Weekly Radio Report: Salad Oil & the Test Ban Treaty

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c031_045.mp3

c031_045_tr.txt

Transcription (Scripto)

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Extent (Dublin Core)

5 Minutes, 52 Seconds

File Name (Dublin Core)

c031_045

Title (Dublin Core)

Weekly Radio Report: Salad Oil & the Test Ban Treaty

Description (Dublin Core)

In this weekly radio broadcast, Congressman Bob Dole discusses issues within the Department of Agriculture and the Test Ban Treaty. He first discusses soybean and salad oil contracts that were given to irresponsible companies. Dole says there needs to be an investigation launched for not properly utilizing food surpluses. He ends his broadcast talking about the Test Ban Treaty and whether communist countries will actually uphold the agreement.

Date (Dublin Core)

1963-08-17

Date Created (Dublin Core)

1963-08-17

Congress (Dublin Core)

88th (1963-1965)

Topics (Dublin Core)

See all items with this valueAgricultural laws and legislation

See all items with this valueUnited States--Foreign relations--Soviet Union

Policy Area (Curation)

Government Operations and Politics

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)

See all items with this valueCommodity Credit Corporation

See all items with this valueUnited States. Agency for International Development. Office of Food for Peace

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 reports from Washington. First of all, I wish to thank this station for carrying my program as a public service broadcast, and secondly, as customarily we wish to invite your comments and your suggestions, and of course, your criticisms. We do feel that the radio program is effective if people do respond with their letters and with their inquiries.

I want to point out that we've been notified this week by Senator [John J.] Williams of Delaware of another scandal within the Department of Agriculture, and there have been many in the past two-and-a-half years. This one — the most recent one — of course was a loss of 24 million bushels of grain over a three-year period without someone knowing about it. This has still not been explained; there's been no real effort by the Department to check it out.

But now Senator Williams brings up another point, and this is the purchase of about 500 million pounds of refined salad oil, or shortening. In other words, they purchased soybeans for making a soybean oil for use under Public Law 480 [Food for Peace], and it appears that the contracts for making the soybean oil were given to irresponsible company — in one instance to a company that had its right to do this for the Department revoked only six months prior to that time. And Senator Williams concludes that, first of all, the 500 million pounds of oil was bought by the Department of Agriculture under the excuse that the government was trying to support the soybean market, but the facts are at the time of the purchase, the soybeans were already selling at 50 cents per bushel above the support price. So, this is a fallacy; they weren't buying soybeans to support the market because at the very time they bought all the soybeans to make all this soybean oil, the soybean market was 50 cents above the support price. Another excuse given by the Department was that the 500 million pounds of oil was needed to meet our requirements under the Food for Peace program, but the records show that at the time the purchases were made, that estimates for no such amounts, nor did such requirements ever develop or ever exist. Third, the bulk of the purchases were made for it from disreputable companies who'd already been barred from the list as being eligible to participate in any program financed by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

I certainly think — and as Senator Williams pointed out — this is another example of what happens when an agency gets too much money and too much power and too many employees. And I certainly agree with him that it's time we launched a full-scale investigation to see where our commodities are actually going under Public Law 480 and our Food for Peace program. Certainly, living in an agricultural area, we want to dispose of our surpluses, but we also have an obligation as taxpayers to find out if this is properly being done.

Now another great matter of, of course, great importance now is the Test Ban Treaty. This is about all you hear in many areas of Capitol Hill, and I think when everything else is said and done, the success of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty boils down to whether the Communists will keep their word. If they don't, the treaty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, of course. This fact to me is hardly encouraging. Since World War II, the Communists have signed 53 formal agreements with the West and broken 50 of them. The odds are almost then 20-to-1 that the current agreement will be broken by Russia. During the Cuban crisis a year ago, President Kennedy had this to say about taking the Soviets at their word: “If they fool us once, it's their fault. If they fool us twice, it's our fault.” Now they've fooled us 50 times, and my question to the President and to the Senate: whose fault will it be this time if the country again is fooled, and we leap into a nuclear test ban without knowing what the Administration may have agreed with Khrushchev on a non-aggression pact, or some other proposition concerning East or West Berlin?

