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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 19, 1985)
Page 2AThe Battalion/Tuesday, November 19,1985 Opinion Short-term solutions breed long-term agriculture woes This fall’s boom- : ing harvest is just one symptom of a boom ing farm aid budget, which must be re- : Cheryl Burke Guest Columnist duced if the United States is to become competitive in international markets, and if farmers relying on this aid are to survive what is touted as the worst agri cultural crisis since the Depression. Bumper crops of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton, produced on fewer acres than ever before, have forced Congress to attempt sweeping policy re forms to save the agricultural economy. For decades, agricultural policy has been reactionary, shaped to alleviate an industry’s distress — but only temporar ily. When the first federal price-support program was created, in 1933, the secre tary of agriculture, Henry Wallace, called it a “temporary method of deal ing with an emergency.” Through the years, each year, the federal govern ment has continued to deal with farm problems crisis-by-crisis. The short term solution to each year’s emergency has proved to be the long-term downfall- of the industry. “Temporary” federal aid is now a permanent economic fix ture. Hundreds of billions of tax dollars later, the farm economy is dependent for survival, less enough prosperity, on a labyrinth of “temporary” programs that have distorted the market. Mean while, farm land values are plummet ing, the farm credit system is faltering and the federal government is spending record amounts to buy and store the surplus created by this artificial market. Paradoxically, the farmers in the worst financial shape are the very ones who were supposed to have benefited the most from federal programs. There is simply no export market for subsi dized U.S. produce. The strong dollar compounds the problem of this year’s bumper crops by making American trade non-compet itive in foreign markets. Competing food-producing nations have taken ad vantage of the situation, boosting pro duction and slashing prices in response to high-priced U.S. commodities. When the American farmer can’t ex port his crops at a profit, he sells them to the federal government at subsidized guaranteed prices. Thus, farm aid expenditures set new all-time highs as the government collects record-level stockpiles of more than 2.05 billion bushels of corn and 369 mil lion bushels of soybeans by 1986. Perhaps most important, it must be realized that this is not a farmer’s issue alone. All feel the effects when the na tion’s largest economic sector suffers. Consumers pay higher prices in a mar ket where competition is stifled. Tax payers must foot the bill for increasingly expensive farm aid programs. And ev ery side of the industry, from farm equipment manufacturers and dealers to the bankers mortgaging farmland and loaning money, dies a slow death as the American farm is crushed under the weight of its own aid programs. As *his decades-old economic strug gle continues, Congress fights another decades-old struggle as it tries to lower the budget and help the farmers simul taneously with the newest farm bill un der consideration. OREGONIPN<EW KWv First, these goals are not necessarily a contradiction in terms. While in the short run farmers benefit from aid pro grams at the expense of consumers and taxpayers, those same farmers have helped cripple their own industry’s fu ture. An infusion of still more federal dollars would only worsen the damage. Prices must be lowered to a competitive market level and surpluses reduced be fore the farmer can become economi cally independent. Second, one of the most pervasive myths about agriculture is that farmers cannot survive without federal aid. Only one-third of the nation’s producers use government support. The rest already operate in the free market. New legis lation must phase out years of programs that have insulated that one-third of American farmers from the market and have contorted other areas of agricul ture. One means to that end, President Reagan’s drastic “market-oriented” pro posals of earlier this year, would aban don the farmer to free market competi tion. While weaning the farmer from federal support and lowering govern ment costs are the eventual goals of all the current farm aid proposals, it must be accomplished slowly. All groups involved must recognize the free market as an ideal, but temper its implementation with a gradual de crease of deficiency payments, price supports, production controls ana ex port assistance programs, not by com pletely pulling tlie rug out from under farmers on aid. Reagan’s 1981 policy promised to lower Federal support and move agricul ture toward a free market system, but ended up spending 600 percent more than its planned outlay and was at least three times as expensive as any of its predecessors. Why did it fail? It failed because government pan icked when faced with the latest crises of farm debt, bankruptcy and overproduc tion. It will take years to repair the dam age created by decades of policy mis- Age Mover By PAG H The deadline gie class ring