Cliff Hardin has contributed much to a new unity that Nebraska is achieving, a unity that is drawing our rural and urban communities closer and closer together.

Clifford Hardin's early life on the farm, coupled with his academic work in agricultural economics and his career as an administrator, has kept him in close touch with agriculture. In our home State, Cliff Hardin has been close to the soil. He has worked with farm people; he has visited farms and ranches; and many of his close friends at home are farm or ranch operators-large and small.

On the national scene, he has been effective as an agricultural leader. He served, as you know, as president of the American Association of Land-Grant Colleges and State Universities.

His membership on the board of the National Science Foundation. attests to his national stature. His work with the Federal Reserve system provides him with a background in finance.

He has kept in constant touch with broad agricultural problems and he has developed a strong interest in agricultural problems. He was instrumental in having our own State university establish a brandnew land-grant type university in eastern Turkey, near the Russian border, from the ground up. Through his efforts, the University of Nebraska is now engaged in a mammoth project in Colombia, South America, in upgrading the agriculture of that Latin American country.

Cliff Hardin has an intense interest in world food problems. He is the editor of a book on world hunger which has just been published. Cliff Hardin is ideally suited to be Secretary of Agriculture. His broad background of experience as an administrator and student of the economies of agriculture should be of immense benefit to the country. Furthermore, he comes to the Department of Agriculture without any ties to any specific form or agricultural group. He will, in my opinion, be able to plan the operations of the Department from a completely objective viewpoint for the benefit of American agriculture and the Nation.

He is not a hand-wringer nor a doom-sayer. Often he has spoken of his faith in American agriculture and of his pride in its tremendous accomplishments. I have never heard him speak of the farmer as one apart from the mainstream of American life or as a member of a vanishing race.

In Nebraska where our agricultural roots run strong and deep, we are proud of Cliff Hardin. We respect his knowledge. We recognize his great talent for leadership. We know him as a man who gets things done.

And so now, Mr. Chairman, it is my privilege, a privilege that no other Nebraskan has had since 1891, I believe it was, when another candidate for the Secretary of Agriculture was presented to this committee, or its predecessor, I don't think most of you were here at this time [Laughter].

The CHAIRMAN. I was. [Laughter.]

Senator HRUSKA. When Sterling Morton was presented to the Senate to be Secretary of Agriculture. Since that time, we have had a void. in this field and I am glad to get that momentum broken again and present to you with great pride Dr. Hardin, the Secretary-designate for the Secretary of Agriculture.

The CHAIRMAN. I wish to say I was a year old. [Laughter.] At this point I wish to place in the record, if there is no objection, the biographical sketch of Dr. Clifford M. Hardin.

(The biographical sketch referred to follows:)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, CLIFFORD M. HARDIN, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF

NEBRASKA

Clifford M. Hardin, 53, chancellor of the University of Nebraska since 1954, has been designated by President-Elect Richard Nixon as secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Hardin has been chancellor since 1954, the 12th man to hold the office since the funding of the University in 1869.

He came to the University of Nebraska from Michigan State University, where he was dean of the School of Agriculture and for four years served as director of the Agricultural Experiment Station and its research programs.

Under Hardin's leadership the University of Nebraska has experienced its greatest growth. Thirty-thousand students enrolled in 1968, nearly four times the 1954 enrollment.

The University of Omaha became a part of the University of Nebraska in 1968 and has an enrollment of nearly 11,000 students.

In addition to significant expansion of the University's physical plants, Hardin's administration has established a continuing education program and educational television.

A cooperative aid program to higher education in Turkey led to the establishment of a new Ataturk University. Hardin's administration also has provided technical assistance for agriculture in Colombia and a Latin American and International Studies Program has been inaugurated.

Hardin was president of the Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges in 1960 and in 1961 was chairman of the association's executive committee.

He is a member of the National Science Board, a former director of the American Council on Education and a past chairman of the Omaha branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Hardin is a member of the executive committee of the Council on Higher Education in the American Republics, a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, a trustee of Bankers Life Insurance Co. of Nebraska, former chairman of the Nebraska Council on Economic Education and a director of Behlen Manufacturing Co. of Columbus, Neb.

