GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 257 



crop, or if he does not have a crop of good quality, he suffers just the 

 same under the price-support basis. We do not support prices on 

 things that people do not raise, and there is no relationship to any 

 previous program of that kind. 



Mr. Pace. You have gone off at a tangent from where I started. 

 Fundamentally the farmer is entitled to his cost of production plus a 

 fair profit? 



Secretary Brannan. Fundamentally, yes; I agree with you. 



Mr. Pace. The average over the United States? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. The only question is how are you 

 going to get at it? 



Mr. Pace. What is there in your plan that assures him of that? 



Secretary Brannan. Well, let me make it clear again that we are 

 not in the business of guaranteeing it to anybody. We are in the 

 business of giving him the opportunity to earn a profit, and to relieve 

 him from the effect of economic forces beyond his control which might 

 deprive him of, even though he is diligent, earning a profit on his 

 production. 



Now to get specifically to the production-payment plan, it is this: 

 Allow his price to find the level in the market place and pay him the 

 difference between the average of that and the support level; the sup- 

 port level fixed as one of the multiple objectives that you establish 

 in an effort to furnish him security for his share of the total national 

 income. 



Now the lazy, worthless fellow that you talked about a minute ago 

 is in this position: If he brings to the market an inferior commodity 

 he gets an inferior price; if he is a bad bargainer he gets an inferior 

 price. If he is a good bargainer he will get above the average, and 

 therefore he gets a subsidy payment, if given the opportunity, in 

 terms of 5 percent, and he sells about 5 percent above the average, 

 and if he brings a good-quality product he may get 2, 3, or 4 percent 

 for his quality product and he also benefits by that; it encourages 

 initiative and effort. 



Mr. Pace. Wliat is there in your plan that assures the farmer his 

 cost of production plus a fair profit, that is, the average farmer? 



Secretary Brannan. Now let me again say we are assuring nobody 

 of anything by this plan, nor are you assuring anybody anything by 

 the present plan. 



Mr. Pace. Wliat is there in your plan that assures the farmers of 

 this Nation of their fair share of the national income? 



Secretary Brannan. Again, we do not assure him a fair share of 

 the national income, but we assure him the opportunity to work for 

 it under the most favorable conditions that the Government can 

 provide for him, and that is in the public interest. 



Mr. Pace. If you want to tie your formula to the cash receipts for 

 farm commodities during a certain period of years, if 5''ou want to 

 assure him of his fair share of the national income, why do you not 

 provide in your formula that at no time shall his aggregate cash 

 receipts be at a less percentage than it was during a period of ,years? 



Secretary Brannan. All right, let us say we did provide that, the 

 next question is. How do you achieve it? Do you take $26,000,000,000 

 out of the National Treasury and go out and divide it up among 

 farmers and then take all of the commodities and sell them in the 

 market place? That is the only way I can think of doing it. Again 



