farm areas and the farm vote stayed with Republican candidates in the 1960 election better than any other region or group within the country.
During his presidency, Eisenhower recommended to the Congress any number of program and policy modifications, including quantitative allotments for cotton. This and other recommendations went unheeded, in part because Congressmen from farm states lobbied intensively against such policies. Despite the fact that many farmers were antagonistic to Secretary Benson, President Eisenhower supported Benson for the entire eight years of his administration and helped him convince Congress to allow Benson to use greater price flexibility to reduce the surplus. Nevertheless, Paarlberg states that Secretary Benson was widely regarded as "an enemy of the farmers, trying to beat down farm prices."
A major achievement of the Eisenhower administration was the 1956 Agricultural Act. This Act established the Soil Bank, a program under which farmers were paid not to grow certain crops. The purpose of this was to decrease p
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