Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill Providing for an Emergency Feed Grain Program.

I HAVE TODAY signed into law H.R. 4510, providing an emergency feed grain program for the 1961 crop. I am gratified that the Congress moved so promptly in enacting this legislation. Congressmen from the North, East, South and West voted for this program for agriculture which serves the best interests of all the American people.

The emergency feed grain act will enable us to make headway this year toward stemming the flow of feed grains while giving us time to develop more satisfactory permanent legislation. It is a very important step toward learning to live with our agricultural abundance.

This new law will help us to accomplish the following objectives:

1. An increase in farm income.

2. An abundant supply of meat, eggs and dairy products at fair and stable prices.

3. A reduction in the cost of the farm program to the government.

4. A curtailment of the surplus in feed grains which has reached almost unmanageable proportions.

The Congress has given us a workable program for moving toward these objectives. The extent to which this program will succeed in meeting its goals depends upon the degree of participation in the program by farmers. It is in the interest of every eligible farmer to participate in this program.

It will bring him additional income this year. But even more important, it will lay the groundwork for a long range program that will assure increasing prosperity for American farmers in the years ahead.

It requires the cooperation of every farmer to make it work. And it is to this task that we now must hasten. I urge every farmer who can do so to participate in the program both in his own interest and for the sake of the whole country.