STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN F. KENNEDY ON
NATIONAL FARMERS
FOR KENNEDY-JOHNSON, WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPTEMBER
6, 1960
Senator John F. Kennedy, Tuesday, announced
the appointment of the Executive Committee of the National Farmers for
Kennedy-Johnson organization. Senator Kennedy said:
I am proud to have the support of this group of of outstanding
farmers and farm leaders.
Among them are prominent leaders from all of the major farm
organizations, commodity groups, and sections of the country.
Farmers throughout the Nation are putting aside their differences
in a common determination to prevent 4 more years of falling prices and
shrinking incomes.
This committee is the most fully representative of the wide
range of interests in American agriculture of any farm group that has joined
together in a common cause since the 1930's.
Formation of this committee dramatizes the willingness of farm
people to work together to help us carry out our pledge to take positive
action to raise arm prices and incomes.
The Honorable Claude R. Wickard, Camden, Ind.,
corn-hog producer and former Secretary of Agriculture, and administrator
of the Rural Electrification Administration, is chairman of the committee.
Vice chairman is the Honorable Stephen Pace, Americus, Ga., former vice
chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture.
Other members of the executive committee are:
Hans Jensen, Nebraska farmer, is a State Senator
in his State;
Smith Broadbent, Jr., Cadiz, Ky., lay leader
of the Conference of the Methodist Church of Louisville and past president
of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Federation, is a hybrid seed corn, tobacco,
and livestock grower;
John Duncan, Jr., Quitman, Ga., is president
of the Georgia Farm Bureau Federation;
Joseph Hancock, Bridgeton, N.J., served 10
years on the board of directors of the New Jersey Farm Bureau and is chairman
of the New Jersey Asparagus Growers Tax Commission;
Gil F. Parker, Tiptonville, Tenn., cotton,
soybeans, hogs, and cattle grower, is a member of the board of directors
of the Fourth District of the Farm Credit Administration;
Charles A. Brannan, Denver, Colo., is a former
Secretary of Agriculture;
Aven Whittington, Greenwood, Miss., operates
a large cotton farm in partnership with his father, who served as a Member
of Congress from the Third District of Mississippi from 1924 to 1950. Aven
Whittington is a past president of the Mississippi Association of Soil
Conservation District Commissioners and an ex-director of the Mississippi
Farm Bureau Federation;
G. W. Egbert, Ingalls, Kans., a cattle and
wheat farmer, is a past president of the Kansas Association of Wheat Growers;
Ole Olson, Buxton, N. Dak., wheat and livestock
farmer, is a board member and past president of the Farmers Union Grain
Terminal Association, largest farmers' grain marketing enterprise in the
world;
Arnie Agnew, Milton Junction, Wis., dairy
farmer, is vice president of Pure Milk Association, largest milk marketing
cooperative in the Chicago area, a member of the Grange, and a member of
the Wisconsin State board of agriculture;
Burnett J. Bergeson, Twin Valley, Minn., farms
320 acres, raises turkeys and grain crops. He is chairman of the Cooperative
and Marketing Committee and vice chairman of the Agriculture Committee
of the State House of Representatives. He served as Farm Security Administration
supervisor from 1938 to 1944;
Jay Taylor, Amarillo, Tex., a cattle rancher,
is president of the American National Cattlemen's Association;
Lester Cranek, Garwood, Tex., a cattle rancher
and rice farmer, is a member of the American Rice Council;
Carle G. Simcox, Assumption, Ill., cash grain
farmer, is a past president of the American Soybean Association and now
serves as a member of its board of directors;
Oscar Heline, Marcus, Iowa, former president
of the Farmers' Grain Dealers Association of Iowa, is a grain and livestock
producer:
Walter Harrison, Millen, Ga., is president
of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He farms 350 acres,
raising corn, hogs, and cattle. A member of the Farm Bureau, he has served
for 22 years in the Georgia legislature;
Leif Ericson, Helena, Mont., a member of the
National Democratic Platform Committee and chairman of its Subcommittee
on Agriculture;
Ersel Walley, Fort Wayne, Ind., is past president
of the American Soybean Association and a past president of the American
Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers;
Hilton L. Bracey, Portageville, Mo., is executive
vice president of the Missouri Cotton Producers Association, a member of
the advisory council of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture,
and a member of the Missouri Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention
Committee. He operates a farm in southeast Missouri;
Joseph Russell, Piper City, Ill., is a general
farmer who has served in the State Senate in the Illinois Legislature for
many years;
Daniel J. Carey, Groton, N.Y., is a dairy
farmer, former commissioner of agriculture for the State of New York, and
now manager of a dairy farmers marketing organization;
Pearle Finnegan, Lincoln, Nebr., is commissioner
of agriculture for the State of Nebraska;
Lionel Steinberg, Thermal, Calif., is a large-scale
fruit grower;
Ken Kendrick, Stratfordville, Tex., is a former
president and now vice president of the National Wheat Growers Association
and a member of the Wheat Advisory Committee of the National Grange;
W. V. Rawlings, Capron, Va., is executive
secretary of the Association of Virginia Peanut and Hog Growers, Inc.,
and operates a peanut, grain, and livestock farm;
Albert C. Hauffe of Leola, S. Dak., operates
a 680-acre livestock and grain farm. He is secretary-treasurer of the National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association and has served as president of the
South Dakota REA since 1947.
Additional appointments will be announced
in the near future.