242 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



eggs coming on the market than the market will consume at the proper 

 level, so it is obvious there are too many eggs being produced. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. PoAGE. You say to the man producing eggs, "We will see that 

 you get a fair price for all those eggs that you have produced," but 

 you say to the man producing cotton and wheat and tobacco, ''Now 

 we know you are going to be producing too much, so do not produce 

 so much but only produce about tlu-ee-fourths of what you normally 

 produce, and we wiU see that you get a fau' price for what you do 

 produce." 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. PoAGE. Instead of giving that man creating overproduction at 

 the present time in eggs, hogs, or anything else the extra amount, 

 should we not say to him, "We are not going to give you quite all 

 you would make in the way of price if you had kept within the bounds 

 of needed production?" 



Secretary Brannan. That might be true and probably would be 

 true, Mr. Poage, if it were not for the desire, also, to increase the 

 production of the other commodities. Let us say the eggs are prob- 

 ably not such a good example, because we are supporting them now. 

 We want to induce the production of some other foods. Therefore, 

 if they start increasing their production in those foods we should not 

 immediately penalize them by a lesser price support. We ought to 

 give them a little more price support, as a matter of fact. 



Mr. Poage. Well, should we ever give price supports after the 

 production has surpassed the Nation's needs? 



Secretary Brannan. Well, you should, on the amount produced by 

 people who are complying with any kind of a plan to limit it to the 

 Nation's needs. 



Mr. Poage. I recognize, as you have suggested this morning, that 

 it is an utter impossibility to sit down and say that we are going to eat 

 exactly so many crates of tomatoes this year, and not one more crate 

 shall be produced. You have to produce something in excess to care 

 for the catastrophes of Nature which may occur, and other circum- 

 stances which may arise, which would otherwise create a shortage. 

 We cannot afford to take a chance of a shortage, so we have to be on 

 the long side. I agree with you on that. Beyond that point, you 

 anticipate that we are going to need, say, a definite amount of eggs 

 and a definite number of dozens of eggs. Included is that tolerance 

 for unforeseen catastrophes. After the production has gone above 

 that, should we support that additional production with support 

 prices? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes; because you cannot cut oft" that last 

 100,000,000 dozen eggs and say, "This is the 100,000,000 dozen eggs 

 we will not support" without distributing it back over all the produc- 

 ers, which is exactly what we do with the acreage limitation in tobacco, 

 cotton, peanuts, and so forth. 



Mr. Poage. That is right. Why should we not do the same thing 

 with any other commodity that will get 100-percent support? 



Secretary Brannan. I assume that when, as a result of the support, 

 they have reached a real maximum production in terms of doinestic 

 needs charged by ability to pay at reasonable prices and all of the rest 

 of the factors that go into that, that you may have some limitation on 

 some of these other commodities. 