I am certain it's a very serious matter and receiving very serious attention in the Senate, but I'm not completely unaware of the past history, and I do not believe that we have any obligation as Members of Congress — whether Republicans or Democrats, or whether we're in the House or the Senate — to follow the Administration blindly because we know the public wants peace. Certainly, the mothers and anyone else who might be affected would like to have lasting peace, would like to stop nuclear explosions — not only in the atmosphere but underground — but we must also be realistic. And certainly I feel that some of the testimony that's come up this week by Dr. [Edward] Teller, and the rather guarded testimony of General [Curtis] LeMay indicate that we do have much more investigating to do — at least the Senate has, it is their responsibility under the Constitution — before any Test Ban Treaty is ratified. And I am certainly hoping — and I will continue to do so — that the Senate give it very careful scrutiny, and in this instance, take no one's word and be very careful that somebody isn't trying to sell a bill of goods to them. And I'm certain there are Members of the Senate who are very capable of doing this.

I see that our time has expired. Again, I thank you for listening, and if you would like further information about any topic that might be pending in Congress, write your Congressman Bob Dole, Room 244, House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

This is Congressman Bob Dole with my weekly radio reports from Washington. First of all, I wish to thank this station for carrying my program as a public service broadcast, and secondly, as customarily we wish to invite your comments and your suggestions, and of course, your criticisms. We do feel that the radio program is effective if people do respond with their letters and with their inquiries.

I want to point out that we've been notified this week by Senator [John J.] Williams of Delaware of another scandal within the Department of Agriculture, and there have been many in the past two-and-a-half years. This one — the most recent one — of course was a loss of 24 million bushels of grain over a three-year period without someone knowing about it. This has still not been explained; there's been no real effort by the Department to check it out.

But now Senator Williams brings up another point, and this is the purchase of about 500 million pounds of refined salad oil, or shortening. In other words, they purchased soybeans for making a soybean oil for use under Public Law 480 [Food for Peace], and it appears that the contracts for making the soybean oil were given to irresponsible company — in one instance to a company that had its right to do this for the Department revoked only six months prior to that time. And Senator Williams concludes that, first of all, the 500 million pounds of oil was bought by the Department of Agriculture under the excuse that the government was trying to support the soybean market, but the facts are at the time of the purchase, the soybeans were already selling at 50 cents per bushel above the support price. So, this is a fallacy; they weren't buying soybeans to support the market because at the very time they bought all the soybeans to make all this soybean oil, the soybean market was 50 cents above the support price. Another excuse given by the Department was that the 500 million pounds of oil was needed to meet our requirements under the Food for Peace program, but the records show that at the time the purchases were made, that estimates for no such amounts, nor did such requirements ever develop or ever exist. Third, the bulk of the purchases were made for it from disreputable companies who'd already been barred from the list as being eligible to participate in any program financed by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

I certainly think — and as Senator Williams pointed out — this is another example of what happens when an agency gets too much money and too much power and too many employees. And I certainly agree with him that it's time we launched a full-scale investigation to see where our commodities are actually going under Public Law 480 and our Food for Peace program. Certainly, living in an agricultural area, we want to dispose of our surpluses, but we also have an obligation as taxpayers to find out if this is properly being done.

Now another great matter of, of course, great importance now is the Test Ban Treaty. This is about all you hear in many areas of Capitol Hill, and I think when everything else is said and done, the success of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty boils down to whether the Communists will keep their word. If they don't, the treaty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, of course. This fact to me is hardly encouraging. Since World War II, the Communists have signed 53 formal agreements with the West and broken 50 of them. The odds are almost then 20-to-1 that the current agreement will be broken by Russia. During the Cuban crisis a year ago, President Kennedy had this to say about taking the Soviets at their word: “If they fool us once, it's their fault. If they fool us twice, it's our fault.” Now they've fooled us 50 times, and my question to the President and to the Senate: whose fault will it be this time if the country again is fooled, and we leap into a nuclear test ban without knowing what the Administration may have agreed with Khrushchev on a non-aggression pact, or some other proposition concerning East or West Berlin?

I am certain it's a very serious matter and receiving very serious attention in the Senate, but I'm not completely unaware of the past history, and I do not believe that we have any obligation as Members of Congress — whether Republicans or Democrats, or whether we're in the House or the Senate — to follow the Administration blindly because we know the public wants peace. Certainly, the mothers and anyone else who might be affected would like to have lasting peace, would like to stop nuclear explosions — not only in the atmosphere but underground — but we must also be realistic. And certainly I feel that some of the testimony that's come up this week by Dr. [Edward] Teller, and the rather guarded testimony of General [Curtis] LeMay indicate that we do have much more investigating to do — at least the Senate has, it is their responsibility under the Constitution — before any Test Ban Treaty is ratified. And I am certainly hoping — and I will continue to do so — that the Senate give it very careful scrutiny, and in this instance, take no one's word and be very careful that somebody isn't trying to sell a bill of goods to them. And I'm certain there are Members of the Senate who are very capable of doing this.

