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1 Congressional Record: Extension of Remarks, March 14, 1974 E 1387 (1974)

handle is hein.death/corc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: March 14, 1974 CATTLEMEN LOSING MONEY men would have been better off if we had never tried to control the price; if we HON. JAMES M. COLLINS would have let them continue all last summer to place the cattle in the market OF TEXAS .in an orderly manner, we would have 1N THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES been able to maintain a more orderly Wednesday, March 13, 1974 price ratio in the market. I am hoping mr. COLLINS of Texas. Mr. Speaker, that the law of supply and demand will r aencourage greater agricultural produc- a year ago the newspapers and television tion, so that the price of feeds will drop wvere crowded with the news that the back to a lower, more balanced ratio. cost of meat was pretty high. Ladies were striking at the grocery stores. Everyone Price control will never work. The was complaining about it. cause of inflation in this country is the Now the shoe is on the other foot and fact that we have excessive Government the cattlemen are losing Mfoney raising spending in Washington. The first term beef. I was not aware of this situation that Lyndon Johnson was President, his as I do not have a cattle rancher in my budget was $100 billion. Ten years later, district and it is not publicized in the this Congress is discussing a $304 billion news. budget. As long as Congress continues to Last week I was talking to a rancher overspend and to go in for excessive Gov- and he told me about the poor financial ernment spending, we are leading this condition that they are now in. Yester- country into excessive inflation. We must day, buried over in the middle of the balance the budget and we must reduce third section of the newspaper, I saw an- excess.ivp1- ral spending. other story that got more specific about it. In August of 1973, live cattle soared THIS LIFE WE TAKE record levels, with choice steer reachin. THI. LFE.E. AK a peak of $58 per hundred pounds. Thi.. same type of beef steer sold this week for, HON. VANCE HARTKE $41 to $42 per hundred pounds. This is0 . OF INDIANA a good drop in price, but where the cattle N THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES feeders are getting caught in the middle Wednesday, March 13, 1974 is the fact that the price of corn has gone skyrocketing. Corn is now moving at $3 Mr. HARTKE. Mr. President, the a bushel, and this means that feeding Friends Committee on Legislation pub- cattle represents a tremendous loss. I lished an article entitled This Life We read of an example where a man and Take by Trevor Thomas which is a case wife, with no hired labor, ran a 274-acre against the death penalty. While the farm. They are raising 300 cattle per Senate debates the question whether to year. Under today's present cost of feed- reimpose the death penalty in the United ing cattle, they are losing $114 a head. States in certain circumstances, we must This means they are losing over $34,000 be ever cognizant of the right to life. this year, and for a small operator, that The interest in which this distin- would take him completely out of the guished body must consider whether to market, take the life of another voluntarily must When we are quick to criticize a cattle be with an eye on the direction of civil- rancher, we do not always stop to realize ization. Let us all lend our support to the that he is also caught in the middle of direction which will lead men from vio- inflation. If lie is feeding cattle to round lence. them out, he must be buying a lot of corn. I ask unanimous consent to have the When he is paying $3 a bushel for corn, article by Mr. Thomas printed in the it is going to cost him more per pound. Extensions of Remarks. With the natural law of economics gov- There being no objection, the article erning supply and demand, the excess was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, cattle that are now available have forced as follows: the market price down. THIS LIFE WE TAKE-A CASE AGAINST THE As this cycle gradually eases out we DEATH PENALTY will see higher beef prices, because the (By Trevor Thomas) inevitable inflationary influences will (Published by the Friends Committee on take place. An interesting phase of this Leiso development is the fact that we tried to Legislation) control the prices of beef. Control did not work for oil, gas, or Ernest Gowers, Chairman of the British work, as it will not wg Roya Commission on Capital Punishment: for any other conlmodity. The other Before serving on the Royal Commission, interesting feature is that, although cat- I. like most other people, had given no great tlemen were severely criticized only 7 thought to this problem. If I had been asked months ago as being big profiteers. they for my opinion, I should probably have said are now, in this very short time, losing that I was in favor of the death penalty, more than they made last year. I have and disposed to regard abolitionists as peo- not heard any newslnan come forward ple whose hearts were bigger than their heads. Four years of close study of the sub- and express sorrow or regret at tile ject gradually dispelled that feeling. In the tremendous losses that the cattlemen are end I became convinced that the abolition- now taking. ists were right in their conclusions though I It is another example of the fact that could not agree with all their arguments price controls will not work. The cattle- The only moral ground on which the State could conceivably possess the right to destroy human life would be if this were in- dispensable for the protection or preserva- tion of other lives. This places the burden of proof on those who believe that capital pnuhhment exercises a deterrent effect on the potential criminal. Unless they can es- tablish that the death penalty does, in fact, protect other lives at the expense of one, there is no moral justification for the Stat.e to 'take life'. Rev. Dana McLean Grefley, Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, Rt. Rev. Monsignor Thomas J. Riley. Members of the subcommittee of the Massachusetts Commission to Investigate the Advisability of Abolishing Capital Pun- ishment. The man sits in a cage of steel and con- crete under a single bright light that burns around the clock. lie has been tried by a jury of his peers, judged and sentenced to die. He has killed and now society, through the anonymous machinery of the state, will kill him. He has been brought here to keep that appointment with death. Two guards will watch him this last night so that he can do no violence to himself. Before setting down for the long night, they offer tobacco and a variety of food for the last hearty meal. After an eternity of night they see the beginning of a new day and a last break- fast. There will be no reprieve. The time of death, so impossible, so unimaginable, has come. Now the warden and' the captain of the guards move down the long corridor toward the cell. A physician harnesses a stethoscope across his chest, its black tube dangling like an obscene umbilical cord. Shoeless, he walks--or is carried or dragged-between two guards through the green door of the octagon chamber. Inside he is strapped to a metal chair first around the chest, then the stomach and each arm and leg. A guard connects the black tube. Outside, the physician adjusts the stetho- scope to his ears. Twelve witnesses of the people, as required by law, watch through thick glass windows. .Each step of the ritual is checked and checked again. The last guard steps from the chamber and seals the door. The execu- tioner makes his motions, inside liquid acid gurgles into a well beneath the-chair. A bag of cyanide eggs is immersed in the acid. The combination produces deadly hydrocyanic acid gas, sweet-smelling like peach blossoms. The man in the metal chair gasps and throws his weight against the straps in a final convulsive bid for life. Minutes pass. The head snaps back, then slumps forward. The physician hears the pounding, straining heart hesitate, become faint and then stop. He notes the official time on the appropriate charts. The man is pronounced dead. In California, death is by gas. In Massa- chusetts, New Jersey and Tennessee the con- demned die by electrocution. New Hampshire, Kansas, and Washington hang toe prisoner by the neck until dead. In Utah he may be shot or hanged. From 1930 through 1969, nearly four thousand men and women were legally executed in the United States. Why? For many the answer is obvious- to protect the rest of us, or to serve as a warning and prevent repetition of the crime. Others argue in the name of justice, or re- venge. Then why have some states and not others outlawed capital punishment? Does the de- struction of an occasional criminal protect any of us? Is the penalty a just one? If it is evil for us to take life as individuals, do we compound that evil by killing in the name of the state? CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- Extensions of Remarks EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS E 1387

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