Master Woodland News Conference Cincinnatti b 2

to this convention a very prominent and effective congressman from the 20th district of Illinois he has served his people there in that district since 1961 he has 20 years of seniority and is the senior member of both the Agriculture Committee and also Foreign Affairs Committee he is recognized because of his very firm stand in fighting inflation and insisting that the government spend within its income he's a very strong advocate of foreign defense and bolstering domestic and national defense he's an effective spokesman for his party and his point of view and he has worked very closely with our Washington office and we're anxious and willing to work with him and his staff and many of our people in the state of Illinois worked for his reelection this past November and I'm looking forward to his very candid remarks in regards to agriculture and I'm sure that his advice will be taken more seriously during this administration than perhaps it was during the last four years and so I introduced to you Congressman Paul Findley from the 20th district of Illinois congressman Thank You president woodland for that generous introduction and thanks to all of you for the warm welcome it's an honor to be invited to speak to the National convention of the National Farmers Organization and mr. president I say that was special feeling because this is the second time I've had this privilege last time was when the convention gathered in kiel auditorium in st. Louis I'm not sure how many years ago that was can any of you remember the convention in kiel auditorium well good and it's a special pleasure because the invitation invitation came through a man that I respect and admire very much your Washington representative Charles Fraser you work in the the precinct so to speak taking care of crop production and marketing responsibilities and it may well be that you like myself tend to take for granted what the people and the central office do I know I tend to take for granted what is done in my behalf of my staff and I welcome this chance to state to you that Chuck Fraser does a splendid job for you and he's assembled a very efficient highly professional very reliable well respected team that works full-time in your behalf in the nation's capital and it brings back fond memories to have a chance to see mrs. Dale Nass and seen Dale yet but I know that Dale is still here in the behalf of NFL endeavors as he has been I think since the very origin of this organization so it's a pleasure to have this chance I feel that I'm among friends here today I say that after reading through the folder that the organization has printed up the one that that carries the title the Washington office lest some of the legislation that nfo supported on Capitol Hill during the past year and it went over that that have found to my delight that my batting average is pretty good I stood with nfo on eight occasions out of the ten listed and I think that's a fairly good report card in fact that's better than average in our household my wife reads very carefully the Congressional Record and when I come home at night she asked me to defend my position and I find that if I bat 50/50 on the positions that I've taken as contrasted with the positions that she would have taken had she been on the House floor voting I'm doing pretty well so I think my batting average with nfo at 80% is really something to be proud of and I glad to mention that I have watched the development of nfo since it's very beginning back in the 1950s at which time I was a country editor managing and editing editing the weekly newspaper in Pittsfield Illinois and I'm sure all of you know that Pittsfield is known worldwide as the pork capital of the universe and I don't I mean no affront to any of you who produced pork outside Pike County but we prize ourselves on being the county that ships more poundage of pork every year than any other county in the country I imagine every state has a similar County or two but we take great pride in that fact and from the beginning of that experience with nfo I have noted with satisfaction that the Cardinal the principal the strongest element in the nfl's program is keeping control of American agriculture in the hands of farmers and to that I say Amen and I hope you never deviate from that as your fundamental goal I'm not sure just how many farming units there are in my home county of Pike County but there aren't there are quite a few probably about seven or eight hundred and stretch across this great land of ours there are at least 3 million farming units and this means 3 million pretty independent people in charge of the production unit because if there is any quality that sets farmers off from the rest of the population in this country it is that spirit independence and I hope that spirit will survive forevermore too but it creates problems as well as opportunities and advantages and I'm glad that the nfo has placed such great emphasis on strengthening the bargaining power of farmers in the private market I would list that in my own evaluation of your organization as the number two objective of nfo keeping the farmers in control of farming and strengthening the bargaining power of farmers as individuals because this independent spirit tends to make farmers want to manage their own destiny to decide just when and how they're going to market their commodities and to the extent that that prevails it puts them at a very decided disadvantage with the buyers it's been said so often and I'm sure you've heard it said often that farmers buy at