th approaching. Orders will b< said Carolyn S\ ministrator. “Al will not be taker first of the year, Swanzy said t be delivered arc “The rings a the L.G. Balfoi setts,” she said, ceive the orders cember. “That means three months takes. Government must stand firm it its convictions that the agricultun economy has to move close to the mat ketplace. And it’s just as obvious tta time will be required for farmers it work their way back to solid ground. Estimates snow that 15 to 20perai more farmers are going to go out of business in the next 18 months. Hardai it may seem, those who will survive art those who can control costs and operait in true competition. Government can no longer bail agriculture out of its eco nomically sinking boat. It’s time to save American agricul ture. It’s time to force American agricul ture to save itself. rings. Swanzy expl age delivery l usually is three there are man) feet the deliver) “The numbe fects the delivei “because we h 400 to 2,000 or period.” Swanzy add< custom made, ri “The Balfoui vidual orders,” adds to the deli Another fact engraved on th dent’s name. “All the engi Swanzy said. ‘T talent, which m pie probably dc Sne added tf of the few scho engraving don< Swanzy expl for the rings a Balfour Co. "We can gua to a certain d; Perc Cheryl Burke is a senior agriculttml journalism major. Asso DALLAS — Ross Perot is i vard Universit Mail Call Musical disbelief EDITOR: I am writing to express my, as well as many other people’s, disbe lief in the article that ran in Thursday’s Battalion previewing the George Strait concert. Personally, I do not know a lot about music, and I would not have a chance on Name That Tune. However, concert reviewers should, and two column inches does not tell me much. I’ve seen Sam Buchmeyer’s work before, and this man knows music like David Letterman knows stupid pet tricks. Am I wrong in suspecting that some crazy editing too place? Mike Cramer Accompanied by 51 signatures EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes. “Membership and participation shall be free from discrimina tion on the basis of sex, race, religion, ethnic group or national ori gin.” To be a full-fledged member in our organization you only need to pay your dues and be enrolled in an accepted engineering curric ulum. We also have provisions for non-engineering majors. Our meetings are open to anyone that would like to listen to speakers, attend programs and our general meetings. So, Davis, I cannot speak for the other organizations you men tioned, but I can speak on behalf of NSBE when I ask that in your future writings that you do not mention our name without having all of your facts together about our organization. ‘Dedicated to a better tomorrow’ for the construction of “swords” (rattan, bound in strapping and duct tape) to prevent splintering, rigid armor standards, expen enced observers for each bout to watch for spectators and equip ment failure and personalized training for each would-be warrior Questions needing answers Kenneth Johnson ’86 President ’85-’86 NSBE The description also does disservice to the skills of those en gaged in fighting. Twenty years of research and practical experi ence by society members has resulted in an accurate re-creationol medieval warfare. Some warriors have incorporated the modem Japanese martial art of kendo, “the way of the sword,” into their fighting. Metropolitan police forces have asked SCA members to train their officers to use their officers to use their batons. Thisisa far cry from “beating each other with sticks.” EDITOR: There are a couple of questions that need to be raised about the food services on this campus? First: Who’s making the profits? The food served is essentially fast, frozen food. For the $4.75 that supper costs, any fast food place in town would stuff you. Maybe they ought to put a Wendy’s on cam pus ... Second: Why can’t the owner of any 12-meal plan “give” his meals to anyone he chooses? After all, the meals were paid for and sales tax was charged. So where does the money go if tne meals are not eaten? Since it is a moral sin to give the meals away, maybe a cu mulative refund at the end of the semester or a transfer to the next week’s allotment should be considered. Third: Why does the cafeteria both charge extra ($6) and offer no seconds on their occasional special meals. One or the other would be entirely sufficient. Besides, the extra cost only affects those who pay cash or are on the point plan. Fourth: How come the menu is so often wrong? Many times, I have called the menu number and discovered that they were offer ing some (Oh so rare) really good food and rushed down there to get it only to find out that thirty minutes after they opened, they have “run out” and replaced it (90 percent of the time with chicken nug gets). Fifth: Why are the managers consistently rude? Nearly all of the workers that I have talked to are very friendly. But when they call a manager, duck and grab the riot gear. The smiles are all gone. And the one time I called their office, the man who answered became in stantly rude. Who knows? Maybe the sour personality just comes from trying to get the most money out of college kids that they can with the minimum