FARMERS: Pottawatomie Project

By last week the U. S. Government was by way of becoming the biggest grocer of all time. Youngish (39) former cotton-bag-maker Milo Randolph Perkins, head of the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation, announced immediate expansion of the New Deal’s orange-&-blue food stamp plan to Birmingham, Des Moines, Shawnee, Okla.

Success in the first three experimental cities (Rochester, Dayton, Seattle) where the plan has pleased grocers, bankers, reliefers, farmers and social welfare workers, apparently has led FSCC to contemplate extension of the plan to 100 more cities.

To meet objections of non-reliefers with low incomes, Milo Perkins revealed that Pottawatomie County, Okla., embracing Shawnee, will experiment with a modified scheme whereby all non-reliefers whose total family income is less than $19.50 per week may become eligible, after certification by their employers, the Chamber of Commerce and the banks, to buy the orange (paid) and thus get as a bonus blue (free) stamps with which to gnaw away at 1939 farm produce surpluses.

A further possibility that the plan may be extended to include cotton textile products last week excited cotton men.