206 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Pace. jVIr. Secretary, I mean that in trying to figure support 

 prices for January 1950, you still used 26,234,000,000, which does not 

 take into account the 27}^ billion you put in for 1949 and the figure 

 you left out for 1939. 



Secretary Brannan. It does not, but we are talking about trying 

 to keep this formula moving forward. We do take an equally current 

 index of prices paid by farmers, so it does move forward within those 

 two columns very specifically and the other would follow along in 

 due course. 



Mr. Pace. ^^ hat you have done, Mr. Secretary, is used your income 

 supnort level for 1939 to 1948, althouc:h it is supposed to be for 

 1940-49. You did not adjust the 26,000,000,000 which, when ad- 

 justed, would be up to 27,000,000,000 and your percent would be 131 

 percent of support instead of 125. 



Secretary Brannan. Mr. Chairman, that is one way of figuring it. 



Mr. Pace. That is the wa}^ you figured everything else before j^ou 

 got to that point. 



We can discuss that later. 



Secretary Brannan. You could run a formula 40 different w^ays. 

 This is the one we are recommending. 



Mr. Poage. You have told us that it w^ould be 2 years behind and 

 that is the only way you can get it behind. 



Secretary Brannan. We are trying to get our figure 2 years behind 

 so we can begin to see how it would come out. 



Mr. Poage. You told us you were not going to keep it right up, 

 because you would not have the figures in time to keep it up. This 

 is merely an estimate of 1949, and consequently you are not including 

 it because if you did you would have the thing based on an estimate 

 instead of on facts. 



Mr. Pace. But he did include it, in part, in making out the 1950 

 support. 



To get the 125 percent of the individual commodities, you do 

 bring the 27 K billion for 1949 into the calculations? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right, but you still have to relate your 

 basic figures to the modern situation. 



Mr. Pace. Of course, if you get 2 years behind it means you 

 would have to use your 1939 and 1948 figures for 2 years, both in 1950 

 and 1951. That is the only way you can get behind 2 years. 



Secretary Brannan. But if you do that and you use them all the 

 way across the board, then you would never move forward. You 

 would never move your index forward. You ^\'ould never move your 

 national cash income forward. 



You have to move it forward somewhere, or we would be in the 

 position 30 years from now that we are, of looking back at 1910 to 

 1914. This formula might be as badly out of line as I think 1910 

 to 1914 is. 



Mr. Pace. I was not criticizing that. I said if you were going to 

 get 2 years behind you have to use 1939-48 twice. 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



Mr. Pace. That is all I say. 



Secretary Brannan. That just gives us our lag. 



The Chairman. Mr. Secretary, could you be present tomorrow 

 morning? 