retail and sell at wholesale and there's a lot of wisdom in that that simplified characterization of American agriculture so I think the goal of nfo and attempting to strengthen the bargaining power of farmers as a laudable objective and I I'm sure that you will stick to that then the third objective that I noted from the very first experience I had with nfo back in the 1950s was that the farmers who are banded together in this organization want to get their income from the marketplace and not from government checks and I congratulate you on that objective too the other day I had a very welcome visit in my office Washingtonville Hungate of Missouri and I hope that some of you have had the great fun and pleasure of knowing Bill Hungate he was a congressman from eastern Missouri stretching from st. Louis up to about Quincy on the Illinois side for a number of years then he became a US federal judge I I hear some applause from Missouri the great man isn't he well in any event he was in my office neat he tried to make a point to me with a story he told about the the man that went into a country store and he noticed a gentleman sitting in a chair in the country store and by him was this great big enormous dog well the visitor liked dogs and he said to the gentleman as your is your dog a friendly dog does he bite would it be all right to pet your dog and the fellow said my dog is a very friendly dog it's quite all right to pet him you won't get in any trouble at all while the visitor reached over and started to pet the dog the dog jumped on him and just about Torre's arm off well by the time he had recovered his composure he was just astonished to to realize that this man had said that his dog was friendly and it'd be okay to pet him so he said now why in the world would you have told me that I could pet pet your pet your dog safely that when I petted this dog and he about took my arm off well bill Hungate story said that the man responded that isn't my dog well it's important to keep your facts straight whether you're petting dogs are dealing with Congress or dealing with farmers so I'm going to try to keep my facts straight here this morning first of all I want you to know this plain fact I'm not here as an emissary of president-elect Ronald Reagan although I would welcome that opportunity I'm not here to give you some hitherto unpublished information about who is going to be the new secretary of agriculture although I want to tell you that I like Bob Dole's recommendation that that president-elect Reagan select a hands-on farmer to head the USDA I like that idea and you'll forgive me from expressing a little bit of home state pride in voicing my approval of the person of John block who is now the director of Agriculture for mr. Lincoln's home state and his name is one of those mentioned quite prominently john block is a hands-on farmer he knows exactly how to shovel corn he knows how to raise hogs he knows the problems that farmers face from one end of the year to the other and in my view he has the capacity to do a splendid job as Secretary of Agriculture should the challenge and opportunity come his way but even though I'm not here with any mandate from president-elect Reagan I'm going to sound just a little note that I hope he will hear all the way to California or wherever he happens to be this morning and that recommendation is that he take on as one of his principal objectives as president of the United States the mantle of Teddy Roosevelt we need a president who will go after monopolies who will go after bigness who will try to bring as much competition into our economic life as he possibly can we need a truss buster as we've never needed one before I'm tired of these these joint ventures that bring big oil companies together that consolidate already two big corporate giants into ever greater bigness it all serves the the interest of the American people including farmers to have this go forward and I hope that our new president will make strong endeavors in behalf of antitrust action to break up monopolies to give consumers a fair break at the marketplace now the fact number two that I want to mention is one that won't surprise any of you at all and that fact is that farmers are human beings they are people they aren't bales or bushels or gallons they are people and they ought to be dealt with as people farmers are just as concerned about inflation as anybody living in the city in fact more so because it seems in fact it is a fact that farm prices don't go up where as the cost of doing business keeps soaring and never comes down so farmers more than anyone else in our society are painfully aware of the problems of inflation and in my experience stand even more resolutely behind prudent management of our federal budget as a necessary step towards mastering this dread disease called inflation farmers are just as concerned about foreign policy as are anyone else in the country farmers are interested in prices on corn and wheat and hogs and other commodities but they are even more interested in seeing to it that our country is militarily strong and that we protect this great cause of peace with every initiative we possibly can there's no doubt about that farmers and the fact number three that I like to mentioned to you and this to is no surprise to any of you is that farmers are efficient now they aren't all alike in fact you can look up and down the row that you're sitting in and probably find neighbors who are less efficient managers than you are and perhaps one or two who are more efficient managers but by and large the farmers of this