Agricultural subsidies

During the period 1933-46 the Federal government paid, via a number of subsidy programs, some $10, 500, 000, 000 to farmers and food processors. Laws now on the statute books may well call for heavy additional expenditures during the next few years. The chapters that follow will summarize past Federal operations in agricultural subsidies, and will evaluate possible alternatives to the present programs. The laws on the statute books today represent the considered opinion of many men who have given careful thought to the problem. The thesis will attempt to show that these laws, whatever their merits in the past, are not desirable today; and that other procedures may prove more advantageous in maintaining a prosperous agricultural population as part of a prosperous nation.