Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-13
Road to Victory

FORMER PRESIDENT Truman has told
an audience in Iowa that the Democrats
are on the road to victory" again today
just as they were in 1948, and for the
same reasons.
If this is true, the former President
has little reason to be proud of the road
he is travelling His speech was typical
performance miShmaSh of distorted
facts and half-truthS. Still, in it's way
1t was ShreWdly calculated to have it's
desired effect.
To listen to Mr. Truman is to wonder
how the farmers have escaped the con-
centration camps at the hands of this
administration. One would think that
the President and Secretary Benson have
but single thought in mind-to grind
the last farmer into the dirt Referring
to the farm bill, if it can be dignified
by that name, Mr.. Truman declared: II
don't know what Ike is going to do with
that BILL He would like to veto it, of
course, because it is directly contrary to
his philosophy of reducing farm prices
However, this is an election year. and he
may we'll decide that it's the better part
of valor to sign the bill in an effort to
get elected"
This is politics as Mr. Truman plays
the game. If the President vetoeS this
bill, that will prove he wants to reduce
farm prices. If he signs it, that will prove
he is just another politician trying to get
himself reelected. The former President
does not concede so much as the POSSIBLE
ity that his successor might act from
conviction as to what is best for the
farmers and for the country. AS Mr..
Truman states the case, the President is
damned if he signs and damned if he
vetoeS
What Mr. Eisenhower will finally de-
eide to do is any ones guess. That the
political pressure on him is great is best
evidenced by the fact that 48 Republicans
in the House and IS in the Senate de-
serted him on the final votes. The Presi-
dent may decide to swallow his distaste
for some of the bills provisions and
sign it after all. Or he may decide that
the BILL on balance, is so bad that he
will have to take the political risk of
vetoing it.
If he decides to take the latter course,
he can point to some Democratic support
for his views. For example, Senator Hol-
land of Florida told his colleagues during
Wednesdays debate that the bill, as it
came back from conference, was vastly
worse bill' than when it first passed the
Senate. The one-year extension of fixed
80 per cent price supports on basic crops,
he said, makes it obvious that we are
"playing politics with this vital economic
question of the prosperity of the farming
population All that this bill will do, he
added, will be to enhance SURPRISES (noW
amounting to SO billion) fill up more
warehouses and more ships, and cause
them to overhang the market with even
greater harm than results from the sur
pluseS which now hang over it. After
all, we know that the cruX OF the en-
tire situation is the immense surplus
which hangs over our heads and destroys
markets"
In short, this is a bad bill. It's deSir-
able features are overbalanced by the
injury it promises to do to the farming
population. But it is easy to picture 1t
as a panacea for farm ills and to accuse
those who oppose it of wanting to drive
down farm prices and destroy the farm
ers. 1t will not be easy, in an election
year, for the President to withstand the
pressure from those who have no ScrupleS
about travelling this road to victory"