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Show Page Friday, July THE UTAH STATESMAN 2 Well, a Cooked Goose Can't Lay! 'A : Foreign Aid Help or Eiinderance VWcurrjot Jfrrm peospebry FARM PRICES UP INCREASED FARM INCOME REDUCED FARM SURPLUSES 4, 1958 By Rep. William A. Dawson This week, I voted against the $3 billion foreign aid authorization bill. I opposed this measure not because I think all of our foreign aid program is bad. But after much study I am convinced that mismanagement of our foreign aid program in many areas of the world is making us more enemies than friends. The only method 1 know whereby Congress can cut out waste is by reducing appropriations. There are hair raising examples of waste uncovered annually by Congressional investigations of our foreign aid expenditures. One involves the construction of a highway in Cambodia with our money. On the grounds that the highway was needed immediately, the government bypassed many of the . : The Farm mar school would not receive milk, our wool growers Mark Twain spoke prophetic words when he could not make plans, and Secretary Benson could said that the farmers most serious problems were not barter and sell farm surpluses for foreign currencies. Delay on these programs has already been the Democrats and the Republicans. The House Agriculture Committees now omni- extremely costly. bus farm bill, which I opposed before the Rules MY FAVORITE STORY Committee Monday and on the House floor Thursday, Roll Call, die newspaper distributed on Capitol is a striking example of the truth behind the Twain Hill, asked me for publication last week for my favstatement I offered them the following bit of true The farm problem has become so completely orite story. Utah historical lore: political and emotional that if a farmer knows when Frank, Butch Cassidy said to Frank Webber of he is well off he will keep as far away from governHanksville, Im not as bad as Ive been painted. I ment controls as he can get feller and bis wife a good turn this trip. done The crops that are receiving the most subsidy As a poor n I was cuttin across the hills I oome to a have the greatest controls and are in the greatest lookin outfit where I stopped to get something to eat, trouble. Conversely, those farm commodities reand an old man and woman was there. They tried to ceiving little or no government help (cattle, hogs, make a home but old age hit quickern they imagined, potatoes) enjoy the best marketing positions. and the fact is they were just about to be run out of The old illusion that the federal government the place by a feller who had a note agin em. could play King Midas and turn to gold everything I asked em who the gent was and they said it touched is a deceiving mirage in the farmers field. looked to see him show up any minute. Which In some areas of activity the federal government can they will he come in? I asks. And the old woman and has operated with remarkable efficiency and re- way to the trail. I make the old woman take $500, sults, but taken as a whole, our farm policies of the pointed amount the due, and I told her to give it to the feller. past 15 years have heavily burdened the consumer, and left I hid out along the I said good-bythe taxpayer, and the farmer. trail and along comes the feller on a horse. He 'has on Some of our nations farmers are ahead of the blade dothes and I had a hunch this was the collector, politicos in understanding this. For example, a week so I watched him and he went into the old log cabin, ago Farm and Ranch magazine reprotod a poll of and the old him let in. lady its readers that astounded the editor. Of more than five minutes later he oome up the trail. Maybe 2000 responses, 87.5 per cent wanted the government I stopped him, took the five hundred-a-nd here I am. out of farming. This omnibus bill was a new attempt to repeal the law of supply and demand. It was so complicated that not even its authors could explain what it meant or tell us what it would cost, so unworkable that a genius couldnt administer it, and so involved that Rapidly rising oil production Utah may go a long it would have required thousands of additional govin offsetting the anticipated drop in metal minernment employees to operate it It would have cost way assessments ing according to the Utah Foundation. at least $2 billion a year for new supports, compensaThe Foundation earlier this week predicted a drop of tory payments, and price increases for the consumer. $50 million in net proceeds mine assessments during It is estimated that prices would go up 9 cents 1959 with an additional $50 million decline in 1960. a pound on butter, 8 cents a pound on cheese, 1 cent Foundation analysts point out that the recent a loaf on bread, llh cents a quart on milk, if the completion of an ofl pipe line from Southeastern bill passed. Utah to Southern California has permitted oil produc-- . The gimick was to include in the omnibus bill tion in Utah to jump to five times the 1957 level. Public Law 480 (permitting exchange and barter of first three months of this year oil prothe During surplus crops), the school and hospital milk program, duction totaled 1.4 million barrels or about 465,000 the wool bill all worthwhile programs, and run them barrels month. Preliminary figures