NFO-82 (AV10488) On The Farm Front with Congressman O'Konski, Wisconsin

hello folks and friends this is congressman Alvin yokan Sookie from the 10th district of the state of Wisconsin I'd like to come into your living room or your kitchen or wherever you might be and have a short visit with you and I hope that you will permit me to come in so grab whatever you're doing by way of a hobby you're a lady of the house you grab your knitting and if you are the man of the house light up your pipe and sit down and relax and I hope that we'll have a nice friendly and informative visit I'd like to talk to you today particularly about the farm situation and what is going on in the nation's capitol pertaining to the farm problem you know we hear a lot about undeclared Wars and they're really - undeclared wars going on today as far as the federal government is concerned you all of course know about the undeclared war that is being waged by our government in Vietnam I'm not going to talk about that undeclared war I'm going to talk to you about an undeclared war on our homefront and that is the undeclared war by this administration and the federal government on the dairy farmers of the United States of America and it is an undeclared war and make no mistake about it folks oh yes the undeclared war on the home front against the dairy farmers of our nation may not be as deadly as the undeclared war in Vietnam but in the future as far as economic consequences are concerned it is going to be just as deadly now I made a few notes over here of some of the highlights that I'd like to cover with you the federal government just the other day I received a telephone call from a farmer friend of mine in northern Wisconsin and after he got me on the phone he says congressman Tolkowsky it looks like the federal government is dropping more bombs on the dairy farmers of the state of Wisconsin then they're dropping on Vietnam and maybe that's why there is such a shortage of bombs of course that's putting it pretty strongly but when you consider what is happening on the national scene in Washington DC that farmer was not very far from the truth for example Congress has been in session now approximately four months and in that period of time we've had a recommendation from the president to make a drastic cut in the school milk program we've had a recommendation from the president that we make a - drastic cut in the school lunch program we had a recommendation from the president that we make a big cut in our e.a funds that we make a cut in all of the farm research programs that we make a deep cut in the soil conservation programs that we make a cut in the farm administration program we've also had the President of the United States asking the housewives to boycott the buying of butter pork and beef because the price is too high we've also had the president and the Secretary of Defense stopping the purchase of butter pork and beef for the members of our armed forces then we've also had the stopping of the sale of hides for export which shuts out the foreign markets as far as the hides are concerned even to that extent then we've had a recommendation by the president that we increase the imports of cheese by some five million pounds and then the biggest blockbuster of the all is coming by way of bombs as if all these things don't hurt the dairy farmer enough the real bomb will be coming at about two or three weeks now that will be when the Congress of the United States is going to be asked by the same people who are dropping all these bombs on the dairy farmers to pass a law that a farmer will have to pay his hired man more money than the farmer his wife and his entire family get all working together and that will be the real blockbuster by way of a bomb now all this is going on at a time when the farmers of our nation and particularly the dairy farmers saw a ray of hope in the economic horizon things were beginning to pick up not buy anything that the government did but by natural causes and by natural effect and justice things were beginning to pick up a little bit as far as a dairy farmer was concerned entirely on their own then we get all these different edicts coming from Washington DC which take away the effect of anything that came along naturally and so the effect is going to be grave as far as the economic future is concerned as far as the economic life of the dairy farmers of our nation are concerned and particularly the dairy farmers of the state of Wisconsin which is one of our largest industries in that state now all this is going on in spite of the fact that for the past ten years we have seen ominous signs of dangers on the farm from 1950 to 1960 for instance 800,000 people a year that's 8 million people from 1950 to 1960 left the farms of our nation and went to our larger cities and mopped metropolitan areas already overcrowded already rampant juvenile delinquency and relief already rampant with defective housing already rampant with with defects in transportation 800,000 people a year migrating from our farms to the city from 1950 to 1960 now to give you an idea of what is happening lately the Census Bureau and the Department of Agriculture just a few days ago release the census figures for our agricultural communities our farm population so to speak and here is what was found from 1960 to 1965 the trek from the farms to the cities has continued just as it has in the past ten years from 1950 to 1960 even more so for example the recent figures just released show that although the population of the United States of America in the last five years has increased by 14 million our farm population in the last five years has dwindled or been reduced by three and 1/2 million just think of that in other words the trek from the farms to the cities is still continuing even at a higher pace than it did from 1950 to 1960 so much so my friends that the actual farm population of the United States of America today believe it or not is less than six and seven tenths percent of our entire population in other words our farm population today is only six and seven tenths of our entire population that's what's been happening to our farms and our farming population in the last fifteen years now that's a big drop and it's continuing its continuing today and with these blockbusters that being dropped by the federal government under Dairy Farmers of America even now I've had a dozen calls from farmers in northern Wisconsin saying that that the situation now is worse than it ever was and they're having option sale after auction sale in each and every rural sector of the state of Wisconsin as a result of these latest bombs that have been dropped when the farmer had been waiting for a ray of hope hoping that conditions would improve and get better and they were naturally and then to have the federal government drop these blockbusters on them at this time they've gotten to the point where they