Bob Dole (BD): This is Congressman Bob Dole and I'm very pleased today to have a very special guest, former Congressman Clifford R. Hope of Garden City, who served 30 years in the Congress and was Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and a real leader and still has a great amount of influence in the Ag. Committee in the Congress. Mr. Hope has been here this week, testifying before our committee on what we commonly call the Food for Peace Program or Public Law 480. I think before I ask Mr. Hope to comment on the success of this program over the years, I would point out that Mr. Hope was chairman of the Ag. Committee when this bill was passed back in 1954. And we certainly think it's done an excellent job and of course, no doubt in my mind that the Congress this year will extend Public Law 480 or the Food for Peace Program and will expand it in many, many areas. I think Mr. Hope’s primary purpose on this trip was to discuss with the committee the need for continuing market development and with that brief introduction, perhaps Mr. Hope would have some comments on the program.

Clifford Hope (CH): Yes, Bob, I'm very happy to be on your program and it's very, very kind of you to ask me. I came back here particularly to appear before the House and Senate agricultural committees in connection with that part of the Public Law 480 which deals with market development for agricultural commodities, and that has been a very successful part of the program.  It has been increasing our exports throughout the years as we've gone along and as an instance in 1954, that is, the year which ended on July 1st, 1954, our agricultural exports were less than $3 billion. And this last year, they were over $6 billion, and I'm told now by the officials in FAS that at the present time, they're at the rate of about 6 1/2 billion dollars a year, or considerably more than twice what they were in the first year before the program went into effect. We who have been in this type of activity, you may know that I was in the organization known as ‘Great Plains Wheat’ for several years and I'm still connected with the organization as in a consulting capacity. We feel that the program has worked very well and we're anxious at this time that whatever changes may be made in the law, and there will be changes made in the extending it, we would like very much to keep the same kind of a program we've had with respect to market develop.

BD: Well, thank you, Mr. Hope. I think another thing that you're certainly well aware of:  Public Law 480 was a bipartisan, a truly bipartisan program, and when it was first enacted. I think it still enjoys strong bipartisan support, and it- no doubt in my mind that our Ag. committee will act in a bipartisan manner on the bill that we finally pass out of the committee this year. I would guess, and I would ask you certainly, in my opinion the program has been successful despite some shortcomings that most programs have. Do you concur in that observation?

CH: Yes, I do, Bob. It is like any other program; it had to have a sort of a trial run and go through a period of trial and error, but basically the program was sound in the beginning and now after this considerable number of years and a considerable amount of experience, we think it's working very well and we would hate to see anything radical in the way of changes in the program at this time.

BD: I think that's- at least- I agree with that observation that there has been some talk about rewriting or writing a whole new program. But many of us feel on the committee, Democrats and Republicans, that we do have some history build up. We do have some experience under Public Law 480, and perhaps we should amend it in some areas, yes, and expand it in some areas, but not to just for the sake of it, rewrite the entire program. As you probably know, Mr. Hope, nearly every witness who's appeared before our committee since February 14 has talked about the need for increased technical assistance to developing countries. And along this line, I've been working in fact lately with Congressman Graham Purcell on what we call for lack of a better name, a “Bread and Butter Corps,” where we'd work through our land grant colleges in an effort to provide technical assistance. We think there will be a technical assistance amendment added, and of course, are hopeful that we can get our amendment tacked on. I don't have any chance to review anything along this line or not, but I would appreciate your comment, if you have any. 

CH: Well, I certainly agree with your thought: that it's necessary to have a program of technical assistance. Now, we can supply more food to the backward countries as we go along, but as the great population is increasing, it will never be possible for this country to produce enough food. And I don't think we should do it, because if it's handled properly, many of these countries can expand and develop their agriculture and produce more for themselves, which of course is the thing which is best for them and best for us. And so, we are going to have to export food, a lot of it, but we're also going to have to export, train the scientists and the agriculturalists who can give the people in the backward countries some of the knowledge that has made our country so productive agriculturally.

BD: Thank you, Mr. Hope. I see our time is up and again, I thank former Congressman Clifford Hope for appearing on our program.