Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-17

President EtSenhoWer's radio
m bill ueto:
our Government owes the farm
ers help. Unwise and unbalanced
price support legislation of the
past many years has distorted
production and markets. and
piled up price-depresSing sur
pluses. These surpluses are our
main agricultural profile
today. They have operated to
cut farm income. first by Fore
ing severe reductions in acreage
allotted TO farmers for price
supported crops; second, in some
cases, notably that of corn, the
presence of huge Government
surpluses has served to drive
down prices in the free market
where many farmers still sell
their crops; third, acreage re-
auctions forced by these sur
pluses have resulted in increased
production of other farm prod
.ucts on the diverted acres and SO
decreased the prices of those
products and income to their
producers. These SURPRISES de-
pressed the income of farm fam
lilies by many hundreds of mil
lions of dollars last year. That is
shocking.
These thoughts were in my
mind when on January 9 l sent a
special farm message to Con-
gress which opened with these
words: I'm this session no prob
lem before Congress demands
more urgent attention"
The soil bank would have
done two things to relieve the
price-cost squeeze on farmers.
First, it would have bolstered
farm income. Second, it would
have attacked the fundamental
problem of surpluses-surpluses
which are the primary cause of
the farm troubles today-sur-
pluses which last year kept hun
dreds of millions of dollars out
of farmers pockets.
:. repeated: This legislation
is needed now. Planting
season is rushing upon US. :"
In my judgment. no general
farm legislation is meritorious
unless it tackles this problem,
forthrightly and effectively.
My request for farm legisla-
ton went to Congress more than
three months ago. Scarcely a
week went by that I did not
urge more speed. For example.
on January 25, I said: Here is
a broad program and if the
Congress will act on it promptly,
it will give the farmers relief"
On February 20, l repeated:
This legislation is needed
now"
On March IA, I pointed out
that: The planting season is
rushing upon U.S."
On March 81, I expressed
hope Congress would act
promptly.
On April 4, l urged immedi-
ate action if farmers were to get
any relief this year.
Nature does not wait for the
Government. You don't start
farming by pushing buttons,
and you cannot stop growing
crops by throwing a switch. You
must know before you climb on
your planters what the Govern
ment corn program is you
must know before you oil up
your drill what the rules are
on feed grains. 1t costs money
to pillow, to disk and to plant
and you cannot afford
to turn around and pillow up
crop if the rules are changed
on you in the middle of the
season.
Last Wednesday. Congress
passed bill. l was pleased that
the administrations soil bank
was still in it.
But the disappointing thing
was that other provisions of the
bill would have rendered the soil
bank almost useless. The fact
is that we got hodgepodge in
which the bad provisions more
than cancelled out the good.
:. studied every detoiI. !.
! wonted to sign this bill if !
possibly could"
Nevertheless. I studied every
detail of this bill over many long
hours. For / had said before
final congressional action that l
would not insist on perfection.
that I would be glad to sign a
good workable farm bill.
! wanted to sign the bill if I
possibly could. But l owed it to
you who are farmers. to all citi-
zens. and to my own conscience
to ask myself these questions.
/ First: Would this bill help
solve the real problem-the sur
pluses which hang over the mar
ket and push down farm prices?"
/ The only honest answer to that
question is: No. On the contrary.
by going back to the wartime
rigid price system. we would set
in motion forces designed to pro-
duce more Of certain crops at a
time when we need less OF them.
1t would also tend to shrink both