Book Reviews : The Great Farm Problem. By WILLIAM H. PETERSON (Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1959. Pp. xix, 235. $5.00.)

Published date01 September 1960
Date01 September 1960
DOI10.1177/106591296001300341
Subject MatterArticles
830
The
Great
Farm
Problem.
By
WILLIAM
H.
PETERSON
(Chicago:
Henry
Regnery
Company,
1959.
Pp.
xix,
235.
$5.00.)
The
thesis
of
this
book
is
a
simple
one:
&dquo;Intervention
is
the
farm
problem,&dquo;
i.e.,
governmental
interference
with
the
market
prices
of
supply
and
demand.
This
is
not
surprising
considering
the
dedicatory
offering
to
such
classical
econ-
omists
as
Ludwig
von
Mises
and
Henry
Hazett,
to
say
nothing
of
the
thanks
Mr.
Peterson
expresses
to
such
men
as
James
A.
McConnell,
a
former
assistant
secretary
of
agriculture
during
the
mid-1950’s,
and
three
other
informal
advisors
or
paid
consultants
to
the
present
Secretary
of
Agriculture:
Charles
Dana
Ben-
nett,
Herrell
DeGraff,
and
Allan
B.
Kline,
who
counseled
the
author
&dquo;along
the
devious
paths
of
’farm
policy.’
&dquo;
It
is
quite
evident
that
this
book
is
another
in
a
series
of
books
written
in
general
support
of
the
present
administration
efforts
to
return
American
agricul-
ture
to
a
status
freer
of
government
control
than
prevails
today.
It
should
be
noted,
however,
that
the
present
administration
comes
in
for
a
share
of
criti-
cism
-
criticism
mainly
because,
by
administrative
action,
it
has
not
done
all
it
can,
in
the
author’s
judgment,
to
minimize
the
effect
on
price
and
output
determination
in
agriculture
of
federal
agricultural
programs.
While
the
author
recognizes
that
his
argument
is
essentially
negative,
he
advances
a
three-point
&dquo;positive
program
for
American
Agriculture,&dquo;
which
can
be
summarized
as
follows:
(1)
Work
down
all
price
supports
and
restrictive
programs,
and
then
discontinue
them.
(2)
If
need
be,
dispose
of
government
crop
inventories
&dquo;no
matter
how
low
the
price
or
how
great
the
loss.&dquo;
(3)
Make
American
capitalism
free
- &dquo;by
progressive
abandonment
of
statism
not
only
in
agriculture,
but
in
every
phase
of
American
industry.
While
fev~
economists
in
general
support
the
depression-born
program
of
the
New
Deal
as
a
panacea
for
agriculture,
a
great
many
economists
-
because
scarity
is
the
world’s
No.
1 economic
problem
-
recognize
the
need
for
positive
government
programs
to
expedite
the
flow
of
excess
resources
out
of
agricultural
land,
labor,
and
capital.
It
is
precisely
because
the
author
fails
to
recognize
this
social-political
fact of
modern
economic
life,
that
the
book
will
fail
to
elicit,
in
this
reviewer’s
judgment,
more
than
a
passing
glance
from
economists
as
a
whole,
congressional
policy
makers,
or
political
scientists.
Disciples
of
the
&dquo;unseen
hand&dquo;
school
of
economics
will
greet
it
with
a
chorus
of
hurrahs.
REED
L.
FRISCHKNECHT
Weber
College
Old
Age
and
Political
Behavior
:
A
Case
Study.
By
FRANK
A.
PINNER,
PAUL
JACOBS,
and
PHILIP
SELZNICK.
(Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1959.
Pp.
352.
$6.00.)
Jonathan
Swift’s
mythical
island
of
Luggnagg
had
a
few
people
in
each
generation
who
lived
on
to
an
unending
old
age.
On
their
eightieth
birthdays
they
were
declared
legally
dead,
given
a
small
pension,
and
regarded
as
un~
employable.

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