Agriculture: How to Shoot Santa Claus

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Chicago—and the thick of battle.

Riling the Folks. Shuman likes to characterize his administration as "plodding, hardworking, do-what-you-have-to -do -to -meet -the - problems-as -they-come." Said he: "Kline inspired people more than I can. He had the ability to excite people." Some Shuman watchers would testify that Charlie can get people excited—and riled—pretty easily himself. Last year, in Philadelphia, Shuman got plenty of mileage out of comparing the Government support programs to narcotics.

"I think Government payments have something in common with the narcotics habit," he said. "Once on the habit, the victim becomes convinced he cannot live without the drug. In the jargon of the underworld, he's hooked. He'll do most anything to get his next fix, his next check. The pushers, in this case the Government bureaucrats and committees, constantly work to get more farmers hooked. The more that are hooked, the more the payments are, and the more assurance of their jobs and the perpetuation of the machine in power. Well, that's the way of socialism." The delegates roared their approval.

At a Farm Bureau meeting some years ago, he thundered that the federal farm program "denies the unmistakable pattern of God's law." On hearing about Shuman's remark, National Farmers Union President Patton retorted: "This is Shuman's arrogant attempt to make God a member of Farm Bureau." Given the chance, Shuman might try. The Farm Bureau is a way of life to him, and his commitment is wholehearted. Says he: "It's going to take complete and total sacrifice in the Farm Bureau if we're going to accomplish our objectives."

With the diverse interests of the organization's members—from Maine potato growers to Florida citrus farmers, California orchardists to Wisconsin dairymen, and hog, peanut, cotton, livestock, wheat, rice and corn growers scattered in between—it is a wonder that Shuman is able to make a coherent presentation on anything. Yet surveys by farm magazines show that a majority of the Farm Bureau's members approve of the organization's policies as articulated by Shuman.

Parsimonious Tipper. Shuman's job entails traveling some 75,000 miles a year. In the first half of 1965, he has been in the Chicago office only 58 days, made a total of 61 speeches in 22 states. In Chicago, Shuman stays at the Sherman Hotel, where he gets a special rate and a different room each week. After 20 years, Shuman and the Sherman's bellboys have become special friends, though Shuman is a notoriously parsimonious tipper. "I don't throw it around," he says.

For all his rusticity, Shuman is no rube. He is as well-known in the halls of Congress as he is on the courthouse square in Sullivan. Recently, when Shuman showed up on Capitol Hill to testify before the Senate Agriculture Committee on the 1965 farm bill, it was like old home week. "Hello, Charlie," called Committee Chairman Allen Ellender as Shuman walked in. "How are you, Charlie?" inquired Vermont Republican George Aiken. Shuman has a reputation for having facts at his fingertips and needing no assistance when he has something to say. When Louisiana's Ellender offered to let several Farm Bureau aides join Shuman at the committee's table, Shuman