just cannot stand it any longer and so that's a situation as it exists today the trek continues from the farms to the cities and as a result your cities are coming over to the federal government and asking for billions to help them with their transportation because their cities are overcrowded they're asking for housing for for the poor because the city's already overcrowded fighted to the tunes of billions of dollars and so our tax structure is going to increase because as of each people trek from a rural areas from our farms to our cities the problems there are going to multiply and the farmers who remain under farms are going to pay the taxes in order to take care of this situation now how come that this thing has happened well is happened primarily because of this trick of the farm families from the farms to the city and because of the fact that the farm population now is less than six and seven tenths percent of the entire population of the United States the farmers of our nation have gotten to be one of the smallest minority votes in existence in the United States and other the various court decisions and reapportionment plans that had gone into effect in reapportionment of CIM districts the metropolitan areas have taken over completely the rain and the control of the federal government and because the farm population is so small politically wise this administration is making a play for the consumer vote for the city vote because the farm vote has compared to all the other classes of votes in the United States of America are relatively insignificant and that's why this thing is going on that's why the President of the United States went on the air and asked the housewife not to buy any butter because the price is too high to boycott the price the purchases of butter pork and beef because the price is too high I think that the President of the United States would have performed a much greater service to the farmers of our nation if he told the truth about the high prices today the prices that the consumer pays on the market today for butter for pork for cheese and for beef are not due to the high prices paid to the farmer the farmer is not responsible at all for this inflation of the goods that the consumer buys to eat and to place the responsibility on the farmer is one of the most unwise and the most unjú dishes statements that has ever been made in my judgment by a President of the United States for example in the last 15 years my friends in the last 15 years I would say that the price of a loaf of bread has risen by almost 12 cents in other words you're paying about 12 cents a pound 12 cents a loaf more for a loaf of bread today than you did 15 years ago and yet in spite of that 12 cent increase in a loaf of bread the price that the farmer gets for the wheat that goes into that bread that price of what the farmer gets is less than the farmer got 15 years ago in other words if the prices of a loaf of bread were based on what the farmer gets for his wheat the front the consumer would be paying less for a loaf of bread today than they paid 15 years ago instead of 12 cents a loaf more than he paid 15 years ago and the same thing might be said of beef and pork beef and pork are sky high but the farmer is not responsible for the price you'll find also that when the housewife buys a pound of pork or a pound of beef today she's probably paying 40 to 50 cents more per pound and she paid say 10 years ago but in spite of the fact that the housewife is paying that much more for pound of pork and a pound of beef than what the farmer actually gets for the beef and the pork when he sells it is less today than it was 10 years ago so if the prices were based on what the farmer gets the housewife would actually be paying less for her beef and pork today than she paid 10 years ago and so to blame the farmers of our nation for the fact that price is at the price that it is the fact that beef and pork are at the price that they are to blame the farmers of our nation for that situation is most unjustifiable and the biggest blockbuster that has ever been put upon the shoulders in the burdens of the farmers of our nation because they are the least responsible of any economic or social group in our country for the spiral of inflation that's going on in our nation today I don't care what group you may consider the farmers of your nation are the least responsible for the spiral of inflation that is going on in this nation today because they're actually getting less for their products today than they got 10 years ago in spite of the fact that the housewife is paying much much much more for each and every product that goes that farm products makeups and she did 10 years ago and I think that this ought to be of importance to the city folks and to the consumer and I hope that you folks in the cities are listening to this because I think you should know that the farmers of our nation are not responsible for the high cost of food the farmers of this nation are not responsible for this spiral of inflation that is affecting our country today they are the only economic and social group that are getting less today then they got 10 years ago and that fact ought to be known and they ought to be spread by word of mouth to each and every consumer each and every working man because we should not punish the farmer for something over which they have absolutely no control now what are the farmers and particularly their dairy farmers of a nation going to do about it I very disappointed when President Johnson made its recommendation that we import 5 million more pounds of cheese and that's just the beginning you see folks we have gone on so long giving away our money all over the world under our various foreign aid programs that we're pretty well running out of money and money is harder to get and to come by particularly with our already unbalanced budget but because Congress has been more niggardly and in my judgment they should have been far more niggardly in handing out all these foreign aid programs I've never voted for the program because I think it's demoralized the world and made us more enemy than friends to watch but because this foreign aid program is running out of money and money is hard to come by they have only one thing to do now and that is to export our jobs we've already exported an iron ore mining job we don't have any northern Wisconsin they're all closed down we're importing a hiring oil from Liberia with mines built by United States dollars taxpayer dollars we've closed on most of our plywood plants and we're now importing our plywood from Japan we gave them under our foreign aid program the most modern ply wood making equipment that we could get our hands on they can produce a cheaper they have plywood machinery that is the most modern in the world given to them by us and many of our plywood plants are still using machinery that's 40 and 50 years old and they