Word: bensons
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...eleven weeks since Apostle Benson took office, he has found that his job, if not always spiritual, is one that requires all the fortitude and dedication of a Brigham Young. Benson is a big (6 ft., 220 Ibs.), open-faced 53-year-old who looks younger, has the ruddy complexion of one who has spent years in the fields (which he has) and the hearty smile and firm handshake of a Boy Scout leader (which he is). He adheres to the old-fashioned philosophy that God helps those who help themselves. Benson quotes the Bible to show how he applies...
Props & Prices. Benson has to buck a phalanx of entrenched (by Civil Service) Agriculture Department bureaucrats, many of whom have come to think of themselves as the masters of U.S. agriculture. He has to bear responsibilities far heavier than the average citizen realizes. Not only does the law require him to support the price of a dozen commodities, but it also gives him discretionary power to support any farm commodity produced in the U.S. It follows that the Secretary of Agriculture is likely to be blamed by some farmers if the price of any farm commodity drops...
...pressure on Benson is vastly multiplied by the fact that when he took office farm prices had been falling for months-and some are still going down. The Eisenhower Administration and Congress have these choices: 1) let prices fall; 2) support prices while limiting production by Government fiat; 3) support prices without limiting production, which might mean that the Government would buy a greater and greater share of more and more commodities...
...number of other (and more basic) crops. Neither the New Deal nor the Fair Deal solved the farm problem. In the mid-'30s artificial scarcity concealed the problem; in the 1940s, temporary high demand obscured it. Now the old question, shorn of its camouflage, has landed on Benson...
...Shot. His starting point is clear. In his first days in office, he said: "[Farmers] should not be placed in the position of working for Government bounty rather than producing for a free market." What Benson advocated was price supports high enough to "provide insurance against disaster," but not to guarantee profits to the inefficient...