Watergate Trial Conversations Page #5

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average now is running better than seven

pigs per litter, isn't it?

CAMPBELL:
Mr. President, there has been some studies

run on this and the cost is approximately,

it approaches two thousand dollars per cow.

So you just multiply fifty cows, a hundred

cows, a hundred-fifty cows by two, two

thousand dollars. You've got a pretty good

investment.

PRESIDENT:
Well, you have an enormous-- so somebody is

going to go into that business.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Yeah.

PRESIDENT:
I mean, uh, there are added things; it's,

it's a big, uh --

CAMPBELL:
Big chunk of cash. Can't go less than fifty

cows,

PRESIDENT:
I know. Yeah.

CAMPBELL:
seventy or eighty.

PRESIDENT:
Yeah. Yeah.

HARDIN:
But, uh, we had, what, a million dairy

farmers, uh, ten years ago and down four

hundred thousand from what you were.

SHULTZ:
We have a, uh, we have a problem to, to, uh,

think about here on the antitrust side of

this thing, uh, they're going to wind up in

trouble.

HARDIN:
Yes, they may have --

SHULTZ:
If they try to control production,

HARDIN:
Yeah, they, they

SHULTZ:
they're over -- they're, very eager.

UNIDENTIFIED:
[Unintelligible]

HARDIN:
may have already done it. But, uh, ut --

CONNALLY:
The significant thing is they have legal

counsel and they're following their advice.

HARDIN:
Well --

PRESIDENT:
Good.

SHULTZ:
They do have a good legal counsel.

EHRLICHMAN:
They have a good one.

PRESIDENT:
They've got them all over the country.

CONNALLY:
Uh, there are many folks (unintelligible]

but I don't know Cliff what you're talking

about.

HARDIN:
Uh, well, they're, they're sure, they're

sure awfully close to the line. They are

not the first group in the economy, that's

done that.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Oh, I'll say. [Laughing]

PRESIDENT:
Well, we won't prosecute the farmers.

HARDIN:
Could I bring up just one other thing?

PRESIDENT:
Sure.

HARDIN:
It's a somewhat related subject, Mr.

President.

PRESIDENT:
Sure.

HARDIN:
It doesn't have anything to do with this

matter; but, uh, --

PRESIDENT:
Britain?

HARDIN:
No.

PRESIDENT:
No.

HARDIN:
Uh? Meat, meat imports. Uh --

PRESIDENT:
Oh, that. I thought we decided that.

HARDIN- We did.

PRESIDENT:
We are going to import aren't we?

HARDIN:
Uh, a little, uh, as little as possible.

But Mr. Houthaker called me yester--He's

convening a meeting now, and, uh, he thinks

we ought to force the price of beef down.

And let in more imports. And he's, he wants

a inter-departmental meeting. I think it's

next Tue--Monday or Tuesday. And this is

just going to, uh, raise havoc with the

cattlemen all over again. When we just got

them all quieted down. They've all written

articles; they're just bleeding about what

the President did.

PRESIDENT:
What would I do, if, if -- and didn't -- I

imported not too much, and meanwhile hold

that middle, middle options?

HARDIN:
Yes. And, uh, they're, and uh, so I called

Ed and I said, "Now, I want to see you bleed

in your publications. I want you to post

all the -- and support the President. "He

went all out with me on this. "Well," he

said, "we [unintelligible] just a little."

And I said, "If I see one word

[unintelligible] not one damned one of you

is ever going to get in my office again. Do

I make myself clear?" And they did say it in

their publications. They did go all out.

PRESIDENT:
Um huh.

HARDIN:
Uh, so, uh, uh, to open this up again now,

it just would be terrible. There's no -- In

fact it'll change a bit. It's just a --

George, can you, can you collar that guy?

And, uh

SHULTZ:
No, I, I---

HARDIN-- He's, he's the one that's given the Nixon

Administration the reputation for being for

low farm prices. He just -- Every once in a

while he comes out with something.

PRESIDENT:
Sure never gets reflected in the CPI.

Except, uh --

HARDIN:
No.

PRESIDENT:
Not this last month.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Oh.

PRESIDENT:
It was for six months before that, though.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Oh.

PRESIDENT:
So we've got to get credit for that.

SHULTZ:
The last few months the wholesale price

index has skyrocketed.

PRESIDENT:
Yeah. That's what I mean -- food.

SHULTZ:
Well, and the Consumer Price Index would

have actually been, uh, left no change, if

it hadn't been for the big increase in food

prices,

PRESIDENT:
Yeah.

SHULTZ:
and I'm saying that that -- Food is going to

follow wholesale prices. Business. But,

uh, the meat, the meat area is going to be a

problem for us. If we're going to get into

that, uh --

HARDIN:
Well, from the consumer's side, it'll be

great; it'll be, uh --

PRESIDENT:
You, you ---

HARDIN:
You've got to get them [unintelligible] But

the poor customer then [unintelligible]

SHULTZ:
Uh, uh, the, I think the --

UNIDENTIFIED:
[Unintelligible]

SHULTZ:
Well, I understand we're heading into some

real problems there, but I --

PRESIDENT:
You mean

SHULTZ:
not that I've studied it, yes.

CONNALLY:
Yeah. Go on.

PRESIDENT:
I would too.

SHULTZ:
Yeah, of course, we're going to import less

than we did last year.

HARDIN:
Possibly.

SHULTZ:
Profit rising.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Yeah.

HARDIN:
But, I think I'll probably import within ten

million pounds of this thing. Isn't that

something?

SHULTZ:
But all, all of these things. It's just

that, uh, it's the same, it's the same thing

when we discuss steel imports or, uh, bunch

of these other things -- shoes or what have

you, and meat. And on the one hand, there

is the, the groups that is pushing it; on

the other hand there's the consumer. It, uh

-- as much as --

HARDIN:
Everybody have one of these dairy

departmental committees studying something

you can favor.

SHULTZ:
Well that's, well, Houthaker is particularly

good at getting it, uh --

HARDIN:
Yes.

SHULTZ:
[Laughter] These and, uh, I agree with

making a speech or something.

HARDIN:
I don't care if he studies it if he can keep

his trap shut. But, uh, if he posses us by,

okay.

PRESIDENT:
Let's have nothing said about it. Is that

fair enough? That is if we're going to have

to do it.

SHULTZ:
He has to call up and put his hand on that.

PRESIDENT:
Will you tell him all about the increase?

SHULTZ:
Study it aid, uh, follow up on that.

HARDIN:
You can't; you can't convene an

interdepartmental committee in this

government and not -- and then keep it out

of the papers.

EHRLICHMAN:
Oh, sure you can.

UNIDENTIFIED:
Um?

EHRLICHMAN:
Sure you can. Yeah. Threaten them a lot.

[Laughter]

PRESIDENT:
The cattlemen have been pretty good friends,

for us, too.

CONNALLY:
Well, cattle prices are down. How much are

they down uh, in the past

UNIDENTIFIED:
Not too much.

CONNALLY:
few months?

HARDIN:
They're going back up again, John, a little

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