possibly cannot compete we've given many of those jobs away we've given many of our shoe manufacturing jobs away almost 1/3 of all the shoes bought in the United States of America are produced overseas to give you an idea of what's going on how many jobs shoemaking jobs we have given away and we have given away our pottery business we've given away our watch business well there isn't much left to give away but we still have the farms of our nation to give away and they're next in line now I'm very happy that I never gave the president of United States of America the automatic authority to lower and raise tariffs to import whatever he wants at his will I've consistently voted against the reciprocal trade agreement Act which gave him that almost unlimited power because I saw this thing coming on from one industry to the next and now that we've given so many of our industrial jobs away we have only one thing left and that is to give our farms away and so now we're beginning to import more and more beef more and more pork more and more butter more and more cheese they're next in line and incidentally I might as well be absolutely blunt about it when the reciprocal trade agreement was up I was criticized by some of the farm organizations because I didn't give the president the power to lower and raise tariffs to import anything that he wants it will they thought that I should have voted to give him that power well now I'm glad that I didn't because I proved to be right and these farm organizations that condemned me for voting as I did are proved to be wrong and I hope that they realize that they made their mistake but the president under the reciprocal trade agreement does have that power and he's using that power and that power that he has doesn't expire for another two years I believe because the Congress of the United States gave him that power while at any rate in spite of the fact that he made the recommendations and a tariff Commission that we import this additional cheese I was very disappointed but a few farm organizations have showed up at the hearing at the tariff Commission to protest this action I believe that something like twelve members of Congress were over there at the hearing including a statement that I presented but outside of that the protest wasn't as strong as it should have been now why because unfortunately the vast majority of the farmers of our nation don't even belong to any farm organization they don't think enough of their welfare they don't think enough of their future to belong and consequently the majority of the farmers in the United States of America do not have a voice their individualist and they have no organization sort of which they can speak they have no organization that will come to Washington and say look we represent the majority of the farmers in the United States as a matter of fact all of the organization's farm organizations the United States don't have a majority the farmers if you put them together let alone one single organization having enough power and speaking for enough in order to have their voice heard but that's a difficulty because the majority of the farmers of the United States of America do not belong to any kind of a farm organization they have no voice they have no organization that can come over here and speak for them in protest when this sort of thing goes on and that's one of the reasons why the farmers find themselves in the predicament in which they are is simply because they have not had enough force behind your organization's because there weren't enough members in these organizations so that they could come to Washington and say look we speak for the vast majority of the farmers of our nation there is no one single organization representing farmers that can do that in fact all they said before all of them put together don't have enough members to do that and so I think that it is high time that the farmers of our nation do their thinking and that they actually think along the lines of belonging to something of joining some kind of an organization so that they will have an expect an effective spokesman to let their voice can be heard and at the farmers of our nation today if I say if 75% of the farmers of our nation the vast majority of them would go out in the next few weeks and join some farm organization that could be their effective spokesman and those organizations came down here I'm sure that you'd get results because seemingly our federal government today has gotten so complicated and so intricate that you cannot get anything from your federal government unless you march on Washington unless you protest or unless you strike or unless you do use some kind of an economic force in order to get what you want the farmers of our nation are gentle people they are peaceful people who we generally don't believe in that sort of thing but you're living in a condition now and in in a world today where everything practically everything is accomplished by pressure groups and all that's the farmers of our nation are knit together in a well-organized union or farm organism of some kind so they can come over here and speak with authority and say look we represent this many farmers which altogether represent the vast majority the farmers this is what we think ought to be done you get results but we will not get them what the health of skelter situation that we have among the farm population in our land today and so there many other things I like to talk to you about but the time is getting short and I have to keep this within a time limitation otherwise the the television station will not run the program the particular station that this program is on and because there is a time factor and a time limit that has to be in here too I must draw my remarks to a close and I just want to say this to my good farm friends that you better organize you better start protesting you better start kicking up a little fuss because if you don't these blockbusters that are being dropped by your federal government on your overburdened backs today are going to continue to come one after another until pretty soon there'll be no farms left in the United States of America and that will be the saddest day not only for the people but will be the saddest day for freedom it'll be the saddest day for every single group that's existing in our country today if the farmers go by the board the government of the United States and the people of the United States are going to rue the day that that happen and that they sat idly by while it was happening and so thank you very much for permitting me to come into your living room your kitchen or your dining room wherever you are and permitting me to visit with you for this short period of time I hope I've given you some information that's informative and I hope particularly that I've done something to save the family farms of this great nation of ours thank you and God bless you