<--PREV Doc #1868  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1870 Document #1869; May 7, 1956 To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVII - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part X: Cracks in the Alliance; May 1956 to September 1956 Chapter 20: Confronting "great risks"   Dear Cabot: The first part of the suggestions from your farmer friend may be very helpful.1 As to the second part, I don't understand it very well except for items #1 and #6.2 If we are to assist--by which I assume he means the Federal government is to pay part of the cost--in the purchase of feed, fertilizer, farm machinery, insurance and livestock, we are actually running the farmers' business. It looks very cumbersome to me. However, I shall ask Ezra Benson to study the matter.3 Sincerely 1 Lodge had written Eisenhower on May 1 (AWF/A) to offer the ideas of a farmer friend who had suggested that "skillful public relations" could convince farmers that rigid price supports would aggravate the surplus problem and would not prevent farm income from dropping if worldwide agricultural prices fell. 2 Lodge's friend had also suggested six ways in which the farmer could be helped. Items 1 and 6 included the Soil Bank and special tax exemptions. Items 2-5 advocated assistance in purchasing feed, seed, fertilizer, farm machinery, livestock, and insurance. Such assistance would give money to the farmer that "he must spend in acquiring the things he needs to run his business, and this is a source of purchasing power which will dry up rapidly if the slide is allowed to continue." 3 For background on the Agricultural Act of 1956 see no. 1841. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 7 May 1956. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 1869. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/1869.cfm <--PREV Doc #1868  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #1870

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