Evening star., 1953-06-28

WORLDS civil war. Iney speak
with the voices of millions Of
farmers and will be heard at
length next year before Con-
greSS votes.
Although a final decision is
months-perhaps years-away,
organization leaders already
are, travelling the country rail-
lying farmers to the show
down fight in State, county
and town meetings. Each
group has a strong lobby in
Washington.
The Principals
On the side of the EiSen-
hover administration stand the
American Farm Bureau Fed
eration-the biggest farm or
ganization in the country-and
the National Grange. Their
memberships total 1922, 600.
In the opposing camp is the
National Farmers Union. which
had a potent voice in the Tru-
man administration. Its MEM
bership is 1876. 1900 farm fami-
lies or SIS, 900 voting members.
The men to watch in this
fight are Allan b. Kline, presi-
dent of the American Farm
Bureau Federation; Herschel
D. Newsom. master Of the Ma
tional Grange. and James G.
Patton, president Of the Ma
tional Farmers Union.
OF all the farm leaders, Mr..
Kline appears to be closest to
Gen. Eisenhower and has been
a White House visitor more
than once. He believes Govern
ment market supports should
be flexible, ranging from IS to
90 per cent of parity and
should be related to the level
of production. In times of
heavy farm production, sup
ports could be lowered to dis
courage big Surpluses which
tend to depreSS market prices.
If production falls too low, sup
ports could be raised to en-
courage planting.
Mr.. Kline is convinced price
fixing Is an artificial device
which doesn't get to the basic
cause of the farm trouble. He
speaks for those who favor a
more competitive farm market.
AS all the farm leaders do, he
supports more farmer educa-
ton, more research, and more
aggressive export policy as
sound means of promoting
markets for farm production.
Grange Master Newsom is
convinced that the real pay
off for the farmer will come
through his own ability and
energy. He says there must
be a drive to recapture mar
ketS overseas, combined with
efforts to remove trade bar
rierS.
''Our greatest relief has to
be in expanded world trade"
Mr.. Newsom said.
How Potion Sees 1t
Mr.. Patton, the National
Farmers Union chief, Jumps
Kline, Newson1, Benson and
their supporters under the un-
complimentary title of "The
Wreekers." He refers to his
opposition as 1.-THE false econ
omy bloc" "
Where Mr.. Kline and Mr..
Newsom want flexible price
supports as a means to manage
production, Mr.. Patton has
said:
IF We were to extend high
level price supports to all farm
products at a full parity level,
we would not need to worry
about overproduction. We
would have no need for acre
age allotments and marketing
quotas. and no need for build
ing up unmanageable reserves.
"The economic reasoning
underlying flexible support
levels and the sliding scale is
fallacious. If followed, it can
only result in the development
in this country of a scarcity
oriented food and fiber pro-
gram"
Mr.. Patton argues that tax
payer losses in farm price sup
ports have been about 81 bill
lion since 1933-or an average
of $561a million a year. He
compares this loss to airlines
subsidies of $219 million a
year, maritime subsidies of
about $18 million a year and
business reconversion pay
ments Of about SIS billion a
year for the last eight years.
His argument Is that this
is not too great to- build up
farm income and production to
help Is million people in agri-
culture and related industries,
10 million on the farms, 6
million producing for and
servicing farmers, and 8 million
processing and distributing
farm products.
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