Editing 78-10-A5 (section)

=== Transcript ===
As a veteran of the mashed potato circuit--my name for the after dinner
speaking-- I'm always on the lookout for interesting anecdotes. The other day on
a flight to the Midwest I was reading the newspaper when a familiar name caught
my eye. It wasn't the name of a well-known public figure, but it had been a part
of a speech I'd made almost 20 years ago.

Stanley Yankus was a chicken farmer in Michigan back in the late 50's when
our government was deeply involved in the control and regulation of American
agriculture. Some of you will remember those days of acreage allotments and
subsidies for now growing things. It was not the best of times for farmers
and coincidentally, there are signs that Washington is anxious to return to those
days.

But back to Stanley Yankus. His chicken farm was the culmination of a dream.
He had worked for years in Chicago as a hog butcher, saving for the day when he
could have his own farm. With his dream realized he worked from dawn till
long after dark when he and his wife would candle eggs on the back porch. Maybe
I'd better explain to a younger generation that candling meant holding each egg
up to a light to make sure it wasn't a fertile egg containing an embryo chicken.
Stanley was a good family man and citizen, serving on the local school board
and educating his children. He raised wheat on his little farm which he harvested
and fed to his chickens. Then in the late 50's the government told him he couldn't
do that. The government had a wheat control program in which farmers were given
allotments of how much wheat they could raise .

Yankus protested that he wasn't in the wheat business, he was just raising
enough to feed to his own chickens. He refused to plow his wheat under as the
government ordered him to do. The government attached his small bank account.
When he still didn't give in they fined him $5,000 and threatened him with worse
penalties.

I can remember citing his experience and a judge's ruling that said in effect,
"the government had usurped the right to tell a citizen what he could raise on
his own land for his own use." Stanley Yankus said--QUOTE--"This is the action
of a police state--the sort of life we were brought up to detest."--UNQUOTE--

He sold his farm to pay the fine and became the first American I know of to
leave the United States in search of freedom. He and his family moved to Australia.
There, unfortunately, he learned life was also pretty much regulated by government.
Becoming a salesman, he started in to reclaim his dream of once again having a farm.

A few weeks ago, 19 years after he had left America, his dream was near
realization. He bought a 10 acre almond farm in his new homeland and was
awaiting plans for the house he would build on his own land.

Stanley Yankus was then 59 years old. He died of a heart attack before
the house plans arrived. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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