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This file contains:
Clippings dated 9/13/1960 and 9/14/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Children to Greet Nixon Caravan" and "Big Crowd is Expected to Hear Nixon". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/13/1960
Clipping dated 9/2/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Nixon Schedules Brief Stop in Atlantic". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/2/1960
Clippings dated 9/9/1960 and 9/12/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Announce Time of Nixon Visit" and "Atlantic Prepares Welcome for Vice-President Friday". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/9/1960
Clipping dated 9/15/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Stage is Set for Nixon's Visit Here". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/15/1960
Clipping dated 9/14/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - Advertisement for Nixon appearance on Sept. 16th. Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/14/1960
Souvenir ticket and Clipping dated 9/15/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - Notice that "most Atlantic business firms will close from Noon until 1 pm on Sept. 16th. 1 page. [Other Document], 9/15/1960
Address by VP Richard Nixon at Guthrie Center, Iowa, on Sept. 16, 1960. 8 pages. [Other Document], 9/16/1960
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26127451
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WHSF: Returned, 49-21
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26127451
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document
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WHSF: Returned, 49-21
description
This file contains:
Clippings dated 9/13/1960 and 9/14/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Children to Greet Nixon Caravan" and "Big Crowd is Expected to Hear Nixon". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/13/1960
Clipping dated 9/2/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Nixon Schedules Brief Stop in Atlantic". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/2/1960
Clippings dated 9/9/1960 and 9/12/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Announce Time of Nixon Visit" and "Atlantic Prepares Welcome for Vice-President Friday". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/9/1960
Clipping dated 9/15/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Stage is Set for Nixon's Visit Here". Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/15/1960
Clipping dated 9/14/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - Advertisement for Nixon appearance on Sept. 16th. Not scanned. [Newspaper], 9/14/1960
Souvenir ticket and Clipping dated 9/15/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - Notice that "most Atlantic business firms will close from Noon until 1 pm on Sept. 16th. 1 page. [Other Document], 9/15/1960
Address by VP Richard Nixon at Guthrie Center, Iowa, on Sept. 16, 1960. 8 pages. [Other Document], 9/16/1960
citationUrl
collections
Richard M. Nixon's Returned Materials Collection
Returned White House Special Files
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26127451
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Richard Nixon Presidential Library
White House Special Files Collection
Folder List
Box Number
Folder Number
Document Date
Document Type
Document Description
49
21
09/13/1960
Newspaper
Clippings dated 9/13/1960 and 9/14/1960
from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Children to
Greet Nixon Caravan" and "Big Crowd is
Expected to Hear Nixon". Not scanned.
49
21
09/02/1960
Newspaper
Clipping dated 9/2/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa
newspaper - "Nixon Schedules Brief Stop in
Atlantic". Not scanned.
49
21
09/09/1960
Newspaper
Clippings dated 9/9/1960 and 9/12/1960
from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper - "Announce
Time of Nixon Visit" and "Atlantic Prepares
Welcome for Vice-President Friday". Not
scanned.
49
21
09/15/1960
Newspaper
Clipping dated 9/15/1960 from Atlantic,
Iowa newspaper - "Stage is Set for Nixon's
Visit Here". Not scanned.
49
21
09/14/1960
Newspaper
Clipping dated 9/14/1960 from Atlantic,
Iowa newspaper - Advertisement for Nixon
appearance on Sept. 16th. Not scanned.
49
21
09/15/1960
Other Document
Souvenir ticket and Clipping dated
9/15/1960 from Atlantic, Iowa newspaper
Notice that "most Atlantic business firms will
close from Noon until 1 pm on Sept. 16th. 1
page.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Page 1 of 2
Box Number Folder Number Document Date
Document Type
Document Description
49
21
09/16/1960
Other Document
Address by VP Richard Nixon at Guthrie
Center, Iowa, on Sept. 16, 1960. 8 pages.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Page 2 of 2
ATLANTIC, IOWA
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1960
SOUVENIR TICKET
I had lunch with Dick and Pat Nixon.
Friday, September 16, 1960
City Park, Atlantic, lowa
-
NOTICE
-
Most Atlantic Business Firms
Will Close from Noon Until
1 P. M. FRIDAY, SEPT. 16th
DURING VICE PRESIDENT NIXON'S VISIT
Atlantic Chamber of Commerce
7 Haldaman - 303 FOR RELEASE 11 A. M., file EDT
Herbert G. Klein
Press Secretary
9/16/60
to the Vice President
Nixon-Lodge Campaign Headquarters
1146 19th Street, N.W,, Wash. 6, D. C.
