Prospect: Foot-Dragging

AGRICULTURE Prospect: Foot-Dragging

"There has been more change in agriculture within the lifetime of men now living than in the previous 2,000 years," said President Eisenhower last week in sending to Congress a new farm program designed to bring U.S. Government policy up to date with the U.S. farmer's "unparalleled ability to produce."Principally, the President asked Congress to:

P:Give Agriculture Secretary Ezra Taft Benson authority to reduce price supports on cotton, tobacco, corn, wheat, peanuts, rice and dairy products to a minimum of 60% of parity, if necessary to avoid surpluses. The present floor is 75%.

P:Eliminate the escalator clause in the present law that automatically sends price supports up toward the same old high levels when the surpluses are cut down, thus encouraging more surpluses.

P:Knock out the costly short-term acreage reserve phase of the soil bank and build up the long-term conservation reserve to encourage the retirement of marginal farm land from production for up to ten years.

P: Start now to free the farmer of Government controls on acreage by letting the Secretary of Agriculture gradually increase acreage allotments up to 50% above present levels if--as Benson hopes--lower farm prices stimulate consumption at home and abroad in areas where U.S. products have been priced out of the market.

As the President's message hit the Capitol, farm bloc regulars hit the chandeliers, turned sober discussion of issues into noisy attack on Ezra Benson. North Carolina's Harold Cooley, chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, cried that Eisenhower wanted to give Benson a "blueprint for bankruptcy." Louisiana's Allen Ellender, chairman of the Senate committee, said Benson would become a "czar," promptly summoned him to a committee inquisition. Benson arrived at 10 a.m. with a 24-page statement, was badgered after the third sentence. At one point Missouri's Democratic Senator Stuart Symington accused Benson of "insincerity" in saying he wanted to help farmers by lowering price supports. Then Symington turned aside, dramatically intoned: "Every time, Moses, that you strike the rock you hurt my people."

As the attack steamed up, even Vermont's once friendly Republican George Aiken turned his back on Ezra Benson.

(Aiken had wanted the Administration to make a special exception in the new program for dairy farmers, but Benson said no.) As the committee members closed in, Chairman Ellender, unable to conceal his delight, looked at Aiken and broadly winked. Not until almost 6 o'clock was Benson allowed to complete his statement. By then all but two Senators, after having their say to the press table, had gone home.

In the post-Sputnik era many a Congressman had raised his voice asking for the Administration to show "leadership." The Administration showed it by attacking the nation's $5 billion-a-year farm giveaway in an election year--when the money is sorely needed for defense. Judging by its first spokesmen, Congress was in no mood to deal with the issue.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.