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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, May 1, 1963
Raiders Defeat Purpose
U. S.-based raids on Cuba are more and more in the news, and the highly publicized exploit of an MIT undergraduate is just one of many reports of such raids.
At first these raids could be passed off as Castro's anti-American propaganda, perhaps to be believed in part, but not to be taken too seriously. However, the Boston newspaper story and the report in a national magazine about a U.S.-based raid by exiled Cubans on a Russian ship take Castro's reports out of the realm of trumped-up charges.
There seems to be an unofficial open season on Cuba for anyone with a machine gun or a homemade bomb and an airplane or boat. The Boston student tells of his adventure as if that is all it was—just a weekend hunting trip with the added excitement of knowing that the game might shoot back. No doubt the exiled Cubans have more serious motivations and objectives, but if the MIT student is trying to save Cuba from Castro-style communism, his basic motivations are hidden behind the lure of excitement and adventure.
THE MAGAZINE story, complete with pictures, made it obvious that the writer had considerable knowledge of the raid before it took place. Prior knowledge is not so obvious in the Boston newspaper story, but the copyrighted exclusive certainly is subject to suspicion.
Whatever the raiders' personal reasons, the
effects of their actions hardly seems in keeping with their expressed objective—pushing Castro out of Cuba.
THE SMALL-SCALE raids thus far appear to be little more than a harassment to the Castro regime. The actual physical damage done is slight, but the political damage done may be much more than slight. And this damage is not to the Castro government but to the U.S. government and others who want Castro out of Cuba.
The potential for an internal counter revolution is building up in Cuba, but thanks to U.S.-based raids, Castro has a scapegoat. The "colossus of the North" is a likely target because of historical prejudices alone, and with hit-and-run raids as a constant reminder, Cubans need little persuasion to believe all the problems of their country originate in their giant neighbor to the North.
"I'd Like To Speak To The Head Of The House"
As long as they have an enemy without. Cubans will not become too concerned with the enemy within. — Dennis Branstiter
Cuba has extreme internal problems. This can be seen with reasonable certainty. Cuba's economy was shaky before the loss of U.S. trade, and Russian trade has not yet proved to be an adequate substitute. The high-sounding promises Castro made during the revolution are beginning to sound a bit hollow to Cubans who are interested not in politics but in food and clothing.
U.S. Farmers Grow Too Much For Too Little
By Dolores Orman
The U.S. government has been trying to solve the farm problem, in particular the surplus problem, since the early 1920's. But despite the many programs and laws that have been enacted, the problem still exists. Abundance is a blessing, but for the U.S. it has become a burdensome problem.
Peter Dorner, a faculty member in the department of agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin, has described the farm problem as one of "economic reorganization."
HE SAID, "there are too many farms that are too small for profitable operation with modern machine technology."
It is well-known that the farmer has been consistently fighting for financial survival amid declining prices and rising costs. Dorner pointed out that the problem of increasing the farmer's income in relation to the rising costs lies in expanding the volume of sales.
According to Dorner, the main source for increasing productivity lies in investments in modern equipment. This would result in improving the farmer's income and lead to the development of larger farms.
STATISTICS HAVE shown that the majority of land sales in the past few years has been for the purpose of enlarging farms. This resulted in a decrease of over 30 per cent in the number of farms in the 1950s.
This reorganization is limited by the rate of farmers retiring. The growth of larger farms is brought about through mergers. But this economic reorganization is not keeping up with the great advancements made in technology. Agriculture has been undergoing, and is still undergoing, a technological revolution.
In 1820 the average U.S. farmer produced enough food for himself and four others. By 1940 this figure was 10, and by 1950 the number was 14. Today the
average farmer can provide food for himself and 27 others.
THIS REVOLUTION has been the result of work done by farm supply corporations and public experiment stations sponsored by the Department of Agriculture. The work has led to the development of new types of machinery and plant varieties which produce a higher yield, more effective pest control and methods of storing crops.
One of the surplus-control methods the government has been employing since the 1930s has been the support-control system. One of the parts of the program presently under use is the "crop loan" system to support the prices of storage grains such as wheat, oats and corn.
UNDER THE system the farmer can place a majority or all of his crop in certified storage and get a Commodity Credit Corporation loan. Later the farmer can repay the loan,and get his crop and sell it on the market.
Another device used by the government is the production control system. This system has not been too acceptable to the small farmers who are struggling to increase their production.