ADDRESS BY VICE PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON AT THE 21ST ANNUAL
PLOWING CONTEST, GUTHRIE CENTER, IOWA, SEPTEMBER 16, 1960.
Let me first say that I am glad that the theme of this plowing contest is
conservation conservation of land and water.
I wholeheartedly favor effective conservation programs because, simply, I
believe in the future of America. Our population is growing. It is wise conserva-
tion that underwrites America by assuring future food, future fiber, future water
to meet the expanding needs of tomorrow. At home and throughout the world.
Some of you know that for several months I have been making a careful
study of the situation confronting our farm people, and in the process have met
with the most knowledgeable and objective-minded people I could find. What I
want to do today is to talk over with you some of my views based on this serious
study.
At the outset I would like this point clearly understood: The problems of
farm people ought not be approached, as far too often has been the case in the
past, as something to exploit for political advantage. Rather the approach has
got to be objective. And has got to be constructive, In a determined effort to find
a solution, the good of the farmer, not the good of politicians, has to be our
steady purpose if we are ever to get anywhere.
Next, I think we had better get rid of a number of wrong ideas, too widely
shared, about the farm problem, before we talk about the problem itself.
The first and most unfortunate mistake that many of us make is to think that
farmers themselves are to blame for all our present farm problems. The time
is overdue for everyone to understand that the surpluses which so long have
troubled us all, farm people especially, have been built up primarily at the
urging of government itself, These surpluses are the product more of politics
than of productivity of keeping farm programs on a war footing while the nation,
fortunately, has kept the peace. Farmers responded with unreserved patriotism
to the nation's call for ever greater production during World War II and the
Korean War. It is dead wrong to charge against them the politicking that in
such large measure has been responsible for the accumulation of vast surpluses
21st Annual Plowing Contest
-2-
Guthrie Center, Iowa
in government storage.
Further, it is wrong to blame the farmer for the fact that government il-
logically insisted upon unrealistic incentives to keep production up, while at the
same time it conjured up bureaucratic controls in a futile attempt to keep
production down.
We need to understand -- all of us -- that what the farmer has done is just
exactly what he has been encouraged to do by his government. The blame for
the results belongs right on those who have written the laws.
Another misconception is this -- that farmers live off the public treasury
at the expense of other Americans, thereby making the public pay higher tax and
food bills. No doubt about it -- our present farm programs are costly and
unrealistic. But the costs most people chalk up against the farmer are puffed up
all out of shape, and hence are misleading. The Agriculture Department budget
includes far more than payments to farmers. It includes such costs as scientific
research and education, food grading, market reporting, the national forest serv-
ice, water and soil conservation, school lunches, great quantities of food for
needy nations. Properly, these costs should be charged to America's requirement
for conservation and social welfare and to the world struggle for peace and
freedom. And Americans need to understand this as well -- most of the increase
in today's grocery bill reflects, not payments to farmers, but modern refinements
in processing, and inflation of costs all along the line.
The truth, as every farmer knows, and as all other Americans need to
understand, is that the price the farmer gets for what he produces is but a
fraction of what the housewife has to pay at the grocery. The public has a right
to worry over taxes and food costs -- but it is wrong to charge these against the
farmer.
Some peddle a third misconception, and this one is especially insulting to
farmers. It is that farm people are not very important any more because
mechanization of farming has reduced their numbers. Well, in the first place,
God save the Republic when we start ignoring our farmers or any other group of
America's citizens; and in the second place, Americans need to understand that
farming is still our biggest single industry, and more importantly, a major
21st Annual Plowing Contest
-3-
Guthrie Center, Iowa
customer of all other industries. Farmers buy more petroleum products than
any other industry. They use half as much steel as the entire automobile industry
each year. It simply adds up to this -- if our nation is to be prosperous, our
farmers must be prosperous.
Next, I want to say a word about the mistaken impression that farmers have
long been feathering their nests, so now, if things are not going too well, they
should just grin and bear it, It is true that farmers have a substantial net worth;
it runs about $184 billions. It is also true that farmers' assets are about eight
and one-half times their liabilities. But remember this -- the net income of
farmers, while the nation generally has prospered, has not been rising or even
staying level; it has been going down. The bald fact is that the farmer has not
shared proportionately in America's increasing prosperity. He has been getting
the short end of the stick. Simple justice, not to say the national interest, demands
that we develop a program that will assure him a fair return.
Finally is this misconception -- about the worst of all. It is that the farm
situation is a hopeless, costly, and unsolvable mess. I am convinced that most
of us have been looking at this problem with an attitude that is far too negative.
No more exciting challenger will confront the next President and his administra-
tion than that of making a national asset, rather than a liability, out of our
n ation's ability to produce more food and fiber than any other peoples on earth.