show oil proin with unsound programs opposed by the Farm duction per in April equal to 1.1 million barrels with May Bureau. production climbing above the 2.1 million barrel The President, Secretary of Agriculture and many mark. Oil production in Utah during 1957 averaged of us have been pleading with the House Agriculonly about 360,000 barrels per month. ture Committee for months to separate the sheep from the goats in this hodgepodge bill but those in control THE UTAH STATESMAN of the Committee steadfastly refused to do so. A Weekly Newspaper Devoted to Good Government' Thursday afternoon the House rose in indignation HARRY B. MILLER, Publisher to strike the many-taile- d monster down by voting not H. V. WRIGHT, Editor to allow debate on the bill by a surprising majority 421 Church Street Phone EM of 43 votes. I was heartened by this statesmanlike action of my colleagues in both parties. This is a re- Entered as 2nd Class matter at the Post Office at Salt Lake City, Utah, under the Act of March 3, 1879 freshing drift toward Secretary Bensons principles Subscription rate $1.00 per year and toward taking the farmer out of political bondage. Published weekly at 421 Church Street The school milk program, P.L. 480, and the wool Salt Lake City, Utah bill have such universal backing that I think we can now bring them out separately under suspension of National Editorial Association 1958 the rules, get a 23 majority vote and pass them, and beat the June 30 deadline. Otherwise one million Vol. 12; No. 26 Friday, July 4, 1958 school children now in hospitals, summer sumcamps, By Henry Aldous Dixon run-dow- e STATE: Oil - sound competitive bidding procedures otherwise required to issue a construction contract. The original contract placed the cost of construction at less than $15 million. Now it is estimated the the project will time it require an expenditure of $33 million by the is completed next May. The contractor told the International Cooperation Agency that new equipment was not available. A simple check of equipment dealers would have revealed that this was false information but the ICA did not check. It permitted the contractor to buy used equipment He bought the equipment for $1 million from one of his wholly-owne- d subsidiary comof panies, incorporated in Liberia, at a price in excess what he had been trying to sell the machinery for for six months. Congressional investigators determined he made $500000 on this deal alone. The foreign corporation from which it was purchased is not liable for federal or state taxes. An engineering firm hired by the ICA reported the used equipment was in good condition. Subsequent investigation showed that the firm did not even inspect the machinery. Six months after the 48 pieces of machinery were purchased, 14 were found in the shops, most of them for major rebuilding repairs. Since the contractor was seller, purchaser, receiver and operator of the machinery, any invocation of guarantees as to its operation would constitute an action taken voluntarily by himself against his financial interest. As a result, the repair costs become part of the highway expense. The contractors profit is not affected because he is working on a cost plus fee basis. What is most discouraging is that the ICA did not begin to investigate this situation and attempt to determine who is responsible until it was disclosed by the Congressional investigation. Congress is a comparatively small organization. It cannot begin to police a $3 billion annual operation like the ICA. Only by cutting appropriations and tightening up money supply can we force the ICA to polioe itself. That is why I voted for heavy cuts in foreign aid Utah's Mining Cure - All? The research organization observes that present trends indicate that 1958 oil production in Utah will total 20-2-2 million barrels. Oil lands in Utah are assessed on the basis of the oil produced during the preceding year. Thus, the big jump in 1958 production will be reflected in a corresponding increase in property tax assessments for next year. Foundation officials estimate that total oil and gas assessments next year may exceed $40 million. Such assessments this year amount to $10.5 million, While 1957 oil and gas assessments were equal to $6.4 million. The Foundation analysis points out that this rise in oil and gas assessments together with expected increases in other assessment categorie might well completely offset the anticipated drop in metal mines taxable values for next year. They warn, however, that the usual over-a- ll increases in the total property tax base, which have .averaged $54-V- z million during the past five years, probably will not be realized in 1959 and 1960. These increases have been important factors in financing Utahs public school program, offsetting in part the added costs of increasing enrollments. Another problem noted by the Foundation is the geographic shift in the property tax assessments. Most of the big increases in oil assessments will occur in San Juan County while the major impact of the expected reduction in mining assessments will fall in Salt Lake County and the Jordan School District This decline in the assessment base will create additional problems of local government finance within Salt Ijake County. |