280 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Secretary Brannan. That is, if you are computing the lower price. 

 If you are setting the lower figure as the average figure, and not the 

 figure which that farmer received, that is possible. 



Mr. Andresen. How would you find out just what the farmer did 

 in selling his 550 hogs? Would you have to inspect his books, or 

 would he make an affidavit or a statement to a representative of the 

 Department before he would get paid? 



Secretary Branxan. He would have to supply just about the same 

 type of information he will have to supply today in connection with 

 most of the crops that are supported by loan or purchase agreement. 

 He would not have to supply any appreciable additional information. 

 He would get his check at the same place he nov/ gets his loan check. 

 In all respects the organization for handling this would constitute the 

 very organization which we now have for operating thi'ough the 

 support programs. There would be no change in it at all. 



Mr. Andresen. Would it be required to have any auditor go ahead 

 and examine into the dift'erent transactions of the farmers in the sale 

 of these farm products? 



Secretary Brannan. Well, certainly, as a general rule, but today 

 from time to time on loans there is some looking over of books, and 

 I think that is in the public interest, that it ought to be continued. 

 It avoids the possibility of fraud. 



Mr. Andresen. I am not questioning that. 



Secretary Brannan. Not only on the part of the man taking the 

 loan, but also on the part of our own employees. Surely there is an 

 auditing system now, and we are being audited all the time in the 

 Department. 



Mr. Andresen. I understand that. Now let me get over to the 

 case of milk, because that is one of the important parts of the American 

 diet. 



Milk is very important to the income of the American farmer. 

 Under the present production we are selling now around 100,000,000,000 

 pounds of milk. The production is around 115,000,000,000. 



Now, in your statement on April 7 you stated that the goal would 

 be to get 150,000,000,000 pounds of m^ilk, and that would be looking 

 tOAvard a price of 15 cents a quart to the consumer. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Andresen. Did you have in mind that 15-cent price, Mr. 

 Secretary, after 150,000,000,000 pounds of milk had been realized? 



Secretary Brannan. Well now, let us just relate the figures. First 

 of all, we started out to see what kind of adjustments could be made in 

 American agriculture to serve the farmers best and to serve the con- 

 sumers best. By using a quantity of information that we had 

 available and which was available over in the Bureau of Labor 

 Statistics, we came back with the general information that if every- 

 body had enough money in his pocket to buy about the things he 

 would want to buy at reasonable prices, there would be a much greater 

 consumption of milk than has been experienced in the last 2 or 3 years. 



Therefore, we said that there was the potential consumer demand. 

 We said that the potential consumer demand of this country was 

 higher than the present demand. 



You and I know that dairy animals have decreased in population in 

 the countrv and so forth. That was on one occasion, when we said 

 that. 



