US Presidency
1962

But we are still operating under a patchwork accumulation of old laws, which cost us $ 1 billion a year in CCC carrying charges alone, yet fail to halt rural poverty or boost farm earnings. Our task is to master and turn to fully fruitful ends the magnificent productivity of our farms and farmers. The revolution on our own countryside stands in the sharpest contrast to the repeated farm failures of the Communist nations and is a source of pride to us all. Since 1950 our agricultural output per man-hour has actually doubled! Without new, realistic measures, it will someday swamp our farmers and our taxpayers in a national scandal or a farm depression. I will, therefore, submit to the Congress a new comprehensive farm program -tailored to fit the use of our land and the supplies of each crop to the long range needs of the sixties and designed to prevent chaos in the sixties with a program of commonsense.