The day began as a Saturday not unlike many that Elder Ezra Taft Benson had spent as a member of the LDS Church's Council of the Twelve.
Scheduled to preside over the division of a stake in Orem on a November weekend in 1952, the apostle was busy making phone calls and conducting interviews when the phone rang for him.The caller, U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower, asked if Elder Benson could be in Washington the following Monday morning to discuss taking a job as secretary of agriculture. Elder Benson asked church President David O. McKay what he should do and was told to explore the possibilities - that his full-time church responsibilities could wait if the nation's president needed him. He flew to Washington the next day.
So began Ezra Taft Benson's years as one of the most controversial, though respected, members of the Eisenhower Cabinet - a highly powerful political post he later referred to as "the hot seat."
"I had never thought of such a position," he told reporters after returning from his initial meeting with Eisenhower. "I have never sought political appointment nor preferment."
Although he didn't consider himself a politician, Secretary Benson immediately set a nationwide travel schedule to meet with agricultural leaders across the country. He wanted to make sure he knew how they felt and what they wanted before he committed what turned out to be eight years of his life to reversing the agriculture policies of the previous administration.
Before arriving in Washington on Jan. 5, 1953, Secretary-designate Benson had visited farm leaders in Los Angeles, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Atlanta. His years of experience in agriculture - not only on his own farm, but as the former secretary of the largest farm organization in the country - had provided him with many knowledgeable contacts, and he eagerly gathered their opinions.
He was sworn into office on Jan. 21 during a White House ceremony, succeeding Charles F. Brannan to become the nation's 15th agriculture secretary. Secretary Benson, one of the few religious leaders ever to be named to a Cabinet post, told colleagues from the very beginning that changes were in store. But probably few realized just how varied and far-reaching those changes would be.
As Secretary Benson entered office, the country was emerging from the World War II era, when farmers had boosted production to record levels to feed not only the United States, but also many war-torn nations. Even when the war and post-war periods had passed, the government had continued to provide economic incentives to farmers to produce while stockpiles grew to enormous levels.
Fearful that such a philosophy was "weakening initiative, discouraging self-reliance, undermining character and demoralizing the people," Secretary Benson set his agency's tone from the beginning.
A few days after taking office he said, "Emergency programs should be terminated as soon as the emergency is over. . . . Farmers should not be placed in a position of working for government bounty rather than producing for a free market."
In his book, "Cross Fire: The Eight Years with Eisenhower," Secretary Benson later described why the job seemed so overwhelming when he first took office.
"Agriculture is the No. 2 big business in the nation. Only the national defense is bigger. And the Secretary of Agriculture has greater influence over the economic welfare of our farm people (some 25 million in 1953) than any other single person. Besides the several commodities for which the law requires price support, he has power to influence the price of every one of the roughly 250 commodities farmers produce - at his discretion."
Congressional leaders, particularly those from large farm states, were well aware of the power behind the office and saw Secretary Benson's opposition to rigid government price supports as a threat to their constituents. Their initial opposition to his free-market policies, though sharper during election years than at other times, continued throughout his administration.
During his first year in office, he cut the Agriculture Department's budget by 10 percent and placed emphasis on increasing foreign farm imports by asking the U.S. Tariff Commission to play a stronger role in combating such imports.
He also removed compulsory government grading and price controls on meat, a move opposed by cattlemen who were reaping artificially high prices for beef while an abundance of livestock was keeping cattle prices down. As a result, beef prices stabilized quickly and meat consumption rose 50 percent ahead of the previous year's level to an all-time high of 75 pounds per capita nationwide.
It was also during his first year that Secretary Benson visited several drought-stricken areas, including Texas, where he suggested that the governor proclaim a day of fasting and prayers for rain. Less than 24 hours later, San Antonio received two inches of rain - the first such storm in months.
Secretary Benson was the subject of several favorable newspaper articles and radio and television programs during his first year, and he appeared on the covers of Time and U.S. News and World Report. Though his policies were touted in some sectors, his popularity started to wane late that first year as drought, overproduction and sagging prices plagued farmers.
In January 1954, Secretary Benson presented Congress with a program of flexible price supports for basic farm products. Unlike the existing 90 percent-of-parity support program - which paid farmers 90 percent of the value of crops based on a rigid price index - the proposal would let price supports fluctuate depending on market conditions.
Possibly because it was an election year, most congressmen, Republicans and Democrats alike, chose not to support the changes, although President Eisenhower liked the proposal. Many called for Secretary Benson's resignation.
But Secretary Benson stood by his program through heated criticism, and by July, the House had approved the flexible support program by a wide margin. In August, the Senate gave its more reluctant approval.
In 1955, Secretary Benson again cut the budget after going before a Senate appropriations subcommittee to say that the proposed $880 million budget they had allocated him was $27.5 million more than he had asked for.