amount of effort and cost. The Department of Food Services should be a little more flexible with the students. We are paying customers after all, and it would be nice to be treated like one. Write it elsewhere EDITOR: My friend and I would like to lodge a serious complaint upon the shoulders of the “true” Aggies. We live in the Commons, and seeing as how we own cars, we park in the red lot be hind the Commons. Our complaint goes out to all the (apparently) jealous people who walk through the lot scratching cars, writing in the dust on the hood and sliding their keys along car doors. This is destruction of other people’s property! I guess we held the false thought that Ags were honest and true. If this were so, why are there scratches along our car doors? Why is there an “R” carved in my doors? Why is “Fish ’89” written on my friend’s hood? Writing in the fog on windows is one thing, but writing in the dust that has settled on a car is quite another. For everyone’s benefit, it scratches the paint. We don’t know who has done these “wonderful” things, but we feel it is wrong and it should stop. For all concerned, we believe these people are jealous of nice cars (Cutlasses, Jeeps, Camaros, etc.) because they don’t do anything to the other cars (Toyotas, excluding Supras; Volkswagens, Tempos, etc.). Come on, Ags, this has to stop! Destroying other people’s property is against everyone’s moral values; or at least it should be. We are glad you’re proud of your ini tials and your class but please, write it somewhere else, not on every one’s cars. Another point we would like to make is that the author (oi perhaps those he interviewed) glossed over the depth of researcli undertaken by SCA members. We do not just “make our own cos tumes;” we study and work to recreate, sometimes on a profes sional quality level, medieval crafts. These include fiber arts (weav ing, spinning, embroidery, lacemaking, sewing), metalworking (weapons, armor, utensils, as well as gold, silver, bronze and cop per jewelry). Woodworking (utensils, weapons, furniture, siege towers, catapults), dancing, falconry, heraldry, entertainmeni (“bardic” arts — singing, storytelling, poetry), brewing and vintn- ing (wine-making), cooking and, as mentioned in the article, Cali graphy. Many of our local people have kingdomwide reputations for their skill in one or more of these crafts. Speaking of our kingdom, its name is “Ansteorra.” This “one star,” and is a regional division of our international organiza tion. (We have members in Germany and Australia and the U.S.S. Nimitz. Please do not take these comments personally or feel we not appreciate the article. It is just that, being a group of peo| who act and dress differently at times, we are sensitive to being misunderstood. Thank you for listening. Stephen Williams Katie Maginn Michael Brown Allen and Nancy Hurst Elaine Pahmiyer ’88 Angie Buechler ’87 Not just ‘beating with sticks’ David Pattillo ’89 Leave our name out of it EDITOR: This letter is in reference to a letter written by Mike A. Davis ’86 in which he refers to the Society of Black Engineers as a racist orga nization. Davis, the Texas A&M University Chapter of The National So ciety of Black Engineers is not in any way, shape, form or fashion a racist organization. Proof of this is found in our national constitu tion. Article III, Section 1: EDITOR: First of all, we would like to thank you for a gen erally accurate article on our group, the Society for Creative Anachronism. We especially appreciate your resisting the urge to portray us as cultists or ec centrics. However, there are a few points we would' like to make in reference to that article — one major, the others less so. The major point concerns “fighting.” Assuming the quote from Matt Birkner was accurate, it seems he gave a false impression in his attempt at a simple explanation. The phrase “hitting each other over the head with sticks until one gives up,” gives a to tally false impression of how and why we fight. Safety features for fighting include special rules The Battalion USPS045 360 Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Rhonda Snider, Editor Michelle Powe, Managing Editor Loren Steffy, Opinion Page Editor Karen Bloch, City Editor John Hallett, Kay Mallett, News Editors Travis Tingle, Sports Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper operated as a community service to Texas A&M and Bryan-Collegt Station. Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the Editorial Board or the author and do not necessarily represent lit opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper for students in reporting, editing and photography classes within tht Department of Communications. The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holiday and exsmim- lion periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 per semester, $33.25 per school year and $35 per full year. Advertising rates fur nished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. about moving | Texas under ; rangement. Over tens of in the three-mi ventory would museum to h Texas, probab the Dallas Tit Monday. The agreer and the musei 10 years, the n< Small, short museums — ti few hundred p common. m JM