented the Senate from totally disregarding the President's views.

Perhaps Senator Watson and farm-allies had been too frisky. It appeared that the President had skillfully cast the responsibility for farm legislation back on Congress, with the result that farm-champions might be forced to abandon their heroic role and take what modicum of farm relief the Administration was willing to approve.