WARTIME GOVERNMENT IN OPERATION. BY WILLIAM H. NICHOLLS and JOHN A. VIEG. Sponsored by the American Council on Public Affairs. The Blakiston Company, Philadelphia. 109 pages. "THE PURPOSE of this book is, therefore, to review wartime policy-making and administration in two selected fields-manpower and food-and insofar as possible to determine how general governmental attitudes and machinery may have prevented manpower and food programs from being as effective as they yet need to be." The authors reflect the industry and civic responsibility which have long characterized the scholars in the social studies at the Iowa State College, and the study is dedicated to T. W. Schultz. The inquiry is focussed sharply on the statement of the record, in statutes and administrative orders in the two fields, and on the relevant attitudes and structure in Congress and the higher central directors of administration. It has too long been the fashion to ignore or deliberately depreciate the importance of structure and process in an attribution of supreme importance to vague "economic" factors. Hence the analysis of Congressional committee membership and procedure throws useful light on the meaning of the record. The presentation of the administrative factor suffers somewhat from the avowed limitation self-imposed by the authors whereby the role of the bureaucracy is excluded from treatment here. That is their legitimate right. But much of the task of determining a public policy and inventing ways of implementing it comes, inevitably, if it comes at all, from the bureaucracy, whose function goes beyond "supervisory routine" and who must provide knowledge and attitude of mind denied generally to the active protagonists of special interests. If the final pages of recommendation do not seem as original and fresh as the fruitful conception of the study as a whole, it may be because here, too, one has to move beyond the self-imposed limitations to ask how far the American people are politically educated, geographically conditioned, and equipped by their experience and tradition, as well as institutionally organized, for the waging of a modern war in so sophisticated a manner. Perhaps we have needed a longer period of assimilation of the crowded experience with problems whose emergence Turner noted in 1893. However, structure has been more important in the organization of thought, as Graham Wallas warned us, than it has been customary to admit; and the authors have given us a study which would serve admirably the uses of a discussion group-one composed of bureaucrats, let us say-exploring the question of what is the true nature and function and duty of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor. This is most useful pamphleteering on a problem of central importance. -John M. Gans. LAND POLICY REVIEW, SPRING 1944 We now plow horizontally following the curvature of the hills and hollows on dead level, however crooked the lines may be. Every furrow thus acts as a reservoir to receive and retain the waters; scarcely an ounce of soil is now carried away... In point of beauty nothing can exceed that of our waving lines and rows winding along the face of our hills and valleys. -THOMAS JEFFERSON Books. . Charles E. Kellogg, Helen Crouch Douglass, 34 Mary La Follette, Catherine C. Carmody, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS Contributors Editorial Note: PRODUCTION NOW is the immediate job but post-war considerations naturally attract attention in nearly all phases of agricultural life. This issue of the REVIEW reflects both facts-and marks Thomas Jefferson's bicentennial year. RAYMOND C. SMITH is Chief Program Analyst, BAE, and Chairman of the Interbureau Committee on Post-War Planning. V. WEBSTER JOHNSON is Head of the Division of Land Economics, BAE. GEORGE S. WEHRWEIN is Professor of Agricultural Economics, University of Wisconsin. SHERMAN BRISCOE, information specialist in USDA, was formerly on the editorial staff of the CHICAGO DEFENDER. ELCO L. GREENSHIELDS wrote this article as an agricultural economist in land economics just before he was commissioned as a lieutenant (j. g.) in the U. S. Navy. EVERETT E. EDWARDS, agricultural historian in BAE, is liaison officer between the National Agricultural Jefferson Bicentenary Committee and the chairmen of the numerous subcommittees. ARTHUR P. CHEW, a frequent contributor, is a special writer in the Office of Information, USDA. CHARLES E. KELLOGG, author of The Soils That Support Us, is Chief, Division of Soil Survey, BPISAE; HELEN CROUCH DOUGLASS is a writer on food and nutrition in the Press Service, USDA; MARY LA FOLLETTE has broken away from her family tradition-she is a painter by profession but now devotes her attention to our native handicrafts; CATHERINE C. CARMODY, information specialist, and A. B. GENUNG, agricultural economist, are in BAE. Land Policy Review is published quarterly by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, U. S. Department of Agriculture, with approval of the Bureau of the Budget. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C., 10 cents a single copy, 30 cents a year Agriculture Builds for the Future By RAYMOND C. SMITH. Here we learn of the chief essentials of agricultural planning, of the problems involved in the planning process, what, how, and by whom agricultural planning is being done, and why citizens should take active part. THERE IS a growing interest in post-war planning. Farm people are realizing that the Nation will face tremendous problems at the end of the war. They are showing an increasing concern about being prepared in advance to meet these problems. In broad terms, post-war planning in agriculture is directed toward bringing about an enduring world peace and with it the opportunity for freer exchange of products between Nations and consequent rising standards of living in all Nations. It is directed toward attaining a healthy and expanding national peacetime economy, and toward developing a better agriculture and a higher standard of living for farm people. Post-war planning in agriculture cannot be limited to planning for agriculture. The agriculture economy does not exist unto itself. It is an integral part of our total na tional economy, which in turn is an integral part of the world economy. Farmers have a real stake in world trade. They cannot neglect planning to bring about the kind of an enduring peace which will be conducive to freer and expanding world trade. Neither can farmers afford to neglect to plan for a healthy national economy. They should throw their whole weight into the balance on the side of helping to plan for a growing and expanding national economy. The only way farmers can be prosperous over any considerable period is for their customers to be prosperous and have the purchasing power to buy the kinds and quantities of food needed for nutritious diets and to buy needed fiber and forest products. Farmers therefore also have a real stake in full employment in industry at home. In fact, since urban people make up most of the farm |