The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1957-05-31


apart and the politicians are argu.
ing over whether TO patch It again.
or junk It.
A majority Of Congressman have
coptended since 1855 that the
Eisenhower Benson approach was
unsound. Secretary OF Agriculture
Ezra Benson recently sent a letter
to Congress conceding at least
partial failure.
Backers Of the prelent farm pro.
gram plead guilty to three major
indictments It has not ID raised
farm income. t2I reduced excessive
production. or CD lowered food
costs to consumers.
Acreage allotmentS have been
reduced almost 2S% In four years.
but total farm production has tn-
creased steadily. Price supports
have been reduced an average OF
23% but that hasn't discouraged
production either. And, not By
coincidence, farm debt has risen
800.
Certainly not all Of the blame
can be placed on this Administra.
ton. It inherited q situation that
was getting worse by the day. and
had been for at least three years.
It hasn't, however. improved.
Since 1851 net farm income from
marketings has dropped by one
third. Nom farm income has In
creased by about the same percent
age, and farm production costs
have hit new record highs In each
of the last S years. Farm pur-
chasing power from income after
production costs ha- been cut al
most in half.
Something else, almost equally
disturbing, has been happening.
For six years now earned net farm
income from marketings has been
declining, while government pay
ments, both direct and indirect,
have been increasing.
Congress this year will vote ap-
proximately $4,000, 100000 (more
than $1,000 per farmer for the
USDA 1858 fiscal year budget. That
is considerably less than the ADJ
ministration asked for, but it still
is by far the largest ever appro-
priated.
Farm program policy is bank
rupt, by almost any standard you
want to measure it. The politicians
have two detectives. First, to fix
the blame and, second, to develop
a new program. Work on the first
has begun, and the second is sched-
uled for next year.
Trying to fix blame, on either
political party, will be a waste of
time and effort. There are more
than 1000 farm laws on the books
now, most of them passed in the
last Is years with bipartisan back
ing. Most Of them are amendments
(patches and patches on patches)
Of laws previously passed,
There are scores of laws most
farmers never heard of. There are
some that few congressman know
about. There are $4,000 Federal
employees to interpret. administer
and enforce farm laws. There is at
least as much confusion and dupli-
cation as you might expect.
What will happen next? Moth
ing this year. Next year? All signs
point to slam-bang, free-for-all
battle royal with nothing barred.
The whole farm program will be
up for grabs.
There are. as they say in WASH
ington, three schools of thought"
First, Benson will want unlimited
authority to make changes in price
supports and acreage allotments.
Second, hackers of high, rigid
price supports will be in there
pitching. Consensus, though, is
that 1856, when they passed
mandatory 800 of parity bill, only
to have it vetoed, was their high
water mark.
Third, and ratec most likely to
succeed, are proposals for a COM
bination Of compensatory pay
ments (aS in wool and sugar. and
self-supporting two-price (Domes-
tic parity programs for such ex-
portable crops as cotton. wheat and
rice. This is the commodity-by-
commodity approach.