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Show CATTLEMEN'S CARAVAN The group of Utah farmers and stockmen who took the trip to Washington, D.C. to present pre-sent their farm problems to the , Secretary of Agriculture, were representative of thousands of farm families who find themselves them-selves in the same critical condition con-dition because of the "Farm Squeeze," and drought. Those who made this trip were of the finest character; j they were well behaved and presented their problems in Washington in an orderly fash-, ion. They made their requests,! not asking for anything that the Secretary could not give them under the existing laws. The recommendations were almost al-most identical to the findings and requests of the House Agricultural Ag-ricultural Committee who investigated in-vestigated the critical farm situation. sit-uation. The bus load of farmers from Utah was made up of Republicans Republi-cans and Democrats, Farm Bureau Bur-eau members, Farmers Union members, and of men who belonged be-longed to no farm organization. Stockmen, sheepmen, dairymen and plain dirt farmers. The Utah bus joined the Cattle Cat-tle Caravan, which represented 30 states. Their object was to petition for a right to live on par with people in other walks of life. The Caravan met with Secretary Secre-tary Benson, an honest, sincere group of farmers, many faced with liquidation in the near future; fu-ture; others faced with the loss of many years' savings. Many felt they could weather it for awhile, but all agreed that the farmer sells his produce at depression de-pression prices and pays inflation infla-tion prices for what he buys. Farmers are selling their livestock live-stock at disaster prices and the consumer is still paying inflation infla-tion prices for meat. Secretary ' Benson gave the cattlemen ' and farmers very little encouragement, telling them that prices would stabilize. Mr. Dennis Driscoll, the elected spokesman for the group, with tears in his eyes, said: "If that is all we have to look forward to, then God help us!" The Caravan then met in ah open meeting, which gave every man a right to express his views and opinions. From this group a committee was selected with each state naming their own committeeman. After having heard the views of the stockmen, stock-men, the committee then met and drew up a workable plan that would aleviate the critical condition the farmers are in. I This plan was then presented by their elected spokesman. Many newspaper reporters ! commented on the orderly way I in the which the Farmers Union sponsored Caravan came to Washington to' petition under their Constitutional Rights for a chance to save their life savings sav-ings and in many cases their farms. The group humbly and sincerely presented their problems prob-lems and their plans and returned re-turned to their homes. Elmer B. Yergensen A STATEMENT FROM THE UTAH - IDAHO DELEGATION CATTLE CARAVAN ON THEIR RETURN FROM WASHINGTON The Utah delegation are friends and neighbors of the Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson. We know Mr. Benson Ben-son to be a man of character, ability and considerable experience exper-ience in agriculture. We believe be-lieve he has the desire to do his utmost for the best interests of agriculture throughout the entire en-tire country. We are a representative group of farmers, cattlemen and sheepmen sheep-men from Utah and southern Idaho. We obtain our living from the soil and from livestock. live-stock. We are now threatened with the loss of our life savings and our farm and ranch investments invest-ments because- of the drought and ruinously low, and still declining, de-clining, livestock prices in face of inflationary ' prices of the commodities we buy. Thousands of other families are in the same situation. We feel that Mr. Benson has not been fully informed as to the actual existing conditions in Utah and Idaho. We are bringing bring-ing him first hand, current and reliable information concerning the extreme critical conditions which now confront livestock producers. We approve of the current administration program which provides for the following 1. Government purchase of meats; 2. Efforts to increase consumption of meat; 3. Drought relief in disaster areas; 4. Emergency Emer-gency credit to livestock people. However, these measures are not working effectively and are not sufficient to meet the present pres-ent critical emergency with the prices of livestock still falling. Immediate and drastic means are necessary to meet the situation. situa-tion. We respectfully request the Secretary of Agriculture to do the following 1. Grant approval ap-proval of critical drought areas of Utah which have been designated desig-nated by Gov. J. Bracken Lee, and any other areas which may qualify. 2. Put livestock under support on an equal basis with other supported basic farm commodities. commod-ities. The present situation with support prices for corn and other grains used as livestock feeds is utterly ruinous to the livestock industry which has no supports. 3. Put into effect immediately the recommendations of the res-osolution res-osolution of the House Agricultural Agricul-tural Committee submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture under un-der date of October 10, 1953. These recommendations are: (a) "That the Secretary immediately im-mediately announce that the present beef purchase program pro-gram will be expanded and implemented in a manner which will assure cattle producers pro-ducers in all parts of the country a price for non-fat cattle adequately reflecting government prices paid for canned and frozen beef bought under the program including, in-cluding, if necessary, direct government purchase of cattle for processing at markets where facilities are available, (b) That the Secretary immediately immed-iately announce that until Dec. 31, 1954, the price of slaughter cattle grading U.S. Choice 1 will be supported by loans, purchases or other means, at approximately the present levels, adjusted for seasonal variations." 4. Sponsor legislation to put agriculture on par with other segments of our economy. In the absence of parity prices to farmers and livestock people, agriculture cannot survive in our highly organized industrial economy. We feel that more must be done fast to restore the confidence confi-dence of the livestock feeder, producer and the general public. pub-lic. Otherwise, the disaster facing fac-ing the livestock industry will spread to other businesses, such as banks and farm machinery dealers, and eventually ' our entire en-tire economy will be plunged into a depression. HEBER BENNION, JR. Chairman |