Weekly Radio Report: Wheat Subcommittee

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c031_028.mp3

c031_028_tr.txt

Transcription (Scripto)

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Extent (Dublin Core)

5 Minutes, 31 Seconds

File Name (Dublin Core)

c031_028

Title (Dublin Core)

Weekly Radio Report: Wheat Subcommittee

Description (Dublin Core)

Congressman Bob Dole discusses the perceived lack of interest in wheat legislation in Congress, but that he feels this is an inaccurate assessment of the situation. As evidence, he references the bill introduced by 20 Republican members of the House and the mail he has received from constituent farmers. Dole also notes that there is a preoccupation with passing the Test Ban Treaty in Congress at the moment, but feels like many of his colleagues have not thoroughly analyzed the treaty.

Date (Dublin Core)

1963-05-28

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1963-05-29

Congress (Dublin Core)

88th (1963-1965)

Topics (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueWheat farmers

See all items with this valueAgricultural laws and legislation

Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

Policy Area (Curation)

Agriculture and Food

Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

International Affairs

Creator (Dublin Core)

Dole, Robert J., 1923-2021

Record Type (Dublin Core)

radio programs

Names (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueTreaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water (1963 August 5)

Rights (Dublin Core)

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language (Dublin Core)

eng

Collection Finding Aid (Dublin Core)

https://dolearchivecollections.ku.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=84&q=

Physical Collection (Dublin Core)

Collection 031, Box 1

Institution (Dublin Core)

Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Archival Collection (Dublin Core)

Dole Audio Reels Collection, 1960-1979

Full Text (Extract Text)

This is Congressman Bob Dole with my weekly radio report from Washington. First of all, I wish to thank this station again for carrying my weekly program as a public service broadcast; and secondly, wish to invite from those who may be listening: your comments, and your suggestions, and of course, your criticisms.

Let me say, first of all, that on last Tuesday our wheat subcommittee met at that time. In fact, following the meeting the chairman announced that there seemed to be little interest in wheat legislation at this time. I was present at that meeting, and of course, the announcement by the chairman does not foreclose future action by our subcommittee. I might point out again for those listeners who may have missed a program two or three weeks ago, that there are 13 members on our wheat subcommittee. There are eight Democrat members and five Republican members, and I think it's well to point out that the eight Democrat members represent states who have wheat allotments — a total wheat allotment of around 10 million acres — while the five Republican members represent states having wheat allotments of around 26 million acres. So you can see that the minority party by far represents the great majority of the wheat-producing area; and therefore, I feel it is highly significant that the Republicans did on May 23rd — in fact, 20 Republicans in the House introduced legislation calling for a voluntary program for wheat and feed grains. I think there is considerable interest; we have had in our own office, in one District, about 400 letters concerning wheat legislation. Certainly, the farmer doesn't spell out in every detail just what program he wants, but, to me, the fact that the farmer takes time to write, to express his views, and to state that he voted for or against in the wheat referendum, is, to me, a matter of interest, because in nearly every letter the farmer feels that we need some type of program. And the one overriding feature of our mail, so far, is that this program should be a voluntary program. This is what we said prior to May 21st, and this is what I say now.

At any rate, of the 20 Republican members who introduced legislation on May 23 of this year calling for voluntary program, there were 19 of us who sent a letter to President Kennedy. The 20th member was Congressman Hjalmar Nygaard, who passed away about one month ago. Asking the President to get together with us in a real concerted bipartisan effort to enact wheat legislation now, because as the farmers know in our area — we are in winter wheat-country — and we must have legislation now or it'll do us no good at all. I think, frankly, and I think we should tell the farmer this. The chances are very dim, unless at some last moment, there should be some agreement between those members of Congress representing wheat areas and those members of Congress representing cotton areas and other agricultural areas in working out some compromise program.

Right now, the big interest in Congress is Civil Rights, and also the [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty. There seems to be a great stampede on the Senate side to get on the bandwagon in favor of ratification of the Test Ban Treaty — and certainly, this is something that is very desirable. Nobody wants the horrors of war, and certainly, the mothers and children and any potential victim sees this as a possibility — as a step forward — as the President said. But let me state again that we should reflect clearly; we should have the facts, and I think at least some of the Senators should read the treaty before they start jumping on the bandwagon because this is a very important issue, and certainly, is something that has international significance. And the mere fact that we're trying to give it the ‘Madison Avenue’ sales job may not be mean that it may not be some areas that should be clarified. There's some question now whether Russia can abrogate the treaty — in other words declared it void immediately. It might take for us to do the same thing actually by both the House and the Senate, and we should consider every possibility, so that in any event, the Russians will not gain advantage. Then after we've heard all the evidence and after the Senators have reached their conclusion, then, of course, it's up to them to decide whether the Test Ban Treaty is in the best interest of our country — not today, not by next year, but for this generation, the next generation. This is all that we ask, is that they do carefully consider, and I'm certain that nearly every Senator will.

I see that our time is up. There’s some preparation going on for the March [on Washington for Jobs and Freedom] on August 28th. Certainly, we'll be open as usual. We plan no different attitude in our office. It's open to everyone from our district or anyone else; however, we do give preferential treatment to those from our district. Again, this is Congressman Bob Dole, and give me your comments and suggestions and your criticisms by writing House Office Building, Washington 25 D.C. Thanks for listening.