The Farm Problem

"The problems are complex, pressures great and solutions difficult." - Congressman Bob Dole upon his assignment to the House Agriculture Committee, February 1961

By the time Congressman Bob Dole arrived in Washington, the farm policy debate had become quite partisan. Democrats and the liberal National Farmers Union tended to favor high price supports and more production control, Republicans and the conservative American Farm Bureau Federation liked lower supports and fewer regulations.

Most agreed that agriculture was of fundamental importance to a healthy national economy and that farmers needed help because of the nature of the industry, but a solution to the so-called "farm problem" continued to perplex policy makers.

This was so - at least in part - because there was no single problem, but rather, as former Congressman Clifford R. Hope observed, "thirty-five or forty farm problems" that differed from region to region and commodity to commodity.

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Letter to Bob Dole from a constituent in Hutchinson, Kansas, expressing their dislike for the proposed Farm Bill.

Local Control

In leading congressional opposition to the policies of the Democratic presidential administrations, Congressman Bob Dole sought farm legislation that would bring the farmer "greater freedom" and move agriculture "toward the day when we may give the law of supply and demand an opportunity to again work."

"Any more controls on us out here, and we would be 'sunk.' So please continue the good battle."                    - Hutchinson, July 1962

Political Pragmatism

Despite Dole's consistent opposition, the president's policies had Western Kansas supporters. Almost half of the district's 58 counties supported the wheat program by simple majority in May 1963, and many moderate Republicans, as well as Democrats, often backed the administration's farm policy approach.

By 1965, a sense of bipartisanship reemerged. The Food and Agriculture Act of 1965, a four-year farm bill that covered cotton, wheat, feed grains, rice, dairy products, and wool, passed in the U.S. House with 19 Republican votes. Five of the votes were from Kansas - the entire delegation.

The bill then went to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture for consideration and passed the Senate on September 14. The joint conference committee reported the compromise bill on October 8, and it passed both houses that same day. It was signed into law on November 4, 1965.

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Grainfield, Kansas, Constituent Letter

Letter to Bob Dole from a constituent in Grainfield, Kansas, expressing their views against the proposed farm program.

"Please take my advice and stand for the cause of freedom. Help get the government out of the farming business." - Grainfield, June 1965

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Claflin, Kansas, Constituent Letter

"...I sure hope you vote for it even if democrats [sic] are pushing it." - Claflin, January 1965

This Claflin farmer urged Dole to vote for the Farm Bill as proposed by Senator George McGovern, a Democrat from South Dakota. Dole and McGovern worked together across party lines on food insecurity and agriculture issues for decades, though this writer was more interested in wage parity: "Every time the Labor Unions asked for a raise they got it."

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Constituent Letter on Farm Bill Memo

"If it's this, or nothing, please vote for it. We are not ready to be turned loose entirely." - August 1965

This farmer responded to Dole's long press release that outlined that year's Farm Bill. As the proposed programs were in effect for four years, and the Republicans were the minority party in the U.S. House, Dole urged his constituents to accept this deal - or risk losing the support.

Make Farm Work Pay

In 1965, Congressman Dole and a St. Francis constituent discussed farmers' need for a steady, competitive income and the challenges facing farm interests in Congress, which placed them in opposition to urban and non-rural populations, as well as the ongoing prospect of rising taxes.

"Farm income lags pathetically behind that of other segments of our nation's economy. It is deeply disturbing so many of our farmers find it necessary to supplement their farm income by seeking work in our towns and cities just to enable them to make both ends meet."

"Efforts to improve farm income are becoming more difficult from one Congress to another since the vast majority of House membership represents urban and non-farm areas. Any legislation aiming at improving farm income is immediately viewed in terms of increased consumer costs and meets urban opposition." - Congressman Bob Dole to a St. Francis constituent, March 1965

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St. Francis, Kansas, Constituent Letter

Letter to Bob Dole from a constituent in St. Francis, Kansas, about the need for a new farm program.

"Western Kansas is going to be a real poverty Pocket. If some type [of] Program is not put in too [sic] effect to get up the price of wheat and beef." - St. Francis, February 1965

Big, Small, Owned, Rented

The problems of scale - from large industrial farms, smaller family-owned farms, and land worked by farmers but owned by others - added still more challenges to already complicated farm policy, then and now. How does a legislator best serve all of these farming constituents at once?

"The Curtis Plan... mean[s] elimination of thousands of farm families whose only crime is not being big... Free enterprise is an empty gesture when the little fellow has no choice except to try to live as a hired helper to some one [sic] else." - Smith Center, April 1967

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Kinsley, Kansas, Constituent Letter

Letter to Bob Dole from a constituent in Kinsley, Kansas, about the proposed Wheat and Cotton Bill.

"To-day [sic] we have to operate on a much larger scale to make it pay - and in doing so take a greater risk money wise." - Kinsley, March 1964

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Leoti, Kansas, Constituent Letter and Questionnaire

Constituent letter from Leoti, Kansas, that was sent to Bob Dole with a filled out questionnaire. Letter goes over their views on the farm bill and the questionnaire asks their views on welfare, the Vietnam War, the War on Poverty and how they feel about President Johnson.

"How do we pay these increased taxes with less or no income? This year we were hit with early freeze, worms, weeds, hail and high winds which means no crops plus several large spray bills." - Leoti, September 1967

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Tribune, Kansas, Constituent Letter

Letter to Bob Dole from a constituent in Tribune, Kansas, concerned about the proposed Farm bill.

"In our country more than 70% of the land is owned by non-residents [sic]. If your plan is passed that 70% will retire their land, take their money back east and let the tenants go to hell." - Tribune, August 1962