The First Harvest

For months falling income on the farm has been recognized by both parties as the most incendiary political issue of 1956. When Congress went to work on a farm bill in January, there was widespread belief and outright prediction that Republican Party principle would be sacrificed to election year expediency, and that the discredited, surplus-producing rigid price supports would be restored. But President Eisenhower, Secretary of Agriculture Benson and a big majority of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate stood by the politically unpopular flexible support policy, which they believe to be best in the long run. Last week in two tense sessions, the Senate finally voted on the key points in the controversy. The result: an important and dramatic victory for the Administration.

All 95 members of the Senate filed in to answer the quorum call that preceded the first vote. Even Colorado's ailing (arthritis) Republican Eugene Millikin, who had not appeared on the floor since the first day of the session, was brought into the chamber in a wheelchair to vote for the Administration.

On the first roll call, to fix the level of supports for cotton, corn, rice and peanuts, the Administration's margin was far bigger than anyone expected: for continuing flexible supports, 54; against 41. It was the first time in more than 20 years that every member of the U.S. Senate had voted on a roll call.*

A Timely Letter. While the vote was drawn basically along party lines, there were some significant breaks. Among the 54 Senators voting for flexible supports were 13 Democrats. The most effective bolt from the Democratic side was by New Mexico's Clinton Anderson, onetime (1945-48)Secretary of Agriculture in Harry Truman's Cabinet, who has consistently agreed with the Administration that rigid supports would only increase surpluses. He led the first phase of the floor fight for the flexible system. There were breaks in the G.O.P. ranks, too. Six farm belt Republicans (South Dakota's Case and Mundt. North Dakota's Langer and Young, Minnesota's Thye and Wisconsin's McCarthy) jumped over to the rigid side with the Democrats.

To keep other restive Senators flexible, the Administration had used an effective pattern of psychology and maneuver. President Eisenhower's decision to run, put In clear, congressional election context by White House liaison men, held Wisconsin's Alexander Wiley, Indiana's Homer Capehart and Kansas' Frank Carlson on the Administration's team. Minority Leader William Knowland got Indiana Republican William Jenner's vote. At a timely moment Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson wrote a letter to Vermont's Republican Senator George Aiken indicating that, if Congress stood by the flexible system, he would favor cotton supports at a high 86% or 87% of parity this year. Aiken promptly showed the letter to Democrat John Stennis of Mississippi, where cotton is king, and Stennis cast his vote with Benson.

"The Chair Votes Aye." On the second key vote, to fix the support level on wheat, pressures from the stubbles cut hard into the Administration's ranks. Six farm belt Republicans (Colorado's Allott, Kansas' Carlson and Schoeppel, Nebraska's Curtis and Hruska, Wisconsin's Wiley) who had voted for flexible supports on the other basic crops, ran for cover and plumped for rigid props under wheat. Five Senators (Democrats Byrd of Virginia, Neely of

West Virginia and Smathers of Florida; Republicans Millikin and McCarthy) failed to respond to the roll call.

At first the wheat support vote was tallied as 46 for flexible supports and 45 against. Then the Senate went through the parliamentary maneuver of confirming the vote (a motion to reconsider and table), which Administration forces won handily. At that point, however, Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson rose to say that his tally of the vote on the original motion did not agree with the official figure. In the midst of the roll call, Johnson had persuaded Rhode Island's Democratic Senator Theodore Green to switch his vote from flexible to rigid. In the confusion the tally clerk counted Green on both sides. With Green properly recorded, the vote was 45-45.

As Vice President Richard Nixon announced the tie, Tennessee's Democratic Senator Albert Gore, a proponent of rigid supports, was on his feet contending that the Vice President could not vote because the motion to reconsider had already been tabled. Said Nixon: "If the Senator will read the Constitution he will find that the Vice President has the right to vote when a tie occurs. The chair votes aye."

With that, the Administration harvested a healthy first crop in the farm policy fight. But the Senate still has to plow its way through 70-odd proposed amendments to the farm bill, and then the bill has to go to conference, where it will be up against a rigid support bill passed by the House last year. At week's end, Secretary Benson was prodding Congress to hurry the bill through so the widely favored soil bank plan will put some money into farmers' pockets this year.

Throughout the battle Ezra Taft Benson had conducted himself with great tactical skill. Behind the skill lay the strategy of principle firmly held and forcefully advocated.

* The last previous full vote came on Jan. 27, 1936, when the Senate voted, 76-19, to override Franklin Delano Roosevelt's veto of the soldier bonus bill. The one vacancy in the Senate at that time was caused by the assassination of Louisiana Democrat Huey Long; the present vacancy was caused by the death of West Virginia Democrat Harley Kilgore.

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