250 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



who is just as hard working, in position to say that he works for what 

 he earns, that the cotton picker iihistrated over here in the picture 

 on the wall is just as much entitled to say that I earned the 28 cents 

 per pound for this cotton as the man who works in the Ford plant says 

 he works so much for his hourly wages. 



We do not say that to anybody but the farmer who has always been 

 stigmatized with the brand of living out of the Public Treasury. We 

 say to everybody else "you are entitled to receive, in the market 

 place for your labor, for j'our product, for whatever you exchange 

 in the market place, you are entitled to be paid a proper price for it." 

 But we say to the farmer, and as a matter of fact, we may know that 

 he works and makes a little crop of cotton, we know that it is not 

 worth more than 20 cents a pound, and you cannot live on it at 20 

 cents a pound, so we will pay you 28, and stick the taxpayers for the 

 balance, we will make up the 8 cents out of the Treasury; we will 

 make a direct payment to you of the 8 cents, in other words, we will 

 say to the man who is to get the direct payment that you do not earn it ; 

 you do not earn this, but the Government is sorry for you, you have 

 made a failure out of your life, you have been in business and you 

 and your family have worked all your life at it, but you have made a 

 failure, and you cannot make enough to support yourself and your 

 family, so the Government is going to hand you a gratuity. 



So, the farmer will say to his neighbor "Well, I have gotten back; 

 I got my subsidy check" — the man who could not make good — has his 

 subsidy check. And I have heard about this subsidy check until I 

 am sick and tired. Yet, we have tried to cover up in the past — 

 except for a little bit on milk during the war — we have tried to cover it 

 up a little bit, and I think it is worth while to cover this thing up 

 somewhat some time, because the man will feel better, even though 

 the result will be the same, it does not make it quite so obvious for 

 him to receive the gratuity. 



I just wonder what you might think about, instead of paying the 

 farmer a direct subsidy, of providing for him some form of price 

 insurance? We do that for the laboring man; we say to him that if 

 you go out and work you do not have to worry too much because 

 when you are out of work you will get unemployment insurance, 

 and he gets his unemployment insurance; he pays something into the 

 fund, every pay day, a slight portion of his wages, and his employer 

 puts something into that fund, and for the past 10 years we have 

 had some kind of insurance to cover everybody who was employed 

 except the farmer. And during this period, if we had had insurance 

 for farm prices, with prices up it would not have been necessary to 

 pay out anything, and if prices are kept up for the next 10 years the 

 Government would not pay a great deal toward that insurance. 



Now I do not see why the Government might not secure the same 

 results for the farmer and let the farmer pay in something, because 

 I feel that everyone who is a beneficiary of the program ought to pay 

 something into it. 



Mr. White. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. PoAGE. Yes. 



Mr. White. Then in effect would not the farmer merely be getting 

 a 50 percent subsidy instead of 100 percent? 



-Mr. PoAGE. That is right, and if the gentleman will recall I pointed 

 out, when I started, the preface to my remark, was that I recognized 



