Wheat

As every knowing Roman knows, Benito Mussolini has two faces, the scowling imperial mask which II Duce wears on every public appearance before his countrymen, and the unassuming, jovial expression with which he welcomes foreign visitors who need no intimidation. With a nice blend of the two expressions II Duce mounted a rostrum in Rome last week to open the International Grain Conference, a meeting attended by delegates of 46 wheat-growing nations. He scowled slightly because he knew that his photograph and his words would be reported in every Italian newspaper. He smiled often, avoided dogmatism, because he realized that 45 of the 46 delegations were not at all afraid of Benito Mussolini. With practically no advance publicity in the U. S. Press, the meeting was far more important to U. S. farmers than most international disarmament conferences. Said II Duce:

"The world's wheat crisis comes not so much from overproduction as underconsumption. It would be rash indeed to call for limitation of cultivation of cereals when in the world there are too many people poverty-stricken and grievously distressed. ... It is particularly fortunate that this conference is taking place in the calm political atmosphere of the moment."

The "calm political atmosphere of the moment" lasted about that long. Delegates representing the U. S., Hungary, Jugoslavia and other wheat-growing countries were in favor of a gradual limit on wheat-growing, some agreement modeled after the Chadbourne sugar plan (TIME, Feb. 2). This suggestion was immediately opposed by the big wheat importers-- Great Britain and Italy--who have everything to gain from a continuation of the low price of wheat. A second suggestion, to grant preferential tariffs in Europe to wheat grown in the Danube basin (possibly an echo of Foreign Minister Briand's "United States of Europe"), raised an immediate howl from American and Australian wheat-growers.

Two U. S. delegates were present: John A. Simpson of Oklahoma City, president of the International Farmers Union, and Charles Wilford Cross of Aberdeen, S. D. As in the case of Owen D. Young and J. P. Morgan at the last Reparations conference (TIME, Feb. 18 to June 10, 1929), the Uj S. State Department took pains to announce that Farmers Simpson & Cross were attending entirely as "private individuals."

Small comfort came from Soviet Delegate Leon Natanovitch Kritzman. Russia, said he, would under no circumstances cut down her wheat acreage, hoped to increase it. But she would probably not increase wheat exports. Russia had had to export most of her wheat to obtain credit to buy machinery. The time is approaching when Russians can afford to eat more.

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