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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1955)
Statesman, Salem, Oft, Thurs., April' 15, 1955 (See. Z)-3: Cleavages ' postwar Jtzeaajustm ' in, not arise. At that time, U.S. farm ers were less interested in sugar, production because the big post war demand for other food gave them better opportunities. But now that markets are slipping, some producers want to go heavier into sugar. : - v.,j, . ... - . W i By OVID A. MARTIN Associated Press Farm Reporter WASHINGTON un The cur rent period of painful adjustment from lush, war-generated markets to modest peace time demands finds American agriculture a fam ily divided into many- conflicting groups. . Unlike many past periods of fall ing prices, shrinking markets, de clining incomes and mounting sur pluses, agriculture as an impor tant industry is far from united on programs to combat its trou bles. It is not now possible to point as was the case many times during the New Deal farm pro grams of the early thirties to a "powerful farm bloc" in Wash-, ington 1 driving through legislation and federal government policies ; aimed at channeling a larger share of the national income into farm ers pockets. I The term "farm bloc" is applied j here to a loosely designated group of private farm organizations, farm itate congressmen and others drawn together by a common in terest in the affairs of agriculture rather than by any form of organi zation or other formal tieup. Many features of present federal farm programs ; can be traced to efforts of these groups. Among . them are price supports, crop con trol, crop insurance, more liberal farm loans, rural electrification, soil conservation, and broadly ex panded farm research activities. Feuding Groups But today agriculture's leaders in Washington are badly split into many feuding groups. The bitterest division Involves the Issue of price supports. Some want full 100 per cent parity price i floors. Others want a return of the war-born 90 per cent of parity sup ports for major crops. . Still others want to stick by the system of flexible supports 75 to 90 per cent of parity for the long pull. And there are still others who, believe in even lower levels. Farm leaders are at odds on whether or not there should be i government-enforced crop control C 1 TV Pn. rf There is some feeling of anti pathy between dairy farmers, on the one hand, and growers of live stock feeds on the other. Dairy men feel that thej have got the worse of it in the way of govern ment price supports and that the feed grain forces have not helped Angler Has Quite a Catch as much as they should have moves to change the-situation. ; These conflicts over farm poli cies are not limited to congress men from agricultural states. They exist among the major farm or ganizations, such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the Na tional Grange., the National Farm ers Union, and the National Coun cil of Farmer Cooperatives. Not so many years ago, officials of these organizations made it a fairly regular practice to get to gether to discuss their problems and to setek comjnon approaches. Of course, it was not always possi ble for them to cofme to a common accord. Often they did not. But nevertheless, there was a feeling of kinship among them. But now these organizations go their separate ways. Some attack their fellow organizations more sharply than they do "enemies of the farmer." Indeed, there is a much closer relationship between the Farmers Union and organized labor's big CIO than there is between the Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau. It was the Farmers Union that helped lead the CIO and the AFL into appearing before the House Agriculture Committee recently to endorse high, rigid farm price sup ports espoused by the Farmers Un ion. ' - ' XHaiming more members than the Grange and the Farmers Un ion combined, the American Farm Bureau shows no interest in join ing hands with the other organiza tions. These cleavages in farm leader ship run across political lines as well. Both Democrats and Repub licans are, divided oh the issue of high versus flexible price supports. High support Democrats are led by House Speaker Ray burn of Texas, Chairman Cooley, North Carolina, of the House Agriculture Committee, and former Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Bran- nan. 1 Flexible sapport Democrats look to Senators Anderson of New Mex ico and Holland of Florida for leadership, v Division ia COP ; President Eisenhower. Secretary of Agriculture Benson and Sen. Aiken of Vermont pace Republi cans favoring' flexible supports, while Rep. Hope of Kansas, and Senators Young of South Dakota and Thye of Minnesota lead GOP farm state leaders favoring high supports. ( These divergent views on agri culture offer a ready answer to the question: Is there any chance of the major farm organizations merging as appears certain in the case of labor's, CIO and AFL. In a recent issue of its monthly magazine, the National Grange discussed the matter of a merger and concluded that one was "'cur rently practically impossible. It raised the question of whether a merger was desirable. "Strictly in the field of group force," .the magazine said, "such a move might increase the organ ized strength of farmers." The magazine said a major dis advantage would be the ultimate crushing of viewpoints of minority groups, areas and regions in favor of a "total policy" which, it said. might not always be the right pol icy. "Labor Monopoly" It went on to say that the con templated labor union merger threatened to create a "labor monopoly" which might require handling under antitrust laws. ' It is not meant here to imply that the farm organizations or leaders disagree on all issues. There has been unity on the issue of extending the Teciprocal trade agreements act and unity on fight-1 ing universal mihtary training Nevertheless the field of coop eration is small on matters di rectly relating to agriculture's own economic problems. This raises a question for the future: Will the voice of agricul ture long a dominant - one in public affairs grow weaker and weaker and finally give way to its two major competitors in the economic setup, business and la bor? -- -. Already reduced to 15 per cent of the nation's population, will the farm influence cease to be a factor to be -reckoned with in future con gests over political regimes and legislation? : . FREE ESTIMATES On Floor Coverinp NORRIS-WALKER PAINT COMPANY 1710 Front .Phone 4-22 J a4 PEABODY, Mass. Donald Jolly, 13, nigh school