A22—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, February 6,1982
Harkin
(Continued from Page Al)
The lowa congressman also
pointed a finger at high interest
rates and a giant federal deficit.
“That $lOO billion in new debt
wouldn’t be on the horizon if
Congress and the Administration
hadn’t gone hog-wild in cutting
taxes. Sure a tax cut was needed,
but I didn’t think it was necessary
to risk the financial integrity of the
Federal Government in the
process,” he argued. “That’s why I
voted against that tax bill last
year.”
Harkin condemned the tax bill,
saying that it, coupled with a
staggering increase in defense
spending, has made it difficult, if
not impossible to get adequate
funding for programs like
agricultural research, soil con
servation, and Farmers Home
Administration lending.
He also cited the tax bill, which
included a $39 billion in tax break
giveaways for oil companies and
giant corporations, as the reason
why farmers were unable to get a
Bergland challenges farmers to take destiny in hands
HERSHEY Sharing his ex
periences as a fami boy growing
up in Minnesota, former U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture Bob
Bergland urged Pennsylvania
Farmers Union members meeting
here on Wednesday to “look at the
past in order to fashion a farm
program to deal with an unruly
world”.
“During the period from about
1940 to 1970, 8 million people left
the rural places of the United
States—displaced by
mechanization. And I am con
vinced that the civil disorders,
disturbances and riots of the late
1960 s were rooted in the benign
neglect ot the 1950 s 'when persons
were unable to find a job in the
rural community because of the
rapid change which had taken
place in the farming economy.
“The 6 million farms we saw in
the ‘3os were reduced sub
stantially to the point where today
we have only a third or fewer of
that number.”
Bergland expressd his shared
concern for the change in structure
of the fanning industry during that
time—from smaller family farm:
to large-scale corporate
operations, which resulted in the
displacement of rural com
munities and rural values. Coupled
with this evolution to high
powered, mammoth farming in the
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National Farmers’ Union president George Stone ex
pressed his concern that the overall economy in the U.S. will
only improve if agriculture, construction, and housing are
improved.
“decent” Farm BUI last yeat.
“When it came the farmers’ turn to
,get a Farm Bill, they were told the
well was dry,” Harkin said.
“Make no mistake about it,” he
admonished. “Farmers are paying
for those giveaways and spending
sprees.”
Another area where farmers are
footing the bill is in foreign trade
relations with the Soviet Union,
said Harkin.
“In every instance I believe the
United States severely damaged
its own economic interest hy
earning a reputation as an
unreliable supplier. Certainly our
foreign policy embargoes against
the Soviets has done nothing to
prevent them from buying food,
whether it be'butter from New
Zealand or grain from Argentina,”
he stated. “Now we have a de facto
grain embargo against the Soviets.
In December the Administration
called off the long-term grain
agreement talks with the Soviets
and allowed the U.S.—U.S.S.R.
Maritime Agreement to expire on
Dec. 31. Now any Soviet ships
coming into U.S. ports have to
have prior approval before they
early 19705, recalled Bergland,
were the dramatic increases in the
cost of imported oil, inflation, and
a Russian grain purchase which
depleted U.S. reserves with the
Soviets cashing in on an enormous
profit at the American farmer’s
expense.
“Those kinds of events have
added to the confusion and un
certainty that increased the risk of
farming because we are not the
independent subsitence farmer of
my father’s time,” Bergland
remarked. “We today have
produced an industry in
agriculture that depends on the
entire world.”
Bergland confessed that one of
his Thost unpleasant jobs while
serving as Secretary of
Agriculture under the Carter
Administration was carrying out
the grain embargo against the.
Soviet Union. “President Carter
had three choices and they were all
losers, politically,” he com
mented. One was to do nothing,
another was to declare war, and
the remaining choice was the
suspension of trade. He chose the
latter, and of course it created a
“real panic in the farm com
munity, both politically and
economically,” Bergland ob
served.
Bergland warned that these
kinds of international events can
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come in and they’re not getting
it. So they going elsewhere tor
their grain, like Argentina. ”
Harkin called on the Farmers
Union members to ask President
Reagan to resume the grain talks
with the Soviets. "It would be the
most positive signal that could be
sent to revive our stagnant farm
economy,” he stated, adding that
the talks should be expanded to a
plan that would also indude
finished farm products like meat,
poultry, and dairy products.
