14—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Pec. 7. 1974
THE FOOD STAMP ISSUE
When he first gave his
ideas on graduated pricing to
then Secretary of
Agriculture Henry Wallace,
little could Fred Waugh
know that his proposals
would become the backbone
of this Nation’s biggest
welfare program.
Waugh didn’t use tne
words “food stamps” in his
memorandum of January 20,
1938, to Secretary Wallace.
An official of the Treasury By the early sixties, the
Department came up -with farmer’s old headache of
the food stamp notion as the surplus production pained
best way to put into practice again, and again food
Waugh’s theories on stamps were prescribed as
graduated pricing. the remedy for helping
‘T do not claim credit for farmers on the one hand and
inventing a new idea,” the Nation’s poor on the
Waugh wrote Secretary other.
Wallace. “Briefly, my Nagging poverty
proposal is that our farm In the late sixties,
relief programs put more however, the plight of the
emphasis on selling part of needy took precedent
the crop at high prices and Farm surpluses had been
distributing the remainder, whittled down, but the ranks
or ’surplus’ among low- of the poor had not.
income groups, charging So the lawmakers in 1970
them whatever they can made changes in the food
afford to pay, or are willing stamp program, making it
to pay.” easier for more low-income
families to take part. By
„ . u mid-1974, over 13% million
wJuO* persons were getting the
Wallace bought the con- stamps> increase 0 f over
cept, and for obvious f our fold from 1969, although
i;t a H So ™v ,7 e „ r ITSS admittedly some of this was
S..r k ., Ld Lfi? d ” to “• I* l "**"* *
su P luses ’ commodity distribution
A W r ri oa m „fTere° f S *
Ttiingry- Food stamps offered MeLtime, taxpayers have
the appealing combination of.
solvmgihe surplus problems m not
of agriculture and the J
stomach problems of the
needy.
Rochester, N.Y., was
selected as the city to try out
food stamps. Low-income
families welcomed them.
The program enjoyed im
mense success untO 1943,
when World War II bad
turned food surpluses into
shortages. The food stamp
program was suspended, not
to be revived until 1961.
families a blanket check to
spend as they please?
Otherwise knows as a cash
income supplement, this
approach doesn’t seem to
insure that poor families will
indeed use the money to buy
food, so say studies made by
A TIME FOR ACTION
Through the years HARVESTORE farmers have helped solve their high
feed cost and labor problems by feeding Haylage and High Moisture Corn.
Chances are HARVESTORE has been a topic in one of your discussions.
Well, Penn-Jersey HARVESTORE is pleased to introduce an Interest
Earning Deposit Program.
This Program offers three good reasons to consider purchasing that
HARVESTORE now.
That’s right, the deposit you put on your HARVESTORE earns you a high
rate of interest and although the HARVESTORE isn’t needed until Spring,
your price is protected.
This program is so great we invite you to contact Penn-Jersey HAR
VESTORE for more information.
the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Economic
Research Service (ERS).
ERS’s latest analysis of
the food stamp issue con
firms earlier reports - that
food stamps are about twice
as effective as cash income
1 Your HARVESTORE deposit earns a year’s interest in 5 months.
2. The price you pay is protected until next April.
3. You are guaranteed storage for spring.
POM-eSEY HARVESTORE SYSTEMS, INC.
supplements in terms of
building food demand.
Stamps’ merits
Unlike cash handouts,
bonus stamps can only be
redeemed for food. Bonus
stamps are those given free
to program participants over
and above stamps bought
through the purchase
requirement.
For example, consider a
family of four with a monthly
income of $2OO and a monthly
foodbill of $lOO. Under the
food stamp program, this
family would pay $59 a
P.0.80x N 0.91
New Holland, Pa. 17557
717-354-4051
month for $l6O worth of food
stamps. The family is now
able to up food purchases by
$5O a month, or 50 percent
leaving <m extra $4l to spend
on food or other Items.
Findings from an un
published 1969 study by the
Office of Management and
Budget-and this was con
ducted before the food stamp
program was liberalized in
1970-lndicate that poor
families spent for food only
about 20 cents of each dollar
of cash Income they got from
(Continued On Pate 15|