I see that our time has expired. Again, I thank you for listening, and if you would like further information about any topic that might be pending in Congress, write your Congressman Bob Dole, Room 244, House Office Building, Washington, D.C.

This is Congressman Bob Dole with my weekly radio reports from Washington. First of all, I wish to thank this station for carrying my program as a public service broadcast, and secondly, as customarily we wish to invite your comments and your suggestions, and of course, your criticisms. We do feel that the radio program is effective if people do respond with their letters and with their inquiries.

I want to point out that we've been notified this week by Senator [John J.] Williams of Delaware of another scandal within the Department of Agriculture, and there have been many in the past two-and-a-half years. This one — the most recent one — of course was a loss of 24 million bushels of grain over a three-year period without someone knowing about it. This has still not been explained; there's been no real effort by the Department to check it out.

But now Senator Williams brings up another point, and this is the purchase of about 500 million pounds of refined salad oil, or shortening. In other words, they purchased soybeans for making a soybean oil for use under Public Law 480 [Food for Peace], and it appears that the contracts for making the soybean oil were given to irresponsible company — in one instance to a company that had its right to do this for the Department revoked only six months prior to that time. And Senator Williams concludes that, first of all, the 500 million pounds of oil was bought by the Department of Agriculture under the excuse that the government was trying to support the soybean market, but the facts are at the time of the purchase, the soybeans were already selling at 50 cents per bushel above the support price. So, this is a fallacy; they weren't buying soybeans to support the market because at the very time they bought all the soybeans to make all this soybean oil, the soybean market was 50 cents above the support price. Another excuse given by the Department was that the 500 million pounds of oil was needed to meet our requirements under the Food for Peace program, but the records show that at the time the purchases were made, that estimates for no such amounts, nor did such requirements ever develop or ever exist. Third, the bulk of the purchases were made for it from disreputable companies who'd already been barred from the list as being eligible to participate in any program financed by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

I certainly think — and as Senator Williams pointed out — this is another example of what happens when an agency gets too much money and too much power and too many employees. And I certainly agree with him that it's time we launched a full-scale investigation to see where our commodities are actually going under Public Law 480 and our Food for Peace program. Certainly, living in an agricultural area, we want to dispose of our surpluses, but we also have an obligation as taxpayers to find out if this is properly being done.

Now another great matter of, of course, great importance now is the Test Ban Treaty. This is about all you hear in many areas of Capitol Hill, and I think when everything else is said and done, the success of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty boils down to whether the Communists will keep their word. If they don't, the treaty isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, of course. This fact to me is hardly encouraging. Since World War II, the Communists have signed 53 formal agreements with the West and broken 50 of them. The odds are almost then 20-to-1 that the current agreement will be broken by Russia. During the Cuban crisis a year ago, President Kennedy had this to say about taking the Soviets at their word: “If they fool us once, it's their fault. If they fool us twice, it's our fault.” Now they've fooled us 50 times, and my question to the President and to the Senate: whose fault will it be this time if the country again is fooled, and we leap into a nuclear test ban without knowing what the Administration may have agreed with Khrushchev on a non-aggression pact, or some other proposition concerning East or West Berlin?

I am certain it's a very serious matter and receiving very serious attention in the Senate, but I'm not completely unaware of the past history, and I do not believe that we have any obligation as Members of Congress — whether Republicans or Democrats, or whether we're in the House or the Senate — to follow the Administration blindly because we know the public wants peace. Certainly, the mothers and anyone else who might be affected would like to have lasting peace, would like to stop nuclear explosions — not only in the atmosphere but underground — but we must also be realistic. And certainly I feel that some of the testimony that's come up this week by Dr. [Edward] Teller, and the rather guarded testimony of General [Curtis] LeMay indicate that we do have much more investigating to do — at least the Senate has, it is their responsibility under the Constitution — before any Test Ban Treaty is ratified. And I am certainly hoping — and I will continue to do so — that the Senate give it very careful scrutiny, and in this instance, take no one's word and be very careful that somebody isn't trying to sell a bill of goods to them. And I'm certain there are Members of the Senate who are very capable of doing this.

I see that our time has expired. Again, I thank you for listening, and if you would like further information about any topic that might be pending in Congress, write your Congressman Bob Dole, Room 244, House Office Building, Washington, D.C.