Bales for Sale

Ezra Taft Benson called newsmen to his office one afternoon last week, happily shook hands all around, then leaned back in his leather chair and made an announcement: on Aug. 1 the Department of Agriculture will commence selling its 7,000,000-odd bales of surplus cotton at competitive world prices.

Secretary Benson had cause to smile; the decision meant victory for the department in a long, drawn-out discussion with the State Department. Benson is eager to export Commodity Credit Corp. cotton at attractive prices and has felt prods from similarly inclined cotton growers and Congressmen. The State Department, sensitive to pleas from fretful cotton countries, e.g., Egypt, Peru, Mexico, advised holding back the surplus lest it ruin the market and upset the economies of friendly countries.

At his news conference Benson emphasized that there will be no cotton dumping. The Commodity Credit Corp. has sold through bids the last of a million bales of lower-grade cotton under a special program announced last year. Bids far below the world market price are refused. The CCC will follow the same sales technique with the 7,000,000 bales of more desirable upland cotton; later it may also dispose of another 6,900,000 bales held against loans. Cotton exports, 2,750,000 bales this year, will be upped gradually to a hoped-for 5,000,000 bales a year as the U.S., whose share of the postwar export cotton trade has slumped from 39% to 20%, moves to regain markets.

Secretary Benson's announcement came as the Senate neared a vote on the Administration-opposed measure to restore rigid price supports for basic farm crops. Democrats charged that Benson deliberately timed his news to sway Southern Democrats to flexible supports. Smiling, the Secretary of Agriculture admitted that he had talked with some Southern Congressmen, guessed that the timing would not hurt any.

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