freshman looks at some of the approximately S 1,000 in cash he hooked while fishing in the Ipswich river. The money, weighted with a tire chain, it spread on table in police headquarters to dry. (AP Wirephoto) Recovered Loot programs.' " They are divided, too, on the question of whether the govern ment should engage in dumping abroad of the present record break ing surplus tf farm products. There are intra-industry squab bles over what, if anything, the government should do to help low income farmers. Cleavages Drawa Deep cleavages have been drawn by controversies over manage ment of soil conservation activi ties and farmer education through the Extension Service, farm groups are no longer united on the ques tion of government assistance in expanding rural electric and tele phone systems. Contracting markets have con tributed to the arousing of regional and commodity jealousies and dif ferences. Charges are being hurled that some commodities are trying to "get other people's markets." A" case in point are legislative proposals which would put wheat in a position where it could com pete against corn, oats and barley for the livestock feed grain mar - ket: - Then there is the still bitter struggle between butter and mar garine for the housewife's favor. A recent development in Con gress has aroused enmity between those interested in cotton and wheat. -Cotton state lawmakers sought to win approval of a bill that would have increased plant . ing allotments for that crop to take care of so-called "hardship" cases under a rigid control program. Allotmeat Increase But this measure went to defeat when wheat state lawmakers at tached an amendment that would have boosted allotments for wheat. There are indications that sugar may irritate old wounds and cause new ones in agriculture's leader ihip. v 71 Congress must decide either this session or next on new sugar con trol legislation to supplant an ex isting law designed to stabilize prices and supplies. Domestic producers of sugar beets and cane want a larger share of the U.S. market than is now alloted them. Any increase to them .would be at the expense of Cuba and other foreign producers. v But some U,S. farming congress men say they will fight any do mestic increase because it would reduce Cuba's financial ability to - Buy American cotton, lard, dairy products farm items."- In 1948, the last time sugar leg islation came up, this issue did Brink's Robbery PEABODY. Mass. W) The FBI and police Tuesday night discount ed the possibility that nearly $1, 000 pulled from Ipswich River by a young fisherman was part of the loot "of the $1,219,000 Brink's rob bery or the $631,000 Danvers ar mored car robbery. Investigators said the, serial num bers of the bills did not match any of those stolen in the fabu lous Brink's money transportation firm robbery of 1930 or the Dan vers robbery of 1952. The money, bound in wire and enmeshed in automobile tire chains, was pulled from the stream when the young fisherman noted a pink line tied to the bottom of a bridge. Editors Ask Federal Curb On News End WASHINGTON (UP)- A group of newspaper editors' Wednesday challenged recent White House and Pentagon orders restricting release of government information on se curity grounds. The challenge was made in a report by the American Society of Newspaper Editors' . Freedom of Information Committee to the or ganization's Board of Directors Committee Chairman J. Russell Wiggins, managing editor of the Washington Post and Times-Herald referred particularly to a directive by Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson which has slowed news from the Pentagon and to a state ment by White House Press Secre-! tary James C. Hagerty on behalf Of President Eisenhower. I The Wilson directive put a tight; reign on release of all military in-; formation. Hagerty said . a few . days later that Mr. Eisenhower feels there has been too much re lease of technical information which could be pf value to a po tential enemy. The Wiggins committee said one of the most disquieting develop- 1a iTu.I I freedom has been "the recent oblit- McKenzie White Water Parade Set EUGENE Of) The annual white water parade down the swift McKenzie River, will be held Sunday. McKenzie guides and boatmen from other rivers will take part in the five-hour parade, starting at 10 a.m. Entries are expected to total 100 or more boats. y "&ly.,: and other Dispute Centers On Custody of Einstein's Brain PRINCETON, N.J. Of Strife and publicity, which famed Albert Einstein tried to avoid all his life, followed him in; death Tuesday in the form of an argument over who was to study his brain. Montefiore Hospital in New York City said the brain which fash ioned the theory of relativity and other mathematical equations be yond the compfehension of most men, would be-delivered there Tuesday. Princeton hospital here said the brain would not leave this quiet university town, where the gentle, wispy haired professor died Mon day. . Newsmer tried to question au thorities ai Montefiore Hospital, where a spokesman had announced an afternoon arrival for the brain. All queries were referred to Princeton. 1 At Princeton, Dr. Thomas S. Harvey of the hospital staff termed the matter a misunderstanding, but insisted the brain would remain here. eration of the line between classi fied material not available to the public and unclassified, technical material never classified at all or officially declassified." 'Unless this attitude is clarified, it is bound to have a profound and paralyzing effect upon the flow of information to the American pub lic," the committee said. Perfume is sprayed in Paris subway trains iof an effort to con trol objectionable odors. State Sites in Construction Fluid Request WASHINGTON un The Defense Department listed three Oregon locations for $2,637,000 in its con struction fund request to Congress Wednesday, Sen. Morse (D-Ore) said $1,991, 000 will go to Klamath Falls with $992,000 earmarked for an Air Force interceptor base at the air port and $999,000 for 72 housing units. The Portland airport will get $554,000 for work including pave ment, utilities, storage and personnel facilities. The Tongue Point Naval Station, Astoria, is down for $92,000 worth of construction. The request is for the fiscal year beginning July 1. eeejou"' ,$ LOVELY m jr , r m4M 4 1 RETIMED -V" HE Will ADMIRE Y0U...Exddnt, new hair beauty aid that revolution izes Home Hair Styling. Sho-Curl gives Picture Perfect waves and curls in minutes (both long and short hair). 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