Farm prices continued to sag, and some farmers were caught in the squeeze between falling farm income and fewer federal subsidies. Some price supports were bolstered to offset the problem, but no long-term, rigid price supports were implemented, and in October 1955, Secretary Benson proposed a six-point plan to help farmers caught in the middle.
As political pressure to reinstitute rigid price supports mounted, Secretary Benson maintained that while his program would cause some short-term discomfort, it would be best in the long run.
During 1956 and 1957, the opposition to Secretary Benson's policies continued to mount, and some months were heavily laden with speculation that he would either resign or be fired, although President Eisenhower continued to support him. In a speech to farmers in Richfield in October 1956, Secretary Benson answered critics.
"No one can minimize the hardships of the cost-price squeeze of many of our farm families, but the truth is that farmers were leaving their farms and moving to cities at a faster rate under the previous administration than ever before or since; that the percentage of farms now being operated by those who own them is at an all-time high; that farm mortgage debts are only currently 11 percent of farm assets as compared to 19 percent in 1940; that farm foreclosures are near an all-time low and seven out of 10 farm families have no mortgage debt."
Despite the statistics, reports of bankruptcy and the disappearance of the small farmer continued to circulate. The reports peaked when Edward R. Murrow did an hourlong program on CBS that depicted the sale of a farm and farm machinery in Iowa as the typical plight of the American farmer. Calling the broadcast a distortion of reality, Secretary Benson requested, and was given, air time on CBS to present a rebuttal.
Opposition continued, stronger during some months than others, although reports of increasing farm income in some sectors shored up Secretary Benson's policies and gained him the respect, if not the support, of many who had been critics. His composure during heavy grilling not only by critics, but also by congressional leaders during subcommittee sessions, won the admiration of many who didn't agree with his philosophy.
One well-publicized incident illustrated his composure. In October 1957, five angry farmers pelted Secretary Benson with eggs as he spoke to farmers in Sioux Falls, S.D. He ignored the incident and went on with his speech. When asked how he felt about his speech a few days later, he said he had "no hard feelings for anyone in South Dakota," but felt bad about the incident "because of the local people who were embarrassed. I think there is more support for our program in South Dakota, both among farmers and political leaders, than ever before."
Still, criticism continued, and in late 1957, Secretary Benson told reporters he had tried to resign his Cabinet post several times but was persuaded by President Eisenhower to stay. He said the job "is a hot seat, and I can't imagine any person in his right mind wanting the job," but pressure from Capitol Hill "doesn't bother me too much."
The new year again brought rumors of Secretary Benson's resignation in January and February as several Republican congressmen labeled him a political liability in the upcoming congressional election.
But a Wall Street Journal report in May that farm prices were 10 percent higher than they had been a year earlier, while farm costs rose only 3 percent during the period, gave important political credibility to Secretary Benson's beliefs that long-term benefits would result from some short-term discomfort.
Figures showing that farmers were garnering the highest-ever income per capita also boosted his popularity, and by midsummer, reporters were asking if Secretary Benson would consider a Republican presidential or vice presidential nomination - prospects that he squelched repeatedly.
Most of 1959 went smoothly, compared with earlier years, but by December, farm income had declined 15 percent from the previous year's record, leading to renewed calls in Washington for Secretary Benson's resignation. In response, he issued a press statement from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he was recovering from abdominal surgery.
In January 1960, he submitted a five-part farm program to Congress designed to build on his previous policies. It included an expanded soil bank program, which paid farmers for taking their land out of production rather than producing surplus crops; research to find new uses for farm products; a "Food for Peace" program to sell surplus farm products to foreign countries; an expanded program to help low-income farmers attain a higher standard of living; and a plug for price supports based on average market prices for the previous three years rather than on the old parity formula.
Congress made hay of most of the policy as election-year rhetoric grew more heated. Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon both took pains to distance themselves from Secretary Benson's philosophies for fear of alienating possible votes in the farm states.
At the change of national administration and the conclusion of his eight years in Washington, President Benson returned to Salt Lake City and his duties as a member of the Council of the Twelve in January 1961.
In looking back on his years with the Eisenhower administration, he wrote soon afterward: "Having been through Washington's cross fire, I realize that a Cabinet member does not operate in a vacuum, but . . . a secretary, at times, must compromise. The test is to be found in what he is not willing to compromise - no matter how great the pressure.
"Because I believe that this nation cannot go on compromising a little bit of freedom here and a little bit there without eventually losing all, I am convinced that the onslaught against the freedom of individuals to plant, to market, to compete and to make their own decisions must be stemmed." "It was stemmed - and reversed - for eight years; but now the onslaught has begun again . . . I am deeply persuaded that our precious, God-given freedom is dying and because, to paraphrase another, too many good men do nothing to preserve it."