When we in America begin looking at the farm situation this way, as we should,
instead of seeing it as a continuing calamity, we will become truly constructive
about it.
This new attitude must recognize at the outset how great an asset our
enormous productivity is in meeting the overriding issue of our time -- the
global struggle to preserve peace and human liberty.
Only seven million farm people in America produce nearly as much food
and fiber, and in far better quality, as fifty million produce in Russia. Why?
A really major reason is one that we tend to take for granted, It is that
in America the farmer lives in freedom; in Russia and Red China farmers are
peasant-slaves, They are told what to plant, when to plant, and where to plant
it. They live and work not for themselves but for a cruel and tyrannical state.
MORE
21st Annual Plowing Contest
-4-
Guthrie Center, Iowa
Mr. Khrushchev still boasts that the Communists are going to outdo
America. If there are those among us who are afraid he is right, they owe it to
themselves and their countrymen to see America in action on the farm.
Then they need a good look inside the Soviet Union. That's the best cure I
know of for cold war nerves.
Chairman Khrushchev, you remember, did it the other way around. It
has jangled his nerves ever since. Since he saw with his own eyes last year the
production miracles which year after year are wrought in this Iowa farm country,
he has made statements about America which show that even he can recognize a
fact when he sees it. Incidentally, I think one of the reasons he withdrew his
invitation to the President to visit the Soviet Union may have been a reluctance to
let President Eisenhower see at first hand how far behind the Communists really
are.
Let all of us recognize, therefore, the great advantage that the skill of
American farmers gives our nation. Let us eagerly pursue this advantage by
using our abundance more effectively in advancing liberty and peace.
One way -- and it is indispensable -- to keep this advantage is to safeguard
and preserve the family farm, which is at the very heart of our free agricultural
system.
We must never forget what our bounty means to us here at home as well as
beyond our shores. To the everlasting credit of our farm people, Americans are
the best fed and best clothed people on earth -- not only today but in all history.
Such an asset has got to be preserved.
How can we best do this? First by avoiding the tendency to be too inflexible
in our approach. All too often we hear that there is some one magic formula
that will solve all our farm problems.
Let's get our thinking straight on that point. There is no one farm problem
today, there never has been. We need differing programs and differing tools to
meet the kinds of problems we really face.
And I repeat -- let's keep in mind that the chief trouble in the past has been
political. But there is a way out.
Let us first examine the programs that the political opposition offers.
21st Annual Plowing Contest
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Guthrie Center, Iowa
These are simply this -- a return to discredited, old programs which have
never worked, plus plans like the Brannan farm program that never did fool the
farmers and which, therefore, they overwhelmingly rejected. Inevitably they
would lead to a farm economy completely planned and managed, not by the
farmer, but by the government.
These ideas would not end our farm problems. They would fasten them on
our country forever.
We simply cannot allow ourselves to think in these defeatist terms. Let
me suggest some basic thoughts that point the way to constructive action.
First, because it was the government, mainly, that got the farmer into the
farm problem, the government should unhesitatingly, as a matter of obligation,
help indemnify him to get him out.
Second, I consider it likewise a governmental obligation to help the farmer
protect himself against the natural and economic adversities that uniquely and
oftentimes disastrously affect his livelihood.
Third, real farmers should have more to say about the kinds of programs
best suited to their way of life. There is a clear need for greater farmer
participation in the formulation of the programs that govern them.
Fourth, farmers need programs that will strengthen, not erode away, their
freedom. We need programs to hasten the day when federal bureaucrats in
Washington, no matter how well intentioned, will not be telling farmers what to
plant, how many acres to sow, how much to sell, and what their prices have to be.
Fifth, we must and we can -- put our surpluses more constructively to
work for the good both of American farmers and of all humanity.
Sixth, once we devise means to consume our gigantic surpluses, production
restraints can be eased and made rational and bearable.
Seventh, programs are needed that will raise farm family incomes as
surpluses are consumed; we cannot tolerate programs that would cut production
by bankrupting the farmer.
Finally, we must carefully consider the whole complex price support prob-
lem, and to that vital subject, I shall return in my second farm speech in
Sioux Falls, next week.
MORE
21st Annual Plowing Contest
-6-
Guthrie Center, Iowa
I believe that, by holding to these points, we can be confident of a bright
prospect for our millions of American farmers.
How, exactly, do we begin? Obviously, a number one job is to work down
the price-depressing surpluses which today are costing us a thousand dollars
every minute just to handle and store.
