National Reports
KING, SAM ROMER, LAWRENCE T. & ACKLAND, CATHERINE
National Reports How Much Support for the Farmer? By Sam Romer MINNEAPOLIS IN 1952, Adlai Stevenson carried Minnesota's three urban counties by a small margin; Eisenhower carried the other 84...
...The readiness of the Government to meet this 90-per-cent figure, of course, keeps the commercial price always a little above it...
...Inasmuch as their institutions are under no compulsion to abide by the Court's action, by ending segregation voluntarily-as the Catholics in Richmond are doing- they would be performing a tremendous service in laying to rest the Southern phobia of Federal coercion...
...This usually expresses itself in the dogmatic assertion: You cannot legislate morality...
...As yet, neither party has announced its official slate, but the choice that Rhode Islanders will be faced with in November seems clear: On the Federal level, thev will be able to vote for three men of proven ability...
...the great debate is only about "how much...
...Just how soon that will be is still a matter of conjecture...
...The 1952 Republican Gubernatorial candidate, Raoul Archambault, comes from an old Democratic family, and he succeeded in inducing many to vote for his opponent...
...Since most of the South's private schools and colleges are denominational institutions, these churchmen are now in a position to set a powerful example for the rest of the region...
...Led by Senator Edward J. Thye, himself a farmer, four of the five GOP Congressmen are backing continued 90 -per-cent supports and demanding that even dairy products (the only major area where the Eisenhower program has been put into operation) be restored to the 90-per-cent level...
...Even the question of parity itself is subject to debate...
...The present law-due to expire without Congressional action-fixes 90 per cent as the proper support for six "basic" crops, while others are supported at the Secretary of Agriculture's discretion...
...Bayard Ewing, a Young Republican leader who ran for the Senate in 1952, is an intelligent man, but he discards his best qualities when campaigning...
...This is the significance of the farmer's vote-and of the current grassroots debate on the Administration's farm policy...
...Since then, he says, potato prices have gone so high in times of shortages that the consumer would have been better off if the 1951 stockpile had been destroyed and price supports kept...
...He points to potatoes, which a rotting stockpile in 1951 forced Congress to eliminate from the price-support program...
...One uncomfortable fact, which confronts the outsider as he seeks his way through the maze of farm economics, is how often optimism for agriculture's future is linked to the inevitability of disasters like war, drought or famine...
...One method of legislating against a free economy in farm products is to use Government price-support "loans" linked to the level of some previous era when the farmers were relatively prosperous...
...His neighbor calls it a problem of maldistribution and points to statistics of the world's hungry and helpless...
...But interest in this predominantly Protestant state soon died when Monsignor J. L. Flaherty, Catholic superintendent of schools, said that the parochial-school system would not become a refuge for parents seeking to circumvent the Court's ruling...
...If the Democrats are right, they will have insured the reelection of Humphrey and their four Congressmen...
...In dispute are Government food stockpiles that were built as farmers shunted their crops off the market in return for Government checks...
...Parity, as now in the law, balances the farmer's ability to sell his product against the cost of producing it, in relation to the 1910-1914 period...
...Democratic Governor Dennis J. Roberts has worked both sides of the political street for so long that he has become politically cross-eyed...
...The "six basics" are wheat, commercial corn, rice, cotton, peanuts and tobacco-effective testimony that what makes a crop "basic" is its political importance rather than its social value...
...Similarly, the Governor publicly approved needed increases for teachers but came out against using taxes to pay for them...
...The feeling here is that the paucity of able potential candidates may very well give the Republican nomination to a Democratic retread...
...One of the Administration proposals is to "modernize" the parity formula and, consequently, drop parity values on many crops...
...Aside from the moral aspect, one of them suggests, even the destruction of surplus crops may be doing the consumer a favor...
...The Eisenhower program proposes a return to the flexible-price-supports policy, under which Government help increases in times of short supply, drops when food and fiber are plentiful...
...How the Court Ruling Hit Richmond By Lawrence T. King RICHMOND THE FULL impact of the Supreme Court's decision declaring public-school segregation unconstitutional will not be felt in the South until the states actually start moving toward integration...
...With so many parents looking for ways to avert the consequentr- of the Court's ruling, interest was momentarily centered on the Catholic diocesan school system, which currently educates more than 16.000 students...
...But the high-price-support advocates are certain that this is a relatively inexpensive method of doing business...
...As a, matter of fact, Bishop Peter L. Ireton told a Richmond audience, fully ten days before the Court acted, that the diocese was prepared to integrate students on the high-school level in the fall regardless of how the Court's decision went...
...While he makes liberal speeches before labor gatherings, his chief adviser heads a businessmen's tax-saving outfit that would like to scuttle all labor and welfare legislation...
...But the Republican Congressional delegation does not agree...
...In Minnesota, the local Republican political organizations are convinced that he will trust Eisenhower, the man who promised him "a fair, full share of the national income full parity...
...There apparently is no dispute among farm leaders about price supports as such...
...In making up their state ticket, the Democrats are faced with two problems...
...Many Protestant churchmen also came forward and urged their people to accept integration in a "Christian manner...
...On one side of the debate are the "fixers," who want rigid 90-per-cent props not only kept on the present six but extended to other farm produce...
...In 1948, Truman carried the 84 non-urban counties, 389,965 to 285,516...
...The next day, a newspaper survey story pointed out that openings in the stales private schools were limited and only a fraction of the sudden flood of applicant- could he accepted...
...The Negro students were just as firmly for it...
...Another Republican who seems to have his eyes on the Governor's position-although he recently denied this-is former Democratic officeholder Christopher DelSesto, who lost his 1952 bid for the Mayor's job in Providence...