One method of the production control system is the acreage quota. The farmer is allotted a certain number of acres for the price-supported crop, depending on the number of acres of the crop he had the year before.
In the Eisenhower administration Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson followed a government policy of lower support prices and instituting fewer controls, thus allowing greater freedom for the farmer. But this plan heaps the burden on the farmer, making the market more competitive.
THE COSTS of maintaining the farm program have been shifted back and forth from the farmer to the consumer for many years.
Present Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman seems to be tending toward the direction of higher supports and stricter controls. This lays the burden of cost on the consumer, increasing his grocery bill.
Over one-half of all the agricultural productions are subsidized by the government.
Some of the surplus is disposed of in special programs, including sales for foreign currencies, grants and barter. In 1957 such special programs increased agricultural exports to $4.7 billion. But two-thirds of these exports were under special surplus disposal programs.
SOME OF the surplus is given away overseas and at home through such programs as Food for Peace, school lunch and aid-to-needy.
But still the Commodity Credit Corporation, has so much surplus left that the handling and storage costs have amounted to over a billion dollars a year. A recent inventory showed these amounts in storage: 972 million
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
Mike Miller, Art Miller, Margaret
Cathcart Assistant Managing Editors
Scott Payne City Editor
Steff Carr Sports Editor
Tryd Preserve and
Jackie Stern Co-Society Editors
Murrel Bland Photograph Editor
Fred Zimmerman Managing Editor
Ben, Marshall, Bill, Sheldon.
Deinis Branstiller Editorial Editor
Terry Murray Assist. Editorial Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Jack Cannon... Business Manager;
Jim Stevens, Asst. Business Mgr.;
Janice Sobaski, Asst. Business
Mgr.;
Anne Zabornik, Circulation
Mgr.;
Brooks Harrison, Classified Mgr.;
Bob Ruth, Classified Mgr.;
Charles Hayward, Promotion Mgr.; Bill Finley,
Merchandising Mgr.
bushels of wheat. 712 million bushels of corn,4.7 million bales of cotton,and 484 million pounds of dried milk.
The costs of the government in the support-control system has averaged between $4 billion and $5 billion a year. Another factor has been that the government has been forced to sell the agricultural products at less than domestic price. The government pays the farmer the difference between the U.S. support price and the world market.
ONE PROBLEM in controlling the surplus agricultural crops has been the weather. For example, last year, although the farmers planted the smallest acreage in many years, the productive yield matched the alltime high peak of 1960.
Farmers do not have the controlling methods and future planning programs like manufacturing industries.Unlike the industries,the farmers do not have groups for the purpose of controlling production.The various cooperative marketing associations are not for controlling production but for the marketing of the products.
Farmers usually consider the prices at the time of planting and seldom before. If the price of the product at the time of planting is high, the farmer will increase his acreage. But, ironically, the increased number of products sold cuts prices.
ONE REASON is that the consumer usually buys a certain amount of food products and will not spend more money in order to get more than the accustomed amount.
When agricultural production is cut the prices rise. A fact that often is overlooked is that the increase in prices for the consumer within the past few years has not been the result of the farmer's increasing the price of his products.
The rise in prices at the stores has resulted from the increased handling and distribution costs.
Statistics have shown that actually the farmers' prices have shown a decline since 1950, as opposed to the increase in living costs and incomes.
ANOTHER PROBLEM faced by the government in its programs to decrease surplus agricultural products is that fixed costs make adjustments for the farmer very difficult. A greater part of his cost does not vary with the output.
These are described by agricultural experts as the fixed costs of farming: rent for land; interest on investments in equipment and livestock, building, etc.; the depreciation of livestock, buildings, etc., that does not vary with their use; insurance on building, equipment and livestock; taxes on real estate and personal property, and cost of family labor.
Secretary Freeman has instituted a "supply management" program which is developed with this trend in mind. Under the program the acreage of problem crops is reduced and the farmers are paid for the acres that are idle or that are diverted to non-problem crops.
The variable costs are few: current supplies, seeds, and fertilizers; hired labor and other services, and repairs and replacements which vary with the use of the building and the equipment.
THERE HAS been a trend in the last few years toward increased emphasis on production of the non-problem products such as livestock, fruits, and leafy vegetables and increased discouragement of production of the problem products, such as wheat, cotton, potatoes — in short, storage products.
Whether this plan succeeds or not is yet to be determined. But one thing is certain—the farm surplus problem will be around for many years to come and will be one of the domestic government headaches for many administrations to come.