Well, I see by the papers that the thing which most of us feared has happened. After making a colossal mess of meat rationing, price ceilings on beef and beef quotas the O.P.A. has finally become bold, or impudent, enough to fix the price of beef on the hoof.
What I would like to know is just how much longer are we as ranchers and citizens of this so-called “democracy” going to sit passively by and allow ourselves to be pushed around and slowly but surely fettered by the octopus-like arms of incipient dictatorship under the guise of “war necessity”?
I am firmly convinced that we cannot afford to repose any longer upon our posterior extremities unless we wish to have our lives and activities planned and regulated down to the most minute
detail.
I am aware of the fact that you in your paper have frequently and courageously attacked the disastrous policies of the administration. I am also aware of the fact that men generally conceded to be “big shots” in the cattle and meat industry have made determined but futile pilgrimages to Washington in the vain hope of obtaining at least a hearing. But individuals, even “big shots,” are often passed off and strangled in yards of red tape, and your articles, true and accurate though they may be, are read principally by rural people who are already familiar with the situation from first-hand experience. At any rate, I am positive that they are not so much as scanned by the administrative bureaus. If they were, it would be impossible for official Washington to be so grossly ignorant of the true state of affairs.
I frequently discuss the livestock situation with other ranchers and they invariably terminate the discussion with a hopeless shrug of the shoulders and the statement, “But what can I do about it?” I have an answer for that one. Write letters. Write hundreds of them. Write thousands of them if necessary. When I mention this I am asked, “But who shall I write to?” I would like to know the specific answer to this one myself. Having settled this to the best of my ability, I am next asked, “What shall I say?” My answer to that one is to say what you think is wrong, and what you think should be done about it, and say it often. I think that too much regulating is being done by too many people who know too little about what they are doing with the result that the very ends which we are supposedly seeking are being pushed farther and farther from actual realization. I think that the remedy is to abolish all price ceilings on meat and livestock and to do away with meat rationing and slaughter quotas and let the law of supply and demand take over, with the understanding, of course, that military demands come first.
Maybe I’m right and maybe I’m wrong in what I think, but that is of no importance. The IMPORTANT thing is what the majority of us who are in the cattle business think, and that these thoughts get to the right people instead of just floating ineffectively around in the atmosphere. These thoughts must not only get there, but they must get there in quantity, immediately, and frequently.
If all of us would just get down to writing, who knows but Congress might learn something. They might even DO SOMETHING. Even the administration might learn something. Even the O.P.A.!
All of this is just to get down to why I am writing to you. I am writing to you because you are in a position to reach into the homes of agricultural America. For some reason rural people in general seem to have an ingrained aversion to writing letters. Maybe they are of the erroneous opinion that their thoughts aren’t important. Maybe some are afraid that they can’t polish off their letters in just the right style. That isn’t important. Whether all the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted is of very little significance. The only important thing is the idea. Whatever the reason, you have the means at your disposal to persuade us all to write.
In short, I am suggesting, rather pleading, that you will conduct a sort of “write your congressman” drive, not just in one issue, but in every issue. Remind us to write frequently. Tell us where to write, and I mean specifically—names and addresses for each district. As to what to write, that is for every man to decide for himself, but if you continue to keep us informed with the unbiased facts as you have in the past, I think there will be but little doubt in anyone’s mind about this last.
I don’t know if you agree with me in all this, but if you do—well, what are we waiting for? — TED H. MUSCIO, Casmalia, Calif.
