Grassroots Voter 1960; 4; Agriculture

thumbnail of Grassroots Voter 1960; 4; Agriculture
This record is featured in “Stories of the Land: Diverse Agricultural Histories in the U.S..” This record is featured in “National Educational Television.”
Series
Grassroots Voter 1960
Episode Number
4
Episode
Agriculture
Producing Organization
University of Michigan
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-kd1qf8kg92
NOLA Code
GRVO
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Description
Episode Description
Although the farm population of the United States is less than ten percent of the total population, the farm and agricultural issue is one of the most lively topics in the national political debate. National Educational Television presents a program designed to explore the opinions of famers of two of the major agricultural areas of the USA, Nebraska, heart of the Farm Bill and North Carolina, where more of the population is engaged in agriculture than in any other state. From Nebraska, Ralph Cole, a former agriculture theoretician and officer of the Farm Credit Administration and now a farmer whose chief crops are corn and hogs, Marvin Russell, editor of the Nebraska Farmer and the Colorado Farmer and Rancher, and Elmer Schlaphoff, whose farm consists of 600 acres of which half is irrigated and a large part is devoted to raising cattle, join NET moderator Jack Hart to explore the question. As all three see it, the farm problem is a question of relating the agricultural supply and surplus to the demands of the nation and the rest of the world. It is the disproportion between supply and demand which causes fluctuation of prices, and enforces the need for such programs as land retirement, parity and price support, and the soil bank. To the specific question of price support, the three panelist answer with a description of the potential economic ruin which abandonment of this policy would bring to the farmer. Despite the increased productivity of the farmers, agricultural workers as a whole are becoming less and less influential on the political scene, and the panelists explain why they feel that their position must not be weakened. To conclude this section of the program, the panel discusses other methods to resolve the imbalance of supply and demand of agricultural products -- the exportation to needier countries, the use of agricultural products in industry, and the stockpiling of foodstuffs for future emergencies. From Raleigh, North Carolina, Jim Graham, manager of the Raleigh Farm Market, Mrs. Annette S. Boutwell, housewife, Graham Jones, newspaper man, and John Hunter, manager of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Raleigh, meet with NET correspondent Jim Reid to discuss farm problems such as the position of the small, family farm. Despite the diversity of their backgrounds the panelists agree that the family farm is a vital part of the national scene and must not be allowed to disappear. They also talk of the subsidy program, and Mr. Graham describes his position vividly when he says, "If the subsidy was ... cut out, I think it would be just like taking the red lights off of the streets. Everybody would be running on top of each other and it would be one of the worst depressions we have ever seen." They discuss their estimations of the farm programs of the two parties, their hopes that the successful candidate can do something to keep food prices down for the consumer without bankrupting the farmer, and the hopes that some use can be made of surplus agriculture produce. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Other Description
Grassroots Voter 1960 puts before the American people a series of seven one-hour episodes designed to encourage the voter to clarify his thinking so that he can vote intelligently on the seven most important issues of the campaign. Each episode defines the issue and then switches to groups discussing the problem in two cities particularly concerned with that issue. The moderators and guests are not personalities. The issue under discussion is each episodes hero. Through the unfolding of the relationship between the issue and each of the persons on the panel chosen to represent various viewpoints, the viewer becomes involved. Because there is no political axe being ground painfully before the viewers eyes, because there is no authority analyzing and spooning his interpretation to the viewer, the result is a series in which the viewer is stimulated to agree or disagree with the ideas put before him. Each half-hour segment is joined into a one-hour episode. Each one-hour episode is coordinated with introductory, joining and concluding remarks by the host for NET, TFX Higgins. TFX (Ted) Higgins is a member of the Pittsburgh Foreign Policy Association and the moderator of a Pittsburgh telecast Focus on World Affairs. The series is sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association. The 7 episodes that comprise this series were originally recorded on videotape. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Broadcast Date
1960-00-00
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Talk Show
Topics
Economics
Agriculture
Politics and Government
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:59:58
Embed Code
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Credits
Host: Higgins, TFX
Moderator: Reid, Jim
Moderator: Hart, Jack
Moderator: Graham, Jim
Panelist: Jones, Graham
Panelist: Hunter, John
Panelist: Schlaphoff, Elmer
Panelist: Cole, Ralph
Panelist: Boutwell, Annette S.
Panelist: Russell, Marvin
Producing Organization: University of Michigan
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2079910-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 1 inch videotape: SMPTE Type C
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:59:06
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2079910-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:59:06
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2079910-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: U-matic
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
Duration: 0:59:06
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2079910-5 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2079910-4 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
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Citations
Chicago: “Grassroots Voter 1960; 4; Agriculture,” 1960-00-00, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 18, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-kd1qf8kg92.
MLA: “Grassroots Voter 1960; 4; Agriculture.” 1960-00-00. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 18, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-kd1qf8kg92>.
APA: Grassroots Voter 1960; 4; Agriculture. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-kd1qf8kg92