From Here to There

Ezra Taft Benson, the embattled Secretary of Agriculture who shares certain common ancestors with the late Bob Taft, has been one of the more notable friends of freedom in the Eisenhower Administration. Day in and day out, to the frequent accompaniment of jeers from the unfeeling, he has labored mightily to take the American farmer from the “here” of quasi-socialism to the “there” of a truly free society. Speaking generally, he certainly deserves the accolade of this column for his courageous attempt to practice a “Fabianism in reverse” as applied to farm price supports.

With the top man in American agriculture visibly committed to a return to freedom on the farm, you might suppose that any lowly, down- the-line farmer who insisted on taking his own chances in the open market would be allowed to go his way. True, if a man signs up for a quota or acreage allotment, it is only reasonable to ask that he accept a penalty if he oversteps the line. But if a farmer wants to get along without any help from the government, you might suppose that the lesser bureaucrats in Benson’s sprawling organization would wink at certain technical infractions of some palpably unconstitutional law.

JC

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John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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Ezra Taft Benson, the embattled Secretary of Agriculture who shares certain common ancestors with the late Bob Taft, has been one of the more notable friends of freedom in the Eisenhower Administration. Day in and day out, to the frequent accompaniment of jeers from the unfeeling, he has labored mightily to take the American farmer from the “here” of quasi-socialism to the “there” of a truly free society. Speaking generally, he certainly deserves the accolade of this column for his courageous attempt to practice a “Fabianism in reverse” as applied to farm price supports.

With the top man in American agriculture visibly committed to a return to freedom on the farm, you might suppose that any lowly, down- the-line farmer who insisted on taking his own chances in the open market would be allowed to go his way. True, if a man signs up for a quota or acreage allotment, it is only reasonable to ask that he accept a penalty if he oversteps the line. But if a farmer wants to get along without any help from the government, you might suppose that the lesser bureaucrats in Benson’s sprawling organization would wink at certain technical infractions of some palpably unconstitutional law.