Show farm politics wakes I 1 GOP G 0 P THE eisenhower administration now has unveiled in some detail its program for bolstering the american farm economy the enlarged version looks some better than the skeleton secretary of agriculture bensen drew out of the closet last thursday still the cut of the cloth makes the garment hang strangely on the GOP frame one of the main objectives is to take away the governments anee support umbrella from the big pro dubers of surplus crops since there is no ceiling at present the reason ing is that surpluses can be held down by withholding millions of dol lars that now go to the big producers of such surplus crops as wheat and cotton while the medium or small farmer gets comparatively small benefits this is no new theory it has been put forth from time to time timmie and what makes it look all the more weird when draped around the re publicans is that it was part of the ill fated plan advanced by charles F brannan secretary of agrical ture under president truman fur thedmore ther more it is endorsed by the nat lonal ional farmers union regarded as the left wing among farm groups these seeming contradictions have political overtones that will not de ceide the farmers another of the administration form proposals suggests a shift from acre age controls to controls of a unit of measure such as bushels for grams grains and bales for cotton the argument here is that tech cology and farm efficiency have made acreage controls ineffective this makes some sense because a mississippi farm lad recently push ed his corn production to 38 33 bus hels on an acre of land and a sun sint liar ilar trend has been evident in other crops other GOP suggestions call for putting more land into conservation instead of surplus producing crops and for a broader more energetic program for disposal of government owned products these too are commendable objectives if they can be achieved that the administration so sudden ly has become awake to the farm problem is further evidence that the pressures of a political campaign are building up and the republicans don t want to be caught with no hay in the barn |