274 GEXERAL FARM PROGRAM 



that the price is going down to $16.50 and consequently he will rush 

 his hogs to market, even though he has an abundance of feed to put 

 more meat on them, in order to get rid of them before they get down 

 to the support piice. 



I do not want to be critical of any statement you have made, but 

 I can see how, even if a rumor gets out from the Department that 

 you are going to buy hogs, or buy wheat, or not buy wheat, it has 

 an effect upon the price and upon the feeling of the producers. 



I do not know whether you care to comment on tliat. 



Secretary Brannan. I do, sii". I recognize that the very greatest 

 discretion must be exercised by whoever is Secretary of Agriculture 

 at any particular time not to be saying things which influence the 

 market. I also believe we all recognize that very often reasons are 

 assigned for things which would have happened anyhow to some com- 

 ments by people in public places. 



For example, on the 8th or on the 7th, when I made my recom- 

 mendations — I did not even present a bill; just made recommenda- 

 tions — the next day or that afternoon prices of stocks on the New 

 York Stock Exchange fell, and one of the explanations assigned for 

 the falling in stocks on the New York Stock Exchange was the state- 

 ment that I had made here. 



I think you think that that is ridiculous, and I think it is ridiculous; 

 on the other hand, that is one extreme. The other side of the coin is 

 that some of the things that the Secretary does say do have an influ- 

 ence. 



But we are also confronted with a very I'eal problem of discussing 

 with the committees these kinds of problems or keeping our mouths 

 shut and being accused of having allowed the problem to develop and 

 become aggravated before we come before the committee. You have 

 to make all of those kinds of choices. 



Mr. Andresen. But you volunteered that information to the 

 committee, as I recollect. 



Secretary Brannan. I did, sir. I said it in mv statement on the 

 7th. 



Mr. Andresen. That is right. 



Secretary Brannan. And I think the committee might well have 

 been entitled to have been ofi'ended at me if I had waited until today 

 for the first time to mention the subject, because my economists tell 

 me and the people in the livestock branch tell me that there are a 

 number of hogs out in the fields, a number being fed, and so forth and 

 so forth, and that they predict we would have a considerable run of 

 hogs and it would have its impact upon the price. 



Mr. Andresen. Then last week — and I am sorry I do not have it 

 with me — a release of April 17 from the Bureau of Agricultural 

 Economics stated in their opinion the changes in the price of hogs 

 would only be moderate unless there was an unusual change in the 

 demand for hogs. 



Secretar}^ Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Andresen. I suppose those are the experts in your Department 

 who have been advising you. But I recall here a year ago last Feb- 

 ruary 4, when the then Secretary of Agriculture announced the 

 Government was going to stop buying wheat, you know what hap- 

 pened; wheat dropped about 50 or 60 cents a bushel in as many days. 

 And we have had similar situations where the Government has been 