...Under this program, the Government in effect says to the farmer: "If you will keep the price-supported part of your crop off the market, we will pay you 90 per cent of what you might have gotten for it during better times...
...These years supposedly were not influenced by wars, depressions or international tension...
...Secondly, Armand Cote, a leading vote-getter whom many would prefer over the colorless Roberts as head of the ticket, is tired of being Secretary of State...
...But a clue to the course the conference will follow can be found in Attorney General J. Lindsay Almond Jr.'s statement that it may be possible for Virginia to arrange for separate-but-equal public schools for whites and Negroes, and yet comply with the Court's decision...
...on the state level, they may as well toss a coin...
...Rhode Island's Political Paradox By Catherine Ackland PROVIDENCE MOST competent observers here agree that Rhode Island's voters will be faced with a curious political paradox when they go to the polls in November...
...Senator Hubert H. Humphrey and all four Congressmen are lined up with the "fixers," and their views are supported by such non-farm elements as the labor unions and city political organizations...
...Political observers admit, however, that he is a man of principle-which is more than they will say for the younger element in the party...
...Farmers Union experts also want to change the parity formula, but they want to up it to roughly 105 per cent of the present one...
...The Old Guard is headed by an estate lawver who is so troubled by the millionaire's plight that he is leading a crusade for putting a 25-per-cent ceiling on the Federal income tax...
...Forand, a leading Congressional tax expert, is recognized as a hard worker who combines an extensive knowledge of fiscal problems with a deep interest in the state...
...It was worked out during New Deal days, after killing little pigs and the plowing under of cotton failed to keep prices up...
...while he publicly professes a desire to strengthen the woefully inadequate unemployment-compensation law, the Expenditures Council, headed by the same adviser, has done everything it could to weaken it...
...John Fogarty, a former local officer in the Bricklayers' Union, has served seven terms in Congress and is an authority on labor and Social Security legislation...
...Its eventual aim, as made clear by Agricultural Secretary Ezra Benson, is to weed out the "inefficient" farm operator and bring farm prices to 100 per cent "of parity" in the marketplace of a non-regulated free economy...
...It is apparent that many Southern officials believe that it is still possible to obey the letter and ignore the spirit of the law...
...Southern ollicialdom...
...Ironically, some of the first parents to run to the private schools had publicly parroted the thesis that non-state-run schools exerted a divisive influence in American life...
...The man ner in which the news was received at the grass-roots level, however, was more revealing...
...These leaders argue that industry, labor and commerce are protected by a "legislated economy," and ask: Why must the agricultural fifth of the nation alone suffer the ups and downs of gambling with the heavensent shortages of one year against the financially ruinous surpluses of the next...
...this is the "parity" method...
...The wheat stockpile consists of 860 million bushels, which is enough for a normal year's production, and a good harvest this year will add to this figure...
...On the state level, however, Little Rhody is suffering from uninspired leadership...
...On the Congressional level, three able, conscientious Democratic incumbents are seeking re-election: Senator Theodore Francis Green and Representatives Aime Forand and John Fogarty...
...No one suggests that price supports (paid for by the ultimate consumer first in Government taxes and again at the grocery store) are a solution...
...How is the farmer going to vole...
...First, they have to find a spot for an Italo-American who can draw votes...
...One private non-sectarian school in the city reported that, the day after the Court's ruling, its switchboard w:as deluged by phone calls from worried parents seeking information on enrolling their children...
...at best, they serve to ease the farmer's burden until a solution is found...
...One argues that we must solve the problem of overproduction: We are growing more wheat than man's limited capacity can consume...
...As for the Republicans, they are deeply divided among themselves and lack an outstanding candidate...
...on the other side are the "flexers," who would even give the Secretary power to cut down the support percentage now received by the "six basics...
...Underlying the debate, however, is the recent slide in farm income despite ever-increasing output...
...Eisenhower carried the other 84 counties by a decisive 61-per-cent majority...
...In the meantime, Virginia's Governor Thomas B. Stanley has invited 15 Southern Governors to meet here June 7-3 to discuss the Court's ruling...
...But "free economy" is an ominous phrase in some farm circles, especially among members of the growing, aggressive Farmers Union...
...It was subsequently revealed that plans were already being mapped for integration on all educational levels, although Catholic schools-classified as private-are not subject to the Court's ruling...
...Aside from this, there is an apparent lack of agreement among experts even on basic issues...
...as was expected, generally took a jaundiced view of the Court's action...
...The Democrats do not have this problem...
...Their previous utterances, of course, were made prior to the Supreme Court's decision...
...Virginia's junior Senator, A. Willis Robertson, even said that, if the mailer were put to a referendum, Negro citizens themselves would vote overwhelmingly against integration...
...The Senator, who belies his 87 years, is well informed on world problems and able to undertake tasks that men half his age shy away from...
...If Roberts again heads the Democratic ticket, however, many may vote Republican merely to prove to the politicians that cuteness and trickery are not always rewarded...
...One recent Administration proposal suggests using it for animal feed-this may be a modern version of the "let them eat cake" incident...
...Even more dramatic, though less important, is the Government's dairy-produce stockpile, which may spoil before it is consumed...
...The potato stockpile reached its climax, he notes, when supports were dropped to 60 per cent of parity...
...By acting voluntarily, the Protestant bodies would be helping to deal a death blow to the unchristian institution of white supremacy which has been permitted to thrive in the name of democracy...
...They may even pick up an extra seat in a district where the Republican schizophrenia extends to the voters...
...A spot poll conducted by a reporter at Richmond's two white and two Negro high schools showed the white students firmly opposed to integration...
...He also likes to use the potato episode to prove that "flexing" supports will not necessarily cut back production...
Vol. 37 • June 1954 • No. 23
