Statement by Senator John F. Kennedy on National Farmers For Kennedy-Johnson, Washington, DC

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.