Editorials

Farm bill is
historic change in policy

FOR 60 years the nation's farmers have operated under a system of quotas and subsidies designed to cope with the Great Depression. Conditions have changed dramatically since then, and it's time that federal farm policy did, too. Congress has now acted, approving the most sweeping reforms of farm programs since the 1930s. President Clinton has said he would sign the measure. He should.

Under the bill, instead of trying to limit farm output, as it has since the Roosevelt era, the federal farm program would free farmers to grow what and how much they want. Most farm subsidies would be phased out over the next seven years. This would mean a return to reliance on the market.

"From now on the federal government will stop trying to vil,16p5,9p control how much food, feed and fiber our nation produces," said Richard Lugar of Indiana, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who owns a farm himself. "Instead, we will trust the market for the first time in a long while to direct those signals."

The wide margins by which the measure passed both houses - 318-89 in the House, 74-26 in the Senate, are evidence of how drastically thinking about agriculture policy has changed in the Capitol. This is one of the major accomplishments for the Republicans since they won control of Congress in 1994. The fact that federal supports would continue after crop controls were removed no doubt served as a sweetener for farm interests, but it is a price worth paying. The farm program over the decades has become riddled with abuses and contradictions. Reform was long overdue.

Hawaii's big concern was that Congress would abolish supports for the sugar industry, which would have been fatal for the remaining Hawaii growers. In the end, sugar was spared, but the supports will be reduced. It is probably only a matter of time before the entire support program is ended.

In the meantime, Hawaii's sugar industry continues to shrink, even with supports in place. Kau Sugar is the latest operation to shut down, ending sugar production on the Big Island. The best Hawaii can hope for is a gradual phaseout of the remaining plantations.

Other editorials, in brief:

Condos and cars

IT'S difficult to understand how the city can prohibit car washing by condominium dwellers while exempting such activity by people in single-family homes. Granted, discharge of soapy water into storm drains is polluting, but there's no difference between condo dwellers and other people in this respect. The city should call off the car wash police and enforce the law against littering and dumping refuse into streams.

Social Security

THE nation's leaders are playing Santa Claus to the elderly again. Congress has passed and President Clinton has signed a bill that will more than double the earnings limit on Social Security recipients. It is no coincidence that retired people are a powerful voting bloc and this is an election year. Naturally they like to be able to draw Social Security and keep on working, too, but that is not the way the system was supposed to operate. Besides, it's going broke.

Warning of war

Vice Marshal Kim Kwang-jin, vice minister of the North Korean armed forces, charges that South Korea is on the verge of launching an invasion of the North. Kim cites signs of military movement south of the demilitarized zone as evidence. This is crazy, but so apparently is the new ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong-il. That's a real reason for concern, not South Korea, where the generals are disgraced.

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Rupert E. Phillips,CEO

John M. Flanagan,Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro,Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang,Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner,Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser,Contributing Editor