Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Statement by the President Concerning the Wheat Surplus.

June 01, 1959

AS REQUIRED by law, the Secretary of Agriculture has today announced the 1960 wheat program. Subject to farmer referendum vote on July twenty-third this will be a continuation of the existing discredited wheat legislation. This legislation has piled up well over $3 billion worth of wheat, a supply equal to two-and-one-half times our annual domestic needs. Storage, handling, and interest charges for this wheat will cost the American taxpayer close to half a billion dollars during the next fiscal year. Continuation of this legislation for another year leads the wheat program one step closer to disaster.

Six separate times during the present session of the Congress I have called this matter to the attention of the Congress.

Despite widespread agreement that the present wheat program, if continued in effect, will ultimately end in disaster, five months have gone by, including the two-week extension especially provided to remedy the situation, with no conclusive Congressional action.

Even at this late date I urge upon the Congress changes in the law which would provide a workable program at a lower cost, applicable to the 1960 crop. The means of accomplishing this purpose, as outlined in my special message of January twenty-ninth, is to reduce the incentives for excess wheat production. Difficulties of the present program should not drive us to legislation involving even greater difficulties.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Concerning the Wheat Surplus. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234916

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