"Prosperous farmers," says Harry Truman, "make for a prosperous nation, and when farmers are in trouble, the nation is in trouble." The Brannan Plan--a bid for a prosperous nation--was the boldest, most far-reaching agricultural program in recent American history. Farm policy is the cornerstone of our economy. Brannan's program to stabilize farm income not by price supports, but by direct federal payments to farmers, was the most hotly disputed proposal for dealing with the farm problem in our time. When it was first put forward in 1949, the Brannan Plan provoked vitriolic political battle, a...