GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



MONDAY, APRIL 25, 1949 



House of Representatives, 

 Committee on Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C. 

 The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m., in room 

 1310, New House Office Building, the Honorable Harold D. Cooley 

 (chairman), presiding. 

 The Chairman (Mr. Cooley). The committee \\'ill be in order. 

 We have the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Brannan, with us again 

 this morning. We have before us a statement which has been fur- 

 nished by the Secretary. I suppose the Secretary would like to pre- 

 sent it at this time. 



Mr. Secretary, we would be very glad to hear from you. 



FURTHER STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES F. BRANNAN, SECRETARY 

 OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Secretary Brennan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, 



Since making my farm program recommendations, the committee's 

 comments and public discussion seem to have centered on thi*ee 

 broad questions. These deal with cost, how the proposed program 

 would operate, and the degree of Government control involved. 

 With your permission I should like to take up these questions a little 

 more fully than has been possible heretofore. 



First, let us look at the cost question. 



As you know, this question involves many values in addition to 

 dollars. We can and will use certain dollar illustrations but, as your 

 own experience will verify, our economy is so complex and dynamic 

 that it has never been possible to make accurate dollar estimates in 

 advance for price-support operations. 



It has been said that the production payments called for in m}^ 

 proposal would be costly and that the cost must be estimated now. 

 Yet title II of the Agricultural Act of 1948 provides for the same kind 

 of payments, and no estimates of the cost of that legislation were 

 ever requested or made prior to its adoption. 



Title I of the act of 1948 continued the wartime level of price sup- 

 ports, yet no cost estimates were called for or considered at the time 

 of its adoption, even on potatoes for which we were then carrying out 

 the most expensive price-support operation in history. 



The same point could be made about earlier legislation. New bills 

 and amendments have been enacted year after year on the basis of 

 needs and the benefits to be derived. Actual results have been 

 measured against actual costs, which is the only valid comparison. 



209 



