Statement by the Vice President of the United States on Henry Wallace and the Kennedy Farm Policy, Quad City Airport, Moline, IL

Mr. Kennedy has frequently invoked the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt in this campaign. But not when it comes to farm policy.

Mr. Roosevelt's first Secretary of Agriculture, Henry A. Wallace, and certainly no political ally of mine, early this week told Allan Keller of the Scripps-Howard papers that the Kennedy farm program "boils down to a rehash of proposals put forward by the leftwing of the Farmers Union in 1933."

"These proposals," said Mr. Wallace, "were so fantastic and impossible of attainment without tight licensing and controls that Franklin D. Roosevelt was furious at the men backing them."

Mr. Wallace went on to say that he fears Mr. Kennedy's proposals would do little to help the farmer but would add greatly to the cost of all food items.

In an interview in the New York Times this week, Mr. Wallace continues his comment on the Kennedy farm plan and says it would raise the prices of food. If Mr. Kennedy will not accept the report of the career farm and food experts of the Department of Agriculture setting forth the sharp rise in food costs that his plan will lead to, maybe he will accept the testimony of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture.