The people's voice., 1959-05-29
Repr. Leroy Anderson
Reports To You From
The Nations Capitol


Wheat Bill that came out of the Hous
Agriculture Committee. Since the1
those of US who represent the Grea
Plains have done lot of missionar,
s work among the members of tn,
e Committee. l wrote strong letter tt
Chairman Harold Cooley and ther
, visited him, urging modification o1
the 80 per cent cut in acreage allot.
ments and Of the rigid cross-compli.
ance. Mr.. Cooley had the bill recon.
sidered by his Committee and made
changes which will make the bill gen
orally acceptable.
AS it now stands, the bill provides
, for supports at 90 per cent of parity
with 25 per cent cut in allotments.
1t runs for two years, 1860 and 1861.
There is provision to pay the pro-
ducer of wheat, at one-third of his
actual production rate, for the 25
per cent of his allotment which is not
planted. The plan would be subject
to approval by referendum of the
producers as in the past. If market
ing quotas were disapproved, price
support would be at so per cent of
parity.
1t should be borne in mind that
the bill so far has been approved only
by the House Agriculture Committee.
1t may well be changed substantially
on the floor of the House or by the
Senate.
The bill moves in the opposite di-
rection from that recommended by
Secretary Benson before the commit
tees of Congress. He wants to- increase
production of wheat. and cut the
support level to 60 per cent of parity
or less. He says the price of wheat
should be cut to around S1.50 a
bushel, which means about a dollar
in Montana after the freight is taken
out. Mr.. Benson says that when we
get the price down to this figure,
then wheat will be able to compete
with corn and barley for cattle and
pig feed.
1t is just possible that the Wheat |
Bill discussed above could get to the |
floor of the House this week. We are
still trying to pry out of the Rules
Committee the bill several of US put |
in, and which was approved by the
House Agriculture Committee, to
force the Secretary to raise the sup
port levels on barley by 16 cents a
bushel to bring it into line with corn
supports. A new water pollution bill
of interest to many Montana COM
munities is also slated for early con-
sideration by the House.
Nike Site Funds Eliminated by
Senate-The Senate Armed Services
Committee has virtually ordered the
Secretary of Defense to make a de- !
cision on whether the military will
scrap the Army's Nike weapons sys-
tenn of air defense or keep it and ]
abandon the Air Forces Bomarc plan :
If air defense. am particularly con-
,erned over this move, because the
Senate action, unless contravened in I
conference committee of the House c
md Senate, will mean that two ap- l
proved Nike Hercules projects. bat I
alions at Great Falls and Glasgow,
will not be built. l have requested I
md received assent from Congress f
nan Vinson, the chairman of our b
Touse Committee on Armed Services, [
hat full-scale hearing be held on S
he air defense systems, so that the 4
ull facts can be developed prior to Il
he conference committee meeting. Ii
The Nike system of weapons is in d
ield operation at more than 60 sites, E
nd is of proven success. The whole G
ystem, including the Ajax and the =
[ercules, has been developed at a @,
ost far less than has already been n
pent on the Bomarc. The Nike Her IL
ules, in more than 1000 firings has I,
ad startling accurate results against te
argets travelling at attitudes in ex- f.
ess of 100000 feet and against both s.
ow aircraft and objects travelling q,
supersonic speeds, in some in
,ances in excess of 1000 miles per :,
our. The Bomarc, on which 81 bill a
on has already been spent, would =
equire another billion or so to de- =.
elop. So far, in its only attempt to I, I,
it a supersonic target, it failed. -
elieve it is obsolescent now and will :,
2 obsolete in a few years. o.
We do not as yet have any defense "a
eveloped against intercontinental fa
allistics missiles. There is much 70