Farm bill should be transitional The 1985 Farm Bill will be put together during the worst farm crisis since the Great Depression. Caught between sagging prices for their products and rising debt, , thousands of farm families are fac ing foreclosure. These farm bankruptcies threaten numerous banks, hundreds of farm equip ment suppliers and the economic health of entire rural communities. Congress and the administration must face the fact that the com plex, 50-year-old system of price - supports controls are in need of reform. I The. Reagan administration's idea is to make agriculture more "market - oriented." All the evidence suggests, however, that the markets cannot possibly ab sorb all the commodities now in surplus if more ketp being produc ed in.Upir current volumes.. The administration plan t'ealfy means, Congressman Bill Hefner in the words of Agriculture Secretary John Block, that farmers will have to "take their lumps." Others in Congress have sug gested even more complex pro grams in which farmers would be required to participate. Instead of relying on exports to underpin farm earnings, the prices of com modities would be raised by a rigid system of controlling how much each farmer produced (in order to eliminate surpluses). Farms would be limited to a specific size, and conservation of soil and water would lie strictly regulated rather than left voluntary. If this sounds like big, expensive government, it would be. And if it came down to a choice, it is doubtful that many farmers would support anything resembling this approach. The agriculture sector is not ready for the big government solu tion, and probably would not tolerate it. On the other hand, farmers cannot settle for just cut ting costs in the 198S Farm Bill, as Reagan has proposed. We should devise policies that will make for a smoother transition from government-managed agriculture of the past, to the competitive, businesslike sector of the future. The government should do everything possible to ease the per sonal and financial hardships of individual farmers who cannot withstand economic forces and events beyond their control. End of farm supports sought President Reagan is seeking, over a period of years, to get the government out of its growing role in farm supports. The president is right in arguing all farmers can't be protected by the federal government, that some, each year will fail. That has always been the situation in farming, one of the greatest gambles of all the professions. But what must be kept in mind, in trying to limit federal coats, is that farmers everywhere else are subsidized. French farmers are notoriously subsidized, both by their government and the Euro pean Economic Community. West German farmers are sub sidized. Fanners in Japan are pro tected by tariffs and other restric tions on competitive imports. U.S. Farmers shouldn't be asked to compete as if in a free economy when there is seldom such a thing ? in farming. Practically every country protects and subsidizes its farmers. Reform can come only slowly, and must be achieved with com passion keeping in mind that American farmers can't operate successfully in a free world market until there is ope. But the president shouldn't allow reform of the federal govern ment's farm policies to put massive numbers of farmers out of business. That simply isn't in the national interest. DEMOCRATS IN DIXIE ... Democratic politicians in the South are in trouble. That's behind the creation of the Democratic Leadership Council. Walter Mondale's disastrous leadership and campaign in 1984 lost the entire South. He has been seen by most southerners as too far left; he flipflopped after naming a southerner to head the party and didn't choose a southerner as run ning mate. Gov. Bob Graham of Florida is concerned over the par ty's image since it will directly af fect his race against Paula Hawkins (R-Fla) next year. In North Carolina, a Cliff Blue People and Issues Democratic governor, Jim Hunt, was also beaten in a bid for the U.S. Senate. ON HAZING ... The recent