Farm Programs About the Same

HELLO FOLKS — The total rainfall for here during the month of July was 3.1 inches. That was considerably less than at Albert Lea and Austin. I understand Austin had about six inches.

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IT IS NOT what men eat but what they digest that makes them strong; not what we gain, but what we save that makes us rich; not what we read, but what we remember that makes us learn; and not what we preach, but what we practice that makes us Christians. – Francis Bacon.

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I DON'T write much about farm programs these days. The reason is that they have become so obnoxious with their political meddling that I feel they do more harm than good. An idea can be perfectly good, but before the 'cooks' get done, it is so messed up with political meddling that is it hardly recognizable, and probably as worthless.

I think it is about time the various farm organizations start using their back-bones instead of their wish-bones and agree to get the government out of the pricing business and decide to do their own supporting of farm commodities. These organizations have grown stronger in recent year and with a bit of help from our Congressman in the form of a revolving fund to help support commodities, to prevent disaster prices, these organizations can very well do more for the farmers than the government could ever hope to do.

If labor had gone to the Government to get the benefits that have received over the years they would find themselves in the same 'pickle' the farmers are in.

With the farmer's setting their own support prices they would not set them at levels that would create or perpetuate surpluses.

With no surpluses there would be no depressed prices. The consumer would not be irritated by having to pay tax money to support and store food they can't eat.

Hence, there would be better rural urban relations. Our farm economy and therefore our total national economy would be healthier and the "Gross National Product" would be higher, if the famers handled their own program, and they rightly should.

The whole history of farm programs proves that they have been a dismal failure.

It all harks back to the old adage: "If you want a thing done right, do it yourself."

Farmers Face The Crossroads

HELLO FOLKS — The Man from Mars had just arrived and landed in the Congo. He approached a native and demanded to see the leader.

"Lumumba or Mobutu": asked the native. "Take me to your leader now," said the man from Mars, "And we'll dance later."

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ELECTION TIME is drawing close, and with it political fever is getting hotter.

As far as the farmer is concerned there is a clear line of demarcation to choose from for the first time in a long while. The leaders on the Democratic side are making no 'bones' about their plans. They are for strict controls with teeth in them that will make the farmer a complete puppet of the government, with police to regulate every bushel of grain and pound of meat.

None of this is free choice planning. This is socialism, and absolute complete. Or shall we call it dictatorship.

On the other hand the Republicans are holding up the prospect of flexible prices that will vary with the demand. It will (if I understand it rightly) be a combination of controls with the faint hope of future economic controls eliminated. Most Republicans know as well as do many of the Democrats that neither of these ideas (and none of them are new) will solve the farm problem. It will never be solved until the farmers get together enough motion to create their own farm program.

As for me, I don't go for either one of the ideas. The plans of the Republicans will tend to keep farm prices down and deaden the economy. The plans of the Democrats will eventually destroy freedom in American and with it the whole national prosperity and standard of living. If the plans of the Democrats succeeds the Communists will have won the cold war without a battle. The Communists plans for the farmers are almost identical to the platform of the Democrats.

To sum it up it means that the farmers are at the cross-roads. They can go ahead and solve their problems the way they want or they can let the politicians do it for them and reap the bitter consequences.

What with famers making up only 10 per cent of the population and the consumers the other 90 per cent we may be sure that the farmer is going to come out on the thin end of any farm program that Congress may propose. For the consumer wants cheap food. That is only natural.

The farmer on the other hand wants a purchasing power equal to that of the rest of the nation. He will only get it by doing for himself what he should have done 30 or 40 years ago.

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PHOTO CAPTION:

WIDE OPEN — A herd of porkers runs loose in one of 10 lots on the Petersen farm. Says he, pasture raising saves labor and costs and allows him to raise more pigs in a single man operation.