Down to an Issue

In all the U.S. there is no more fascinating congressional district than the First of Kansas. It is vast: its 58 counties comprise almost the entire western two-thirds of the state, stretching over more land area than all of New York or Pennsylvania. It has good-sized towns, small towns and well-populated farm areas. Last week its emerald green milo was near harvest; a more delicate green was presented by wheat shoots breaking through the rich soil's surface; still in olive drab was the stubble of the past wheat crop left in a third of the acreage to gather moisture and lie fallow for a year. All this bespoke prosperity, and Kansas' First District is certainly prosperous.

What makes the district even more interesting is the fact that it is brand-new; after the 1960 census. Kansas reapportioned itself, took the old Fifth and Sixth districts and threw them together as the First. Each of the old districts had a popular Congressman, one a liberal Democrat, the other a conservative Republican. Now they are running against each other, and they differ on almost all issues. Says Democrat J. Floyd Breeding, 61, a farmer-stockman, of his opponent: "What I'm for, he's against." With that sentiment, Republican Robert Dole, 39, a lawyer, concurs.

Boon v. Boondoggles. The two disagree on everything else. Breeding seems unworried about Cuba ("I go along pretty strongly with what President Kennedy's doing about Cuba"); Dole argues for action ("I think a naval blockade has possible merit, and I'm concerned about any thought that the Monroe Doctrine may be outmoded"). On domestic economic issues, Breeding has voted with the Kennedy Administration. Dole has not. Says he: "No Kennedy leader has mentioned the possibility of reducing a program, any federal program. They want a $900 million boondoggle on public works. They've added 100,000 people to the federal payroll. They talked about a tax cut to spur the economy, but our people are for a reduction in federal expenditures to stimulate the economy."

But it is on farm policy that Opponents Breeding and Smith really come to grips. In the former Fifth District, Breeding is the three-term successor to liberal Republican Cliff Hope, an influential advocate of high federal farm supports. In the former Sixth District, Dole is the first-term successor to Republican Wint Smith, who loudly damned farm price supports as "regimentation."

"I Believe In." Now Breeding is following in the tracks of his predecessor. As chairman of the House Agriculture Subhome as "Mr. Wheat.'' He strongly supports Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman's program to impose strict production controls on wheat and pay for them with high subsidies. While campaigning, he makes a soft-spoken case for his views: "I've seen 21-c--a-bushel wheat in the 19305 and have felt the dry dust of my land run through my fingers. I'm against that. I believe in $2-a-bushel wheat."

Dole, too, is all for high wheat prices. But he believes that increased farm prosperity can best be achieved without massive Government intervention. He argues that the farm scandal is indeed a scandal.

He advocates voluntary farm programs, lashes at Breeding for advocating "mandatory controls, loss of wheat acreage and compulsory cuts in feed grain production for Kansas farmers."

Strangely, it is one small bin within the towering silo of the farm mess that has so far proved the most controversial in the Breeding-Dole race. Breeding strongly backs an Administration plan for exporting wheat to Japan; since June, Japan has bought more than 3,000,000 bushels of Kansas wheat. But the Administration plan, for reasons not quite clear, also requires storing that exportable wheat in California, rather than Kansas. Breeding's stand is very attractive to Kansas wheat growers. It enrages Kansas' wheat storage men, who seem likely to lose a lot of business. It also enrages Bob Dole, who says: "I'm for exporting all the wheat we can sell. What I'm against is taking wheat out of storage here and storing it in [Democrat] Pat Brown's facilities in California."

He has a point: one of the ways in which the Administration got deeply involved in the Billie Sol Estes scandal was by tossing its grain storage contracts around in willy-nilly fashion. But as a Kansas political issue, Breeding has the best of it. After all, there are a lot more wheat growers than wheat storers. And in elections, numbers count.

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