In summing up his remarks,
Harkin recounted what a Chinese
philosopher said 5,000 years ago:
‘ ‘The life of a nation is like a tree.
Agriculture is the root and
manufacturing and commerce its
branches and leaves. If the root’s
are injured, the branches will
break and the leaves with wither
and fall away.”
That is as true today as it was
5,000 years ago, said Harkin. “All
of us who are close to agriculture
have a tremendous responsibility
to insure that our roots are strong
and healthy. Nothing less than the
future of our nation depends on it,”
he concluded.
occur under any administration
and urged the farm community to
be prepared to deal with them. “It
i? time for us to start thinking
carefully about how we use our
organized efforts, authorities and
political muscle in a constructive
way to take an interest in
matters that go beyond market
orders, to look and get involved in
matters that are historically far
removed such as the current
stalemate in Geneva concerning
arms control.”
The Minnesota farmer stressed
that “there will not be enough
money in any budget to treat the
farm economy in the fashion it
deserves if we are going to spend
$220 billion on an arms race. That
(defense) bill is going to take all
the personal income taxes paid
into the U.S. Treasury to pay one
account. We therefore have to
broaden our horizons.”
Bergland urged the farm
cooperatives and organizations to
take on an international role and to
develop a barter-based trade with
poorer countries who may not be
able to pay for the food they need
but who have a valuable resource,
such as oil, urea, sulfur, to trade.
He offered this as an alternative to
extensions of credit or loans to
these poorer countries who, like
Poland, are unable to pay the bills
(Turn to Page A 34)
NFU president says economic
HERSHEY A real national
economic recovery will elude
policy-makers of the Reagan
Administration as long as they do
nothing about distressed major
industries, such as agriculture,
housing and construction,
automobiles and heavy industry.
George W. Stone, president of
National Farmers’ Union, said
here Wednesday.
Speaking at the annual con
vention of the Pennsylvania
Farmers’ Union, Stone told the
banquet session that “America has
never had a depression when these
basic industries were healthy and
it has never had a prosperous
economy when these industries
were sick. It is as simple as that.
“The White House will be
fighting a hopeless battle for
recovery as long as agricultural
purchasing power remains at 66
percent of parity, other major
enterprises are in trouble and
unempl'v hr double
digit levels,” he declared.
“The 1981 Farm Bill would ha more appropriately named
the ‘Farm Liquidation Act,'" commented lowa Congressman
Tom Harkin during the 10th Annual Convention of the
Pennsylvania Farmers Union in Hershey.
Former Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland spoke to the
PFU members about the need to reassess the position of
agriculture in dealing with on-farm and off-farm problems. He
expressed his concern for the family farm and the ability of
young people to continue farming. On his right is the PFU
quilt created by the youth of the organization which was
auctioned off for more than $l,OOO funds going to the
youth program.
means revitalization of
The Farmers’ Union official
noted that housing construction
starts are at the lowest level since
1946, auto sales the poorest since
1960, and business bankruptcies at
the worst rate in almost 20 years.
“The economic signs are not
good, with industrial production
slumping, factories running at only
73 percent of capacity, and with
interest rates on the verge "of a
sharp, new run-up,” Stone said- '
’ The Farmers’ Union official
acknowledged that the inflation
rate for 1981 had eased to 8.9
percent, the first time below
double-digit levels since 1977.
“However, the improvement
was more apparent than real,”
Stone explained. “When you take
into account the leveling off of
energy prices and the plunge in
farm prices, one can see that little
was done about the underlying rate
of inflation. There could be another
upturn in the inflation rate, par
ticularly If the expected spiral in
interest rates takes place. ” '
Slone contended that the current
recovery
ag
recession is not an ordinary
business slump. “It is an interest
rate recession and conditions will
get worse as long as the strategy of
fighting inflation with high interest
rates and unemployment con
tinues,” he added.
He maintained that the planned,
recession is seriously aggravating
budget deficit problems for the
federal government. -
“Each additional 1 percent in the
unemployment rate adds about $25
billion a year to federal budget
outlays. High interest rates also
add to the deficits because the
federal government is now paying
out about $lO6 billion a year in
interest 'outlays on federal
borrowing,” he said.
“The Administration has its
budget policy upside down.
Franklin Roosevelt was right when
he said that you had to balance the
budget of the American people
before you could balance the
budget of the federal govern
ment,” he concluded.