Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-10-27

administration has done is to
try to cover up its own farm
policy failures by setting city
people against farmers and
farmers against city people.
They tell city people that
farmers are really living high
Ion the hog and that a strong
farm program means higher
food costs. And they tell farm
ers that the working man drives
around in a Cadillac, and that
because of his wages the farmer
must pay higher prices for what
he buys.
They do this because they
know that SO long as they can
keep labor, the working people
in the city, from joining forces
with the farmers. the working
people in the country, then they
can harvest votes from the
resentment of each for the other
and keep in office-and keep
their special clients, the special
interests. in the drivers seat.
But. l believe the American
people are catching on; I don't
believe they will fall for this one
again. They know that prosper
ity in the country and prosperity
in the city are inter- dependent.
that bad times on the farms will
spread all too quickly to the
cities. 1t happened that way
rs years age, when the Republic
cans were last in power, and it
is happening the same way to-
day.
And nobody knows this better
than you folks here in Rock
Island and Molene.
Farm Equipment Hurt
There is no point in my re-
peating here the sorry facts you
know so well about what hap
pened to employment in the
farm equipment industry here
since misfortune struck the
farms. l learned last night :.
of the plants that are closed
now. and of the ten to twelve
thousand people here who are
today out of work. Unfortun-
ately, there are today all to many
areas in which this same situa-
ton exists. In the last four
years. in the farm equipment
industry alone over 10000 jobs
have simply evaporated under
the sun of Republican pros
perity.
Farmers. city workers, bust
nessmen are all in the same boat.
When the farmer can't buy a
tractor the implement dealer on
the edge of town closes down.
Fourteen farm machinery deal
ers have folded up in one Illinois
county alone this year. When
that happens. jobs dry up in the
farm equipment factories.
And what happens isn't Just
statistics. and what it means
doesn't show up in all this fancy
Republican bookkeeping about
the gross national production
and all that. What it means is
that bills can't be paid. 1t isn't
just that you can't buy a new
car: you can't even make the
payments on the old one. And
it's beginning to hit the con-
struction industry now. and there
are a lot Of other ugly. ominous
signs written in stark. human
terms.
But you know how our Repub-
lican friends love statistics and
figures; II one big man has an
income Of $4,000 and you have
nothing, well, then the average
income Of the two Of you is
SIS. 900. And isn't that fine?
/ know OF the efforts you are
making to meet these problems,
the Agricultural Implement Task
Force Committee which met
here in Rock Island last July
combined the best efforts Of farm
leaders, labor leaders. and the
mayors OF the cities that have
been hard hit.
The basic problem. Of course.
is the collapse Of farm income
l wish there we're time to talk
about some OF the other specific
issues like this that We face here
in America today even in these
comparatively prosperous times
And yet ! suspect that the really
basic issues in this 1855 election
are Of much broader kind.
We are entering a new age. and
a new age requires new ideas and