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Show Farm Secretary Studies Issues Facing American Agriculture $10 billion. One way to reduce production he has suggested, might be for the government to "rent" approximately ap-proximately 60 million acres of crop land and put it into a soil conservation program. That, it is figured, might cost about $1 billion bil-lion a year. But, as he has emphasized in talks with Congressmen and farm leaders, if. such a program were effective the cost would be only a fraction of the nearly $7 billion spent on farm programs last year. Many regard Secretary Freeman's Free-man's job as one of the toughest in Washington. , "But I can be tough, too." With the farm organizations or-ganizations divided, as they have been for years, it will take more than just being tough to get the job done. The question we have been asked most frequently since early this year is: "What will Orville Freeman do about the farm situation?" The man best qualified to answer that question, of course, is Mr. Freeman, a former governor gov-ernor of Minnesota and the new Secretary of Agriculture. So Washington Columnist Clinton Davidson did just that. "The first thing I want to do is to get all the facts I can on the situation in all parts of the country. I want to talk with as many people with as many view points as I can. "When I have done that I want to develop a program which I think would help farmers get a fair income. I will then ask Con-gres Con-gres to give me the legislative authority to put that program into effect." Secretary Freeman has some rather definite ideas on how he would like to go about raising farmers' income, but he is cautious cau-tious on expressing them in terms of specific programs until "I get my feet on the ground." The first thing to be done, he has told farm leaders with whom he as conferred, is to reduce the burdensome surpluses. Next he will try to get production adjusted adjust-ed to demand so that surpluses will not again be accumulated. The first step, he hopes, to reducing surpluses will be distribution dis-tribution of foods to the needy and unemployed in this country, particularly in the economically distressed areas where unemployment unem-ployment is now high. The next move will be expansion expan-sion of shipment of surplus food to nations where the food supply is low. "I can't defend hoarding huge quantities of foods in this country while there are hungry people in other parts of the world," he said. Secretary Freeman has said he does not regard the entire $10 billion worth of farm commodities commodi-ties held by the government as being surplus. At least half of that, he thinks, should be set aside as an emergency reserve. An even tougher problem facing fac-ing Mr. Freeman will be that of adjusting production to halt the build up of excess supplies. The farmers for several years have been producing from 5 to 7 per cent more than the market will absorb. That excess has gone toward to-ward building up surpluses from under $2 billion to more than |
