Standard Prices for Agriculture The pressure exercised on the Government
by its agricul- tural supporters, by now hardly to be distinguished from opponents, becomes increasingly stronger, and their demands increasingly ambitious. On Tuesday the Conservative Agri- cultural Committee decided that the Government should be urged to establish standard prices for all agricultural products, sufficient to cover a reasonable profit and normal costs of efficient production. It agreed that the Government must guarantee prices and consider " how the money is to be raised." The taxpayer and the consumer know how the money will be raised ; and it may be said that such a demand could be granted only under conditions of public control and planning far more rigorous than those which the Committee considered an unwarrantable interference in the case of the Milk Bill. Except under such conditions the Committee's recommendation could only have the effect of perpetuating every branch of agricultural production in its present form, whether economic or uneconomic, and without regard to the needs of the consumer or the country. The farmers, or their representatives, should learn that the security they demand can only be obtained by a greater willingness to consider the needs of others than they have hitherto shown. A prosperous agriculture should be a benefit and not a burden to the community.
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