country are the most efficient producers of food and fiber the world has ever known and farmers stand out in our economy today as the one sector of the economy that is way ahead of the rest of the world and I think almost absolutely certain to stay ahead in terms of efficiency and this is a source of pride that I think we can boast about as we deal with our city brethren fact number four that I would list for your consideration is that inflation is the greatest peril that our nation faces I thought it was interesting that candidate Reagan in speaking in his farm speech September the 30th in Iowa said the first step that has to be taken is to have the federal government stop robbing American farmers through inflation that's a direct quote let me read a few more the words that president-elect Reagan said on that occasion when he was a candidate for the presidency he said my first goal will be to lead this nation out of the economic disaster brought about by the Carter Administration this can be done we must make a bold commitment to genuine economic growth we must restrain the growth in federal spending we must bring the growth in the supply of money back into line with our economy's ability to increase its output of goods and services we must reduce the tax rate burdens now imposed on the American people so that the people be able to invest in their own future curbing inflation is a vital first step vital to farmers and to all other Americans that's the end of the quotation well I have so viewed inflation myself in recent years now the Soviet Union is a great peril to our nation most of the weapons that the Soviets own are pointed our way so they do obviously represent an enormous threat to our safety and security the survival of freedom in our society and yet I think any reasonable person would have to judge inflation an even worse parallel to our nation and the Soviet Union great though that peril is from Moscow because inflation is gradually eating away at the financial independence of the great middle class of our country the working class the working people like the farmers of our nation we are gradually becoming dependent upon government checks for our survival month by month about 30% of our population now receives regularly US Treasury checks substantial sums and this has become this has become a narcotic we are hooked on government checks and to the extent that the American people depend upon government for the money to see them through day by a day and month by month they lose their freedom as individuals they become Ward's of the state and that's why I say that the first order of business of any wise administration must be to curb inflation to eliminate this great peril to the survival of Liberty in our society and I have been trying to get through a constitutional amendment believing that only a constitutional amendment will bring about the needed discipline to require the government at long last live within its means as a nation and stop this foolishness of piling up debt to pass on to future generations who surely have no responsibility for these misdeeds on our part the Committee on which I serve the Committee on agriculture also has a responsibility beyond farm programs and that is responsibility for the food stamp program and I recognize that the food stamp program does a lot of good for a lot of people and it certainly is a means through which food comes from the farms of America to people who need it but I also believe that this welfare program like every other welfare program we we have needs to be reformed needs to be brought in line with a traditional work ethic of our nation now that in mind four years ago I was the author of an amendment to the food stamp law called work fair there may be that no one of you has ever heard of the work fair idea well let me tell you briefly what it is under the work for a provision of food stamps there are authorized fourteen pilot projects that are now functioning throughout the country and in those pilot projects able-bodied people who under the food stamp law are supposed to be hunting for a job as a condition of eligibility for stamps are required to show up at the local county government office or the local city government office and work off at the minimum wage rate the value of the food stamps they get now what's wrong with that what's wrong with that it is it is working out in San Diego County the largest city in the nation that is now in the work the work fair project San Diego County is in the second year of work fair they took a survey of the community on Election Day November the 4th they found that over ninety eight ninety five percent of the people that voted on November the fourth approved of work fair now in its second year in San Diego County I have talked with people that were working under the work fair provision San Diego County and every one of them the day I talked with him was pleased to have a job to do they thought it was a good idea that they were being required to work off the value of the stamps they were getting they felt it was going to help them to a better life and I talked to two women working in the county clerk's office that day in San Diego County and each of them said that they had been under work fair under food stamps a little while before they had done such a good job as part time worked for employees that went a full time opening occurred the county clerk hired them for a full time job it shows how work fair can help people to break loose from this terrible syndrome of welfare and get into the public employment and private employment sector