Soil Bank Fiasco

When House-Senate conferees voted to extend the life of the Agriculture Department's soil bank for another year (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), many Congressmen did so reluctantly. Last week Arizona's Democratic Congressman Stewart L. Udall turned up a case that went a long way toward explaining their reluctance. The case: Arizona Cotton Farmer Jack A. Harris, who put his entire 1,600-acre Pima County cotton farm in the soil bank in return for a $209,701 Government payment, then turned around and plowed up a new farm to grow three times as much cotton. Cried Congressman Udall: "Here is boondoggling on a grand scale. Indeed, the word boondoggling is utterly inadequate to describe this program. We should coin a new term, boonswoggling."

How Silly. In singling out Harris, Udall picked on a farmer-businessman who is actually on his side. Last year Harris was credited with being a force behind an Arizona Cotton Growers Association resolution calling for an end to the soil bank and to Government farm price supports and controls. This spring Harris watched in strong disapproval as county soil bank authorities offered farmers $145 an acre not to plant cotton. Then, Harris put his whole Pima County farm in the bank. Explaining his apparent flipflop, Farmer Harris says: "I wanted to show how silly, and how unnecessary, this whole thing is." He also saw a chance to turn a huge profit.

Leasing 4,500 acres of farm land in Arizona's Maricopa County, Harris trekked his work crews, tractors, and cotton gin 125 dusty miles to the farm and planted it to cotton. This fall, when he harvests his crop, he will have to pay a penalty of 18 1/2-c- per Ib. for growing cotton without an allotment. But even if the penalty amounts to $800,000 as it may, Farmer Harris will feel no pain. A fair-to-middling crop will likely yield him $1,200,000, plus his soil bank payments, or a profit of $600,000. Harris also has a 2,000-acre cotton patch near Fresno and a 1,000-acre field near Phoenix, both eligible for full price supports.

Taxpayers' Loss. Washington officials admitted last week that cotton-picking Jack Harris was not alone in picking the soil bank clean. So many other big-acreage cotton farmers are growing penalty cotton that the Agriculture Department long ago gave up any attempt to count them. Rather than cutting cotton surpluses through the soil bank, Harris had made the cotton surplus considerably worse. The 9,000 to 13,500 bales of cotton that he will grow on his new farm will take away the market for an equivalent amount of other cotton grown in compliance with the rules. This other cotton will end up in Government warehouses, causing the taxpayers a further loss of up to $960,000.

Last week, enjoying his demonstration, Harris said he looks forward to early attainment of his real goal: "Freedom to grow cotton for the world market with no supports or controls."

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