GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 261 



Secretary Brannan. I do want to make it clear that when I said 

 a moment ago that most of the economists were objecting to the 

 price levels, as a matter of fact, if I understand what they said to 

 us, it was that they agreed generally with the method of computing 

 them, but not with the height at which they come out. 



Now, as to the other individual farm organization leader, I think 

 he objects to everything, but he will be here to tell you himself shortly. 



JNIr. Pace. Yes, we have businessmen in this Nation, I regret to 

 sa}^, who object to the support price principle entirely. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. And in doing so they are utterly unmindful of the 

 contribution that a prosperous agriculture makes to their own business, 

 and I think the time has come when we should disregard such unin- 

 formed selfish criticism and recognize that the farmers are entitled 

 to parity income. Let us set up the necessary machinery and see 

 that they get it. 



Mr. Secretary, in taking your 10 j^ears cash farm sales, you did not 

 include the payments made to farmers during those 10 years. 



Secretary Brannan. No, sir; we did not, but we intend to include 

 them from here on. 



Mr. Pace. Neither did you include the subsidy payments made 

 during the war on specific commodities. 



Secretary Brannan. No, sir; that is right, we did not. 



Mr. Pace. Now, \h\ Secretary, I want to express the hope that 

 you will upon reconsideration include those. Let us see what a 

 glaring injustice that has brought about. 



Let us take two commodities. You had one commodity known as 

 flax where you wanted to maintain high production. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. You supported fiat at, let us say, 200 percent of parity. 



Secretary Brannan. At 187, was it not? 



Mr. Pace. Make it easy; let us say 200 percent or 187 percent. 



Secretary Brannan. May I correct the record on that; it was 134 

 percent of parity. 



Mr. Pace. Well, I do not know. You had it at $6, and now you 

 put it at 90 percent of parity, which is $3.99. 



Secretary Brannan. But the parity bases were different in the two 

 years. 



Mr. Pace. Well, whatever it was, you had it considerably above 

 parity. On the other hand, you wanted to maintain high market 

 production, better production during the war. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes; but, Mr. Pace, do you not think we 

 ought to explain why we wanted to get flax above parity? 



^Ir. Pace. You wanted to maintain a high market price and 

 better production. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. Instead of raising the ceilings on those commodities 

 you made the payment of a subsidy to bring the returns to the 

 production to what he ought to receive? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



Mr. Pace. Therefore, under yom* formula the flax producer gets 

 the benefit of this 10-ycar average. When you go to compare com- 

 modities with their respective prices in order to get them their respec- 



91215— 49— pt. 2 9 