and this I hope will be one of the goals of the new administration to broaden this idea of work fair to encourage people to work to get out of this terrible hang-up of generation after generation being on welfare that is not in the American tradition for people to be stymied in government handouts what they really want all of them I'm sure is the opportunity for work and I think the food stamp program called work fair should be broadened to the entire nation so that wherever people are able-bodied in getting food stamps they shall be required to work off the value the stamps that they get otherwise no stamps well I think I probably talked too long could I have about five more minutes ten okay I want to say just worried about agriculture and what's ahead I hope that the next Congress will go easy on major changes in the commodity programs the major farm bill programs I think they have worked out by and large reasonably well and I hope and expect that we will not make radical changes and I say that with full support for the objective of the nfo to keep farmers from becoming dependent upon government checks I hope also that the next administration will work hard to expand markets for farm products that is one one of my consuming activities over many years I headed a trade expansion mission of the Soviet Union I was glad when the Soviet Union became a multi-billion dollar customer the American farmer and the sooner we get back on that same relationship with the Soviet government the better off we will be and the better off we'll be the cause of peace thinking back to the Pearl Harbor days can anyone really seriously believe that Japan would ever have attacked Pearl Harbor had the Japanese people been as as dependent then as they are now on food shipped from the United States ships of food to Japan former form an endless chain across the Pacific Ocean from the United States to the shores of Japan every 200 miles you will find a ship load of food from America's farmland going to Japan can anyone seriously believe that the government of Japan would strike a blow a military blow at a nation which was so important to their survival I can't believe it for a minute and the sooner we reestablish a strong in trade with the Soviet Union the sooner we will have a an improved prospect for peaceful relations with that nation the Soviets have finally gotten a taste of a better diet their people have found out what it is like to have a little meat on the table once a day and so are the Chinese and we ought to cultivate these appetites and make them dependent upon America's food supply in the name of peace and I hope that that'll be one of the endeavors that the Reagan administration wall will put forward now I want to voice a note of caution and I hope I don't get in too much trouble here I know there are a lot of dairy farmers president and you may have some slight criticism of what I have done in the past because I was that mean old guy who last year tried to get an amendment in the dairy price support program to give secretary Birdland a little flexibility in keeping the 80% parity support well I didn't prevail the amendment didn't get in and we're now finding an enormous buildup of government stocks of dairy products I ask you to think carefully about what's ahead for the dairy farmer if we fail to give some flexibility to the secretary of agriculture in the management of parity price supports it could well lead to trouble that you never dreamed of and I ask you to give it your careful thought I also would ask this organization to give every effort it can to convincing the Congress and the administration that embargoes on food exports are bad for the American people not just for farmers but for the American people I think it was a serious mistake on the part of the carter administration last january to impose the partial embargo on grain shipments of the soviet union now we are coming up against the the date in January at which time President Carter who else tell me an office will have to decide whether to re state the embargo or lettered die I think that date is January the fifth it's be around that date in any event and I hope this organization through its individuals and perhaps through its national officers can find it possible to convey to the Carter Administration the need to terminate the grain embargo and get it done at the soon earliest possible date I hope you would concur with me in that recommendation because I think it is bad for all of the people of this nation to have food exports turned on and off like a spigot to serve the interests of our foreign policy objectives one of our major requirements is to establish our credibility as a reliable supplier of food if we if we damaged that credibility we are asking for trouble in the long run we had three embargoes of food exports in recent years two of them dealing mainly with Japan and to this day the Japanese government and the Julie der's of Japan tremble when they look back on those days when there was a big question mark over our reliability as a shipper of soybean products to Japan and they began immediately to look around and try to develop other alternate sources of food in Brazil and Malaysian elsewhere and if we go the route of using food export policy as a tool of international politics we are causing enormous problems for every citizen of this country and especially for the farmers well I think I've talked long enough I've really enjoyed the opportunity to share a few ideas with you and I hope as bill Hungate enjoying me to do that I kept the facts straight thank you very much