He was born Oct. 9, 1915, in Knightstown, Ind., the son of James A. and Mabel Macy Hardin.

Hardin was graduated from Purdue University in 1937, financing part of his education with a 4-H Club scholarship. He received a master's degree from Purdue in 1939 and a Ph. D in 1941.

Hardin taught agricultural economics at the University of Wisconsin 1941-44. He was chairman of the agricultural economics department at Michigan State University before becoming dean.

He is a member of Sigma Xi, national honorary science scholastic society and was awarded honorary degrees by National University of Colombia, Purdue and Creighton University.

Hardin is married to the former Martha Love Wood. The couple have five children.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Curtis.

Senator CURTIS. Mr. Chairman, I will be very brief.

My distinguished colleague covered the ground well, and I shall not repeat it.

Senator Hruska has made a statement concerning the Honorable Clifford M. Hardin, who has been chosen by President-elect Nixon to serve as Secretary of Agriculture. I endorse all the fine things that Senator Hruska has said.

It is my belief that Dr. Hardin will be a good Secretary of Agriculture. He is eminently qualified. It was because of Dr. Hardin's high

standing as a professor of agricultural economics that he was later made dean of one of the Nation's great colleges of agriculture. It was because of his brilliant achievements as an agricultural college dean that he was chosen to be chancellor of the University of Nebraska.

I believe that Dr. Hardin will serve the farmers and all of rural America in an excellent manner. It need not be argued that the economic plight of rural America must have attention. I believe Dr. Hardin will bring the basic understanding and the leadership to the Department of Agriculture that will cause it to truly serve the people who produce our country's food and all of rural America.

It is my belief that Dr. Hardin will avail himself of the suggestions of Congressmen and Senators who have spent years wrestling with farm problems. It is my belief that he will likewise gather the most usable ideas from farmers and farm families, from our farm organizations, and other rural leaders.

I enthusiastically recommend his confirmation.
The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Curtis.

Now, Dr. Hardin, I presume that you are familiar with the last acts of Congress, particularly the law of 1965 which is now on the statute books and which we extended for 1 year. Would you care to comment on that act or anything else you may desire to talk about?

STATEMENT OF DR. CLIFFORD M. HARDIN, SECRETARY OF

AGRICULTURE-DESIGNATE

Dr. HARDIN. Could I just say by way of introduction, Mr. Chairman, that in speaking to this, I want to recognize that there are several on this committee, including you, sir, who obviously know the Department much better than I, and I hope this is a situation that will not always prevail. It does today. It has been only a few weeks that I have realized that I might be sitting in this chair and be expected to comment on some of these things.

There are a number of things that I have not yet had an opportunity to look into and I hope you will recognize this.

May I add further that I am concerned, as I have been for many years, with the general economic situation in which the farmer and our argicultural economy finds itself. I think most of these problems in some manner or other, directly or indirectly, come out of this situation we might call the blessings of abundance, blessings certainly for America and some of our friends throughout the world, but they create very significant problems for the agricultural producer.

And, within that framework, sir, I am personally pleased that we do have a year to look at the 1965 act and with the staff of the Department, with farm leaders, and with you men in the Senate and your colleagues in the House to see if there are refinements that can be made or changes made that will make the farm program more effective.

The CHAIRMAN. I presume that you believe in price supports. Dr. HARDIN. I believe in price supports, if that is needed to improve the lot of the farmer and the agricultural economy.

The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions?

Senator AIKEN. Or even maintain it.
Dr. HARDIN. Beg your pardon?

23-860-69- -2

Senator YOUNG. From the few public statements you have made, I understand you do believe there is a problem of surplus farm production and a price problem for farmers.

Dr. HARDIN. I believe very strongly that we have to have a program to regulate production, and I think we have the capacity, the potential on our American farms to greatly increase our output of food and fiber in the immediate years ahead if there was the opportunity in terms of markets, either at home or abroad and because we have this situation, because we have so many producers, who make individual decisions, there apparently has to be some kind of regulation on production if we are to permit the market to act at all as a guide to production.

