Show THIS WEEK in washington with clinton davidson Dav ldson da TIME TO QUIT agriculture A ri culture secretary benion POW han hail told congress he la Is ready to was toes in the towel and give up the battle to support farm prices priced and control production you must admit he told the senate agriculture committee 0 that our attempts at price fixing have failed and that attempts to control production have failed why 90 lie he asked continue ponti nue a program that Js 14 bankrupt he says ay farm programs tills this year will cost taxpayers almost 75 73 billion and that all the country has to show for that la Is artificially high prices and 9 billion worth of excess farm crops in govern ment storage the way to correct the sit lt bation he contends la Is to let 0 of supply and demand level it make sense lie ile soya ays to pay farmers to produce for the government kill or cure cur it is bitter medicine thai denson benson Is 9 prescribing for farmers it Is mhd th kind of blunt talk that few farmers ever expected to hear from a secretary of agriculture denson dens n told congress that tit A it it will give him a free hand lie ho will start slashing price supports to the point where production will move into use rather titan than into storage the cost of which la Is almost a billion dollars a year high price supports den ben pon eon says naya are the cause of excessive n production lower prices lie he argues would cause some aonie farmers to wit hutt farming and others to reduce their production food prices too would go down congressmen who are opposing poi g ills his proposal propos ab argue that hat their adoption would bankrupt at least sk a million farm families and drive them penniless into lilies cities where already there are almost 5 million unemployed A different DIf forent of opinion not everyone slid and that probably includes a maj major orill ll of 0 congress agrees with see sec arta wary Ilen denson suit they point out zat that in th vast past six years prices Pric lefi received by farmers have declined an average of percent and that thai term farm in come had declined nel by one third those who disagree ea with him cite USDA figures to show that the average 0 of I 1 tarot income Is less than holl half of that thai of tile the average factory worker and that the oie average city worker ran can buy BO 60 peront percent food now with pay for an hours work than he could in 1940 they also use USDA figures to show that only a traction fraction of the 73 billion in farm program costs actually Is received by farmers A third of that cost goes for export of food and fibers to friendly nations who me ate helping us fight communism another third of it Is spent for such things as school lunches distribution of food to needy people in cities forest preservation meat inspect oloti soil boll conservation and calarie la larie of some da USDA employees if forto farm prices had gone up in instead 11 tead of going down by 20 V per er cent by as much as the cost of df things farmers buy since 1932 U S consumers would bo be paying at least 10 billion a year more for their food and clothing it is this oils dAf difference ference of opinion that makes the washington farm battle one of the liveliest in many years |