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Show Sen. Johnson Guides Demos In Wise Use of Probe Powers With hog prices high for the past couple of years, farmers raised 17 per cent more pigs last fall for market next spring and the USDA estimates the spring pig crop will jump by 13 per cent over a year ago. "Dogs may be a man's best friend, but any farm belt congressman con-gressman will tell you that hogs are more important, politically. There are something like two million hog raisers and when prices go down farmers become very displeased. 'The man they usually pin the blame on is the Secretary of Agriculture. Ag-riculture. Benson has been warn-ning warn-ning growers for two years to hold down their hog production but that won't keep him from being blamed when prices drop. "And if the forecasters are cor- Democrats in Congress who seemed to have settled the civil rights issue without splitting the party are relying on the historic his-toric device of inquiry to provide pro-vide their real power. They can challenge the White House leadership across a broad front but constitutional limitations limita-tions will remain a handicap. According to Courtney Sheldon, Shel-don, staff correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor in Washington, Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, as powerful as he is, does not intend to step outside the confines of the established system to push inquiries. "He talks about the Democrats 'mandate for confident and creative cre-ative and constructive leadership leader-ship beginning now, not two years from now.' rect, other farm prices will be going down during the year. Even USDA economists who know that pessimistic predictions predic-tions displease their boss, are forecasting a 5 to 10 per cent decline in 1959 farm prices. "Farmers squeezed between falling prices of the things they sell and rising prices of things they buy are in the habit of telling tell-ing their troubles to their congressmen. con-gressmen. It is up to the congressmen con-gressmen to place the blame. "While farm prices are going down food prices almost certainly certain-ly will be going up. In the past 10 years farm prices have gone down 23 per cent while food prices have increased by 27 per cent. Neither farmers nor consumers con-sumers are happy about that. "Either way Benson can't win. Farmers blame him for the low prices they receive, and consumers consum-ers kick be cause of higher food prices. Taxpayers object to the high cost of farm subsidies. One thing Benson can count on: Hogs and Democrats will make life uncomfortable for him in 1959." "But he is carefully telling his colleagues (and the country) that 'we do not have authority to command. We have powers to advise and consent. We do not have powers to implement and accomplish." On other fronts things were looking rather dismal for Sec-of Sec-of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson. Columnist Clinton Davidson noted that: "With the new Congress only a week old it is already apparent that Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson has as many troubles as anyone in Washington. Washing-ton. "He starts out with a predominantly predomi-nantly Democratic Congress that is sure to oppose his farm plans and in general make 1959 anything any-thing but a happy year for him. "Pigs and politics will be the principal cause of his woes. There will be too much of both. And, as if that were not enough, he'll have too much wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco and a few other surpluses. "During the past year Benson paid farmers almost a billion and a half dollars for farming practices prac-tices principally designed to hold down production. Farmers, instead, in-stead, produced bumper crops 11 per cent larger than the previous record on the smallest acreage in 80 years. . : "Benson believes that the costs of government farm programs are too high and that Congress j should take steps to reduce them. But, he concedes, he hasn't much chance of reducing costs until the farm laws are changed. "Farm programs, which include in-clude such things as subsidized exports, the school lunch program, pro-gram, etc., last year cost $6 billion. bil-lion. Unofficial estimates are that these programs may cost as, much as $7 billion this year. I "With the exception of the Defense De-fense Department the Agriculture Agricul-ture Department spends more money than any other government govern-ment agency. Despite these expenditures ex-penditures government holdings of farm surpluses have reached $7 billion and may go to $8 billion bil-lion within the next few weeks. Storage charges alone amount to more than $1 million a day. "The worst may be yet to come. |