Senator YOUNG. Many people have all kinds of answers to this problem and I have some myself, but I am not going to burden you with them now. I think you should have some time to study the problems and to develop your own policy. I believe you will be the kind of a person that will be speaking for farmers rather than preaching and lecturing to them.

Dr. HARDIN. May I say, sir, that I was delighted when the Presidentelect stated several times that he expected me to speak to him, to the Government for and on behalf of farmers in rural America rather than the reverse of this.

Senator YOUNG. You will be an able spokesman.
That is all.

Senator TALMADGE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Dr. Hardin, I don't know whether to congratulate you or sympathize with you. We have more agricultural problems than we have solutions around here at the moment.

I do desire to congratulate you on your selection of Phil Campbell, Georgia's very able and distinguished commissioner of agriculture, as your Under Secretary. I think he knows more about the agricultural problems particularly of the Southeast than perhaps any man in our

area.

I am also happy to hear you say that you believe in price supports and that you are in favor of trying to control production. I think the two go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other.

Unfortunately, our farmers still don't share in the prosperity that our country has enjoyed. We hear a good deal of complaint and talk about high prices and my wife complains about them, too. But food in the United States is still the greatest bargain of anywhere in the world. It only takes about 20 percent of the average factory worker's take-home pay for food in this country. It is almost twice that in the next nation, Great Britain, and in most of the rest of the world it takes anywhere from 50 to 100 percent of their earnings to pay the cost of food.

Do you have in mind any drastic changes in present agricultural programs and, if so, what are they?

Dr. HARDIN. No, I have no proposals certainly now, for any drastic changes, and maybe not later. If I had any thoughts on this, and it would be very, very tentative, I wish there were some way that as we

take crop acreage out of production that it could be taken out permanently, but I don't know whether it is possible or not and we will not know until we get further into it and study the costs. But it would be a pleasant thing to be able to look on down the road and say, well, yes, for the next two decades we are going to have to keep 50, 60 million acres of land out of production.

It would be good if you could say, also, 10 years from now that we have done this, and we don't have to worry about it any more, but we don't know whether this is possible. Perhaps you have struggled with this in the committee before, but that would be the only thought I

would have.

Senator TALMADGE. I see the problem because in some instances we have retired land more than once and find ourselves in a position to have to retire it again. That problem hasn't arisen so much in the Southeast as it has in other sections of the country, because our land retirement in the Southeast largely goes into trees, and at the expiration of the retirement period, say 10 years, they are usually too valuable to plow up and I think that must be considered.

There is one other thing I would like to caution you about in the land retirement program. In many areas, a high percentage of the land has gone into retirement, consequently, the econmy of the community goes into a recession.

Dr. HARDIN. Right.

Senator TALMADGE. It kills the little towns in the area and stagnates the communities. I think, we will have to approach that with caution, and limit the percentage of land in any given area that can be retired because otherwise when you retire land you destroy the economic viability of that particular area.

I have read your biography here and I have had the pleasure of visiting with you. I think your background qualifies you eminently for the position for which you have been nominated and it is my intention to support your confirmation.

Dr. HARDIN. Thank you, sir.
Senator MILLER. Mr. Chairman?
The CHAIRMAN. Senator Miller.

Senator MILLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Dr. Hardin, I want to add my congratulations to you for the confidence President-elect Nixon expressed in making you Secretary of Agriculture-designate. Being a neighbor of yours, I am pleased to tell you the response of many Iowans has been very favorable to your selection.

I also want to commend you on undertaking a most difficult job of national public service and leaving what I am sure was a most pleasant job of State public service in Lincoln, Nebr., to come here to Washington to undertake to do what you can to help in the problems of our national agriculture.

There is only one point I would like to bring out, and that is that I am sure you are eminently familiar with the cost-price squeeze, and the great impact on the cost side of this equation that inflation has had to our Nation's farmers.

I would assume that, and I hope you will confirm this, that because of this serious impact on our Nation's farmers, that you would have an anti-inflationary policy, and that in the deliberations by the President