Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Mary LaskerMary Lasker
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

informational and educational materials in those countries, when specified by administrative direction.

Q:

This actually drew together various ideas that had been expressed from time to time.

Lasker:

Yes. It also provided for the purchase of surplus foods by foreign nations and with a repayment possibility for periods up to 20 years.

The bill had a two-year extension and has been extended.

As a result of our interest in Food for Peace, when a committee was appointed by the Democratic National Committee as a sort of a task force for outlining what should be done about agriculture for the Democratic platform, Bill Benton, Murray Lincoln and I were on this committee, along with Senator Humphrey and several other people. Bo Jones wrote the recommendations of the committee, but they received no particular attention.

When the election was won by Kennedy, he realized that he had appointed task forces in other areas but that he had no agricultural task force, so this report was suddenly used as the Kennedy task force report on what should be done in the field of agriculture and was, I think, published as such, or at least it was released to the press as such.

When Orville Freeman was appointed the Secretary of Agriculture, he conferred with Bo Jones and David Lloyd, and it was decided that the best thing to do was to make a Food-for Peace administration with offices in the White House, in order to





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help