Kennedy knew Iowa and Iowa knew him

It is generally well known that John F. Kennedy visited Iowa multiple times in preparation for his run for the presidency, including stops in cities such as Dubuque, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City and the Quad Cities.

The most renowned of these campaign appearances, however, was at Marion, when, in October 1958, he appeared and spoke at the National Corn Picking Contest where he thrilled the crowd with charisma and hope for the future of farming.

Kennedy had been born in 1917 at Brookline, Mass., as the son of Joseph Kennedy, a New England socialite who had gained the rights in Ireland to distribute its liquor in the United States during the latter years of Prohibition in the country.

His son, John, was recognized as a hero in the Navy during World War II in which he saved the life of a fellow sailor by putting the man’s life vest strap in his mouth and swimming to shore. Joe Kennedy decided that, despite his son’s age of only 25, John should be groomed for the presidency, and ran him for U.S. House of Representatives in 1946.

Five years later, Joseph Sr. financed this son’s run for the U.S. Senate, rankling the established Democrats by challenging the well respected incumbent, Henry Cabot Lodge, and winning his seat in the upper chamber of the Capitol.

From the very beginning, it was understood that this was a precursor to an attempt at the White House. But Kennedy realized he had a name recognition problem in the Midwest. As such, to introduce himself, and show what an East Coast aristocrat could know about agriculture, he was chosen to speak as the Democratic Party’s voice at the Corn Picking Contest where Republican President Dwight Eisenhower would be delivering the Keynote Address.

Kennedy spoke first, the morning of Oct. 17, before the president would later ascend to the podium. He introduced himself humbly with a joking demeanor, and expressed praise upon the people of Iowa, observing that the crowd of tens of thousands of farmers was the largest assembly he had ever addressed, adding, “even the Republicans are friendly to me.”

He then got down to the intended business of his visit and presented what would be widely received as his “Family Farm” speech. In it, Kennedy expressed what he said were his deep felt concerns about the future of the family farmer, pointing out that four of every ten farmers was fifty years or older and that only two out of one hundred were under twenty-nine years of age. “I am worried about this trend,” he explained, “I am worried about what is going to happen to our soil when there are no younger people to take over the farm.”

He then proceeded to lay out his plan to resolve existing issues and prevent a larger farm crisis. This was largely composed of a proposed pay not to grow fund, wherein America’s agriculturalists would receive payments from the government to put aside a percentage of their acreage to not harvest crops. This, it was said, would prevent overabundance of grain and improve commodity prices.

He also expressed concerns about inflation, which was growing progressively higher as the nation returned home to new jobs following the Korean War. “The price squeeze has particularly hurt in the past five or six years,” he said, “a four plow tractor cost you nearly $1,000 more today than it did in 1953, you have to sell some 800 more bushels of corn to buy the same plow than you did in 1952.”

Kennedy then summed up his remarks with his confidence that, in a new federal farm program with the assistance and advice of the farmer, the burgeoning crisis could be tempered and avoided. “Any national farm program should be based primarily on the promotion and preservation of the family farm,” he concluded, “that is the basic unit here in Iowa, that is the way it must continue to be… our job is to look out for the family farmer and we can count on the family farmer to look out for the future of our soil and the future of our country.”

Twenty-five months later, in the general election, Kennedy lost the state of Iowa, which threw its support to Richard Nixon, but won the federal election by a narrow margin of less than 1%. He then, along with his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, attempted to move the Civil Rights Bill to passage and also averted the danger of nuclear war in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade during a campaign appearance for re-election on November 22, 1963. He was laid to rest with honors beneath an eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery.

Iowans remember him personally, though, as a young, energetic and charismatic leader who came to the Hawkeye State and proved he knew a thing or two about farming.

David V. Wendell is a Marion historian, author and special events coordinator specializing in American history.