Well，I，for one，resent it when a representative of the people refers to you and me，the free men and women of this country，as“the masses”.This is a term we haven’t applied to ourselves in America.But beyond that，“the full power of centralized government”-this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize.They knew that governments don‘t control things.A government can’t control the economy without controlling people.And they know when a government sets out to do that，it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose.They also knew，those Founding Fathers，that outside of its legitimate functions，government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.
Now，we have no better example of this than government‘s involvement in the farm economy over the last 30years.Since 1955，the cost of this program has nearly doubled.One-fourth of farming in America is responsible for 85%of the farm surplus.Three-fourths of farming is out on the free market and has known a 21%increase in the per capita consumption of all its produce.You see，that one-fourth of farming-that’s regulated and controlled by the federal government.In the last three years we‘ve spent 43dollars in the feed grain program for every dollar bushel of corn we don’t grow.
Senator Humphrey last week charged that Barry Goldwater，as President，would seek to eliminate farmers.He should do his homework a little better，because he‘ll find out that we’ve had a decline of 5million in the farm population under these government programs.He‘ll also find that the Democratic administration has sought to get from Congress[an]extension of the farm program to include that three-fourths that is now free.He’ll find that they‘ve also asked for the right to imprison farmers who wouldn’t keep books as prescribed by the federal government.The Secretary of Agriculture asked for the right to seize farms through condemnation and resell them to other individuals.And contained in that same program was a provision that would have allowed the federal government to remove 2million farmers from the soil.
At the same time，there‘s been an increase in the Department of Agriculture employees.There’s one for every 30farms in the United States，and still they can‘t tell us how 66shiploads of grain headed for Austria disappeared without a trace and Billie Sol Estes never left shore.
Every responsible farmer and farm organization has repeatedly asked the government to free the farm economy，but how-who are farmers to know what’s best for them？The wheat farmers voted against a wheat program.The government passed it anyway.Now the price of bread goes up；the price of wheat to the farmer goes down.
Meanwhile，back in the city，under urban renewal the assault on freedom carries on.Private property rights[are]so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few government planners decide it should be.In a program that takes from the needy and gives to the greedy，we see such spectacles as in Cleveland，Ohio，a million-and-a-half-dollar building completed only three years ago must be destroyed to make way for what government officials call a“more compatible use of the land”.The President tells us he‘s now going to start building public housing units in the thousands，where heretofore we’ve only built them in the hundreds.But FHA[Federal Housing Authority]and the Veterans Administration tell us they have 120，000housing units they‘ve taken back through mortgage foreclosure.For three decades，we’ve sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning，and the more the plans fail，the more the planners plan.The latest is the Area Redevelopment Agency.They‘ve just declared Rice County，Kansas，a depressed area.Rice County，Kansas，has two hundred oil wells，and the 14，000people there have over 30million dollars on deposit in personal savings in their banks.And when the government tells you you’re depressed，lie down and be depressed.
We have so many people who can‘t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.So they’re going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning.Well，now，if government planning and welfare had the answer-and they‘ve had almost 30years of it-shouldn’t we expect government to read the score to us once in a while？Shouldn‘t they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help？The reduction in the need for public housing？
But the reverse is true.Each year the need grows greater；the program grows greater.We were told four years ago that 17million people went to bed hungry each night.Well that was probably true.They were all on a diet.But now we’re told that 9.3million families in this country are poverty-stricken on the basis of earning less than 3，000dollars a year.Welfare spending[is]10times greater than in the dark depths of the Depression.We‘re spending 45billion dollars on welfare.Now do a little arithmetic，and you’ll find that if we divided the 45billion dollars up equally among those 9million poor families，we‘d be able to give each family 4，600dollars a year.And this added to their present income should eliminate poverty.Direct aid to the poor，however，is running only about 600dollars per family.It would seem that someplace there must be some overhead.