A Woman Is Only a Woman, But Is This Bill Better Than Nothing?

Last May, when wheat growers in a national referendum voted down a subsidy plan with compulsory controls, Kennedy Administration officials vowed that farmers could go hang before they would get a substitute program.

But things change in an election year --and the Johnson Administration, with Agriculture Secretary Orville Freeman's support, put immense pressure upon Senate Democrats to pass the new farm bill, particularly the wheat part. And so the Senate last week wheezed its approval of a two-year $1 billion wheatand-cotton subsidy bill. It was, of course, just another of those legislative thingamajigs that have for decades contributed so much to the continuing U.S. farm scandal.

As passed by the Senate, the measure guaranteed wheat farmers who agree to limit their acreage a support price of $2 per bu. for wheat sold for domestic human consumption, and $1.55 per bu. for export wheat. Textile mills would receive a subsidy of about 60 to allow them to buy U.S. grown cotton at the world price of 240 per lb. Cotton growers, while receiving a 300-per-lb. support price, would be paid a bonus for reducing plantings.

Of Smoke & Beef. With the exception of a successful amendment by Louisiana's Democratic Senator Allen J. Ellender, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, to limit the program to two years, all attempts at weakening the bill were defeated. Delaware Republican John J. Williams introduced an amend ment that could end subsidies on to bacco, which for 30 years has received supports as one of the U.S.'s six "basic" agricultural commodities. Nonsmoker Williams wondered "whether the tax payers should subsidize the production of this commodity, which the Surgeon General and other responsible physicians have said is harmful to the American people." Tobacco-state Senators rose in righteous wrath. Chief among them was North Carolina Democrat Sam Ervin, who borrowed a line from Rudyard Kipling: "And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke." Williams' amendment was voted down, 63 to 26.

Another key amendment was offered by Nebraska's Republican Senator Roman Hruska. Seeking a nonsubsidy way to ease the economic troubles of the U.S. livestock industry (TIME, Feb. 28), Hruska wanted to limit imports of foreign beef and veal to 540 million lbs. annually, instead of the 920 million lbs. called for in recent agreements between the U.S. and Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. While Hruska's amendment appealed to some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, South Dakota Democrat George McGovern noted that it "would cut the ground from under U.S. representatives" at forthcoming international tariff and trade talks, and the Administration was alarmed at its international consequences. Secretary of State Dean Rusk spent hours on the phone to Senate friends, and White House Legislative Aide Larry O'Brien's persuasion troops went into action. The amendment was beaten by a squeaking 46 to 44.

Not Airtight or Sure-Cure. The fact was that no one much liked the farm bill. Even Majority Whip Hubert Humphrey admitted apologetically: "I shall not attempt to deceive anyone. I do not find any of these proposals ironclad or airtight or sure-cure workable. But they are better than doing nothing." That last sentence was surely debatable, but the Senate went right ahead and passed the farm bill, by a mostly party-line vote of 55 to 35. It next goes back to the House, which was unable to come up with a wheat bill last year when it approved the cotton program. House Democratic leadership probably will try to get the Senate bill referred to a conference committee for adjustment of Senate-House differences. And the farm scandal continues.

Last week the Congress also: -- Passed, in the House, a bill taxing the purchase of foreign securities by Americans, retroactive to last July 19. The bill was a major part of an attempt to reduce the U.S.'s balance-of-payments deficit and trim the outflow of gold. Since it was proposed by President Kennedy last summer, its effect has been dramatic. Virtually no new issues of foreign securities have been offered on New York exchanges, and the gold loss has dwindled. The measure now goes to the Senate. > Approved, in the Senate Finance Committee, a bill implementing U.S. participation in a coffee import quota system set up by the International Coffee Council. An amendment provides that if Congress finds that coffee prices have risen unduly because of the agreement, the President should notify the council. If, after 30 days, no remedial action has been taken, the President could withdraw the U.S. from the pact.

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