Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Statement by the President on Receipt of the Fourth Annual Report on the Rural Development Program.

October 29, 1959

I HAVE RECEIVED and reviewed the fourth annual report on the Rural Development program from the Department of Agriculture. The report again indicates progress in aid to small and low-income farm families and other rural people.

The report shows for the year:

Hundreds of projects to improve farms and fanning;

New marketing facilities constructed and more profitable market outlets established;

Forests improved;

Wood finishing and processing industries expanded;

Thousands of new jobs due to industry growth;

and More income from a variety of other activities.

Activities are spreading beyond the initial pilot or demonstration areas. The program now includes thirty states and Puerto Rico.

This is essentially a peoples program. State and local people agree upon objectives and then move forward together. The programs are managed by state and local area committees--not from Washington. This is as it should be.

Particularly impressive are the initiative, leadership and hard work of various groups--farm, business, industry, civic, school, church, service clubs and others.

Existing state and Federal departments and agencies, with their existing authorities and responsibilities, lend their counsel and support. No new agency is required.

To expedite progress, I issued on October twelfth Executive Order No. 10847 officially establishing the Committee for Rural Development Program, which has been functioning from the start. The Order calls upon the various Federal departments and agencies to make the fullest possible contributions to area development programs and related activities.

The program is hitting at areas of greatest need. As the report states, eighty percent of farm families in typical rural development counties have yearly farm sales valued at $2,500 or less. Most farms in these communities gain little, if any, benefit from governmental farm price support activities.

Major emphasis has been placed on the future of rural youth through vocational training, new education courses, stay-in-school and education beyond the high school.

This program is successfully attacking the age-old and chronic problem of low incomes in widespread rural areas where there are fine farm families on small farms and poor soils. Rural families of such areas-non-farm and farm alike--need, and we are determined must have, more adequate incomes and greater opportunities.

Note: The 25-page report was made available in pamphlet form by the Department of Agriculture.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President on Receipt of the Fourth Annual Report on the Rural Development Program. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/234531

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