GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 241 



We are going to assure you that you will get that much on tliree- 

 fourths of your normal production." 



Now, have you given that cotton man and that wheat man the same 

 kind of living standard that you have given to the poultry man and 

 the dairy man? 



Secretary Brannan. Well,, whether you have or have not depends 

 on the individual circumstances, Mr. Poage, but to the extent that 

 both of them assured him a reasonable return for the commodity they 

 would be contributing to his over-all farm income. In other words, 

 they would be giving him an opportunity to maintain his income at a 

 reasonable level. 



Now, the reason, I suppose, that we are talking today about limita- 

 tions on the production of cotton is that we are approaching the period 

 of time in which supplies and anticipated production will exceed any 

 kind of demand, carry-over, export, and all other uses that we can 

 think of. In order to' avoid unlimited cost to the Government in the 

 present price-support program or any other kind of price-support pro- 

 gram we are cutting back the production. 



Mr. PoAGE. I think you have to have some production controls. 

 The point I am making is, should there not be a difference in favor of 

 rather than against the man who has submitted to those production 

 controls? I mean, should not the scales be weighted on the price end 

 ill favor of the man who has taken a reduction in acres? 



Secretary Brannan. Well, I suppose theoretically or in terms of 

 being equitable and just that is probably correct, but the amount is 

 another thing. 



Mr. Poage. Well, the amount the farmer gets is what the farmer 

 lives on. I agree with you there, and I think I can see where your 

 plan would tend to mean diversification there to that extent, and I 

 think it is good. However, to the man dependent entirely upon 

 cotton, to the man dependent entirely upon tobacco, and to the man 

 dependent entirely upon wheat, if you reduce the amount he can grow 

 by one-fourth you have reduced his income, have you not? His 

 income is the sum of his production times the price, is it not? 



Secretary Brannan. Well, that is right, if you make one other 

 assumption, and that is that he can sell all of his products in the 

 market at the support level. Well now, he can, theoretically, if we 

 had no controls, sell all his production in the market at the support 

 levels, but you and I know that if we continue to allow increased 

 production and it is going into the market at the support level and 

 the Government is obligated to take it out of the market and store 

 it or stock it in order to maintain that support level, some day some- 

 body is going to stop the whole price support program. 



Mr. Poage. I agree with you 100 percent on that. I think you 

 are right on it, and I agree there should be and must be, if the Govern- 

 ment is going to pat up the money, power in the hands of the Govern- 

 ment to limit production. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Poage. The point I am getting at is this: Might it not be 

 equitable to say to the man who has already submitted to this reduc- 

 tion in acreage, or of his production, "We are going to give you the 

 full price support level" and to say to the man who has not submitted 

 to it, "You who are causing a surplus in eggs vvill not receive this same 

 treatment." Obviously if you have to support eggs there are more 



