Non-Partisan Review

The plight of the nation's farmers, viewed from urban insularity, is generally seen as either a dull academic question or a potential trouble-maker in the November elections. Hucksters of both parties have made the "farm problem," a matter of narrow interest, using a flood of paper panaceas to obscure the real existence of a weak sector of the economy. Careless subsidy plans, log-rolling, and philosophical battle cries have replaced intelligent efforts to solve one of the nation's most important domestic problems.

If statesmanship is to replace political expediency, legislators must seek a less partisan approach to the paradox of poverty in the midst of plenty. To this end, the President should establish a special commission to investigate the causes of agricultural dislocation and suggest possible solutions to the farmer's economic difficulties. Formed of agronomists, economists, political scientists, and representatives of labor, management and farm groups, such a commission would be empowered to evaluate methods of agricultural production and distribution in the light of the nation's long-term needs.

Such a presidential group would have several successful precedents. In the past, presidential commissions have helped change aimless political bickering into constructive action on national problems. For many years, legislation on civil rights and international trade problems staggered in a void of informed opinion. The Report of President Truman's Commission on Civil Rights, however helped create favorable attitudes for local action to eliminate discrimination in employment, education, and housing.

The Agriculture Commission would have to investigate the fundamental insecurity of the farmer and his lack of bargaining power against industry and the consumer, overproduction and uneconomic use of marginal lands, the problem of too many farmers, and the inefficient system of distribution that allows middlemen to capture most of the food dollar.

With farmers earning an annual per capita income of $850 compared to almost $2,000 for the whole nation, and with over $6 billion invested in Commodity Credit Corporation surplus stocks, the nature of the Government's role in countering economic dislocation must be openly determined. The long-term solution must, of course, be decided at the polls, but political decisions should be based upon the authoritative information which such a commission could provide.