GENERAL FARM PROGRAJM 301 



balance. You have to establish some kind of a mechanism for han- 

 dling what may for the moment otherwise become a sm-plus. I say 

 in place of the Federal Government going in and buying milk out of 

 the market places and having it converted into dried milk and having 

 it stored in warehouses and then having us turn around and try to 

 find market places somewhere in the world, that we should allow that 

 milk to flow into the market place and pay the differential. In psy- 

 chology, in general philosophy and in net result you might say, "Well, 

 you are paying the check and therefore the two programs are alike." 

 But when you analyze the background, the objective, and realize that 

 what we are proposing is a method and then when you also realize 

 that we say in addition, "If you want to increase the expenditure 

 over and above what would be essential to a price-support operation, 

 the most efficient price-support operation, and if you want to put in 

 some additional money, you can keep on forcing the price of milk to 

 the consumers down considerably further." 



I gave you yesterday what I thought was the formula by which 

 you could tell how far you could go. 



Mr. Andresen. You did not give me a formula on milk. You 

 said $4.22 was the national average. When I asked you what it 

 woidd be in the Midwest you said that was sometliing you would 

 have to work out. 



Secretary Brannan. That is something we woidd have to work out 

 but I did give you this figure, that if you tried to achieve the reduction 

 of a cent per quart on all milk consumed in fluid form in the United 

 States, if you paid a cent on every quart consumed in fluid form, it 

 would cost the Federal Government $150,000,000 a year to do it. 



Mr. Andresen. And if you paid a cent a quart on the 100,000,- 

 000,000 pounds of milk that is sold as fluid milk and used it both as 

 fluid and manufactured milk, you would pay $440,000,000 a year. 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. But I did not by any stretch 

 of the imagination say that we were going to reduce the price of all 

 dairy products by any such device. The only example I used was 

 milk but the price-support system, if operated effectively under a 

 production payment plan, can also bring the price of those other com- 

 modities down commensurately. 



Mr. Andresen. It may do that but it looks to me as though if 

 you get this production which you are seeking in the nonstorable 

 commodities, there will be such a heavy load on the market that the 

 price will go down and dairy farmers and cattle farmers and hog 

 farmers and producers of fruits and vegetables will aU become de- 

 pendent upon the Government for their livelihood. There will have 

 to be bigger and larger checks all the time unless you step in and 

 control their production. That is all. 



Secretary Brannan. Wlienever the production exceeds any genuine 

 reasonable demand at reasonable prices in the United States, then I 

 think milk is in the same condition as cotton may be in the next year 

 or two and you will have to step in. 



Mr. Andresen. You do not want farm.ers to become solely 

 dependent upon the Government for their livelihood, do you? 



Secretary Brannan. No, sir, and I do not anticipate that time at 

 ah. 



Mr. Andresen. Thank you, Mr. Brannan. 

 Mr. WoRLEY. Will the gentleman yield? 