There are, of course, two major parts to this task -- first, disposing of
the surpluses we already have; second, preventing their reaccumulation,
Let us today talk about the first part -- using up surplus stocks. My answer
to this I call Operation Consume. And what does it do? It isolates the surplus
stocks from the commercial markets as completely, effectively, and quickly as
we can. It uses the surpluses for constructive works. It aims at keeping farmers
from being made prisoners of their own efficiency.
Operation Consume is a four-part undertaking.
The first is a sharp intensification of the Food for Peace program.
This includes new and more energetic efforts among surplus-producing
nations to assist the hungry people in less favored areas of the world through
the United Nations, This is an effort at once practical and humanitarian, More
than that, it brings our bounty directly, and more positively, into the great
struggle for freedom.
In its support we will continue to sell our surplus products abroad under
Public Law 480. We will additionally continue using surplus foods and fibers
to help meet emergencies throughout the world caused by such catastrophes as
floods, droughts, earthquakes.
Moreover, we should accelerate our efforts in underdeveloped nations to
acquaint these millions of peoples with our multitude of farm products and
their many uses. In this way, we will simultaneously build commercial markets
for our farm people, as was long ago demonstrated by our experience under the
480 program.
The second major part of Operation Consume is to create, for America, a
strategic food reserve.
These critical reserves of foods would be stored at strategic locations
throughout the nation, in forms in which they can best be preserved for long
21st Annual Plowing Contest
-7-
Guthrie Center, Iowa
periods against the contingency of a grave national emergency, such as sudden
international requirements, or any enemy attack.
I am firmly convinced that in the kind of world in which we live today, we
cannot risk a shortage of food. In these times, we must keep on hand large
enough stocks to feed our people should our normal sources of food be destroyed.
Our present wheat surplus is even now a great protection for America, for in
an emergency wheat can be eaten even in its natural state. Even better, wheat
can be prepared -- and this I would have further developed as a matter of high
priority -- in ways that can protect it against contamination, preserve it for
long periods, and yet keep it immediately available for human consumption. We
need to move a substantial part of these surpluses into storage properly dispersed
to speed their availability in time of crisis, and we must replace them periodically
with fresh supplies.
Next, Operation Consume will effect payments-in-kind from existing
surpluses as part of a temporary land conservation and retirement program of
which we need to achieve better balance in today's agriculture.
Of course, barter payments of this kind have to be so administered as not
to disturb market prices, while at the same time reducing the output of additional
surpluses. We will use the surplus to use up the surplus.
Finally, as part of Operation Consume, I propose an urgent exploration
of the conversion of grain to protein foods for distribution at home and abroad,
an approach whereby excess grain could become low-cost, bulk-canned meat,
powdered milk and eggs, meanwhile giving livestock, dairy and poultry producers
throughout the country additional income.
MORE
21st Annual Plowing Contest
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Guthrie Center, Iowa 9/16/60
I expect this new program to be worked out and to become a significant and
valuable addition to our food for peace efforts and to our school lunch and relief
distribution programs.
Here again there must be safeguards against disruption of normal commer-
cial marketing channels at home and abroad as well as prudent cost controls.
Aside from some domestic school lunch and relief distribution, only long-
term future contracts would be used as, for instance, with care, religious and
voluntary groups, and with such other assistance efforts as we may engage in
abroad.
The difficulty with our attack on the surplus problem in the past is that it has
been too timid and too little. We must set as our objective a target date of four
years using the tools that I have outlined to reduce the surplus to manageable pro-
portion. We need to get the surplus off the farmers' back and off the nation's back
as well.
It will, of course, be necessary to appropriate for these programs. But in
evaluating their ccets, we must take into account the present tremendous outlays
that we will thereby be getting rid of as we reduce the surpluses. In other words,
we must and should be willing to pay more now in order to take a big bite out of the
surplus and to reach our target date, recognizing that the costs overall will be
less in the long run.
These are, in trief outline , the four programs of operation consume a
concerted effort to the critical surplus problem.
AS we thus move ahead, we can expect the affected farm commodity prices
to move up to a more normal market relationship. Thus, we will achieve our two
eagerly sought objectives: raising farm family income while relieving the
Government of much of the heavy cost of carrying vast stores of unused foods.
Next week in South Dakota, I will spell out the companion effort, no less
important to farmers. I shall call it operation safeguard--a program to deal with
the other major phase of our problem, that of avoiding the building up of new un-
manageable surpluses. Taken together, operation consume and operation safe-
guard will strengthen all agriculture--an enormously powerful force against
Communism.
There is great gratification for me in the concept that here, in these efforts,
we can put the American farmers' skill and productivity more effectively at work
where most needed- in the very forefront of the world struggle for freedom. Here
Communism cannot hope to compete. Here all humanity will clearly see the shin-
ing promise and profound meaning of liberty.