328 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Andresen. Certainly, but we have to deal with a normal peace- 

 time program and we may have 12,000,000 bales under loan if the 

 present crop of this year materializes. 



The Chairman. The blame for that lies in the lap of Congress and 

 not on the Secretary. 



Mr. Andresen. I am not blaming the Secretary. There are 

 27,000,000 acres of land going into cotton under the present law, even 

 though you have marketing quotas. Is that not correct? 



Secretary Brannan. I do not know that it is going in under the 

 present program, but if we had applied marketing quotas we could not 

 have limited the acreage to less than 27,000,000 acres. We did not 

 apply them so there will be no relationship between marketing quotas 

 and the acres planted this year. 



Mr. Andresen. Not for this year but if you put marketing quotas 

 into operation next year you will have to permit the planting of about 

 27,000,000 acres of land to cotton. 



Secretary Brannan. We hope the committee, which has already 

 been studying that, will give us a different arrangement. 



Mr. Andresen. I mean under existing law. 



Secretary Brannan. If the existing law is not changed; yes. 



Mr. Andresen. That contemplates about 13,000,000 bales of cot- 

 ton and you may raise 18,000,000 or 20,000,000 bales on the 27,000,000 

 acres. So you have to have a change in the law to bring about an 

 adjustment. 



Secretary Brannan. That is right, sh. 



Mr. Andresen. I am sorry I took up the time of the gentleman from 

 Wisconsin. 



Mr. Murray. That is all right. 



Mr. White. Would the gentleman yield very briefly for an observa- 

 tion in connection with cotton? I do not want to interrupt the gentle- 

 man in his train of thought, but when this cotton matter comes up, it 

 seems that it always comes to the point where we say if we had not 

 had a war we could not have gotten rid of the cotton. 



I want to point out that that 11,000,000 bales of cotton was hanging 

 around our necks in 1931 and 1932 when this thing started, so in order 

 to be fair to the program, we would have to eliminate what went before 

 and start with a clean slate if we are going to speak about keeping 

 prices regular without its costing the taxpayer any money under a 

 regulated program. 



I just wanted to bring that point out. 



Mr. Andresen. Let me say to the gentleman, when we boosted the 

 price by putting on a tax of several cents a pound we lost the world 

 market and American capital went into Mexico and Brazil and other 

 countries and built up cotton production and took the world market 

 away from the United States. 



Mr. \\ hite. But that was done as a result of a condition that 

 existed in and prior to 1932 when this program started. 



Mr. Andresen. Cotton was pretty cheap in 1932, and we could 

 not get rid of it. Let me point out in conclusion that our exports 

 from the future for a substantial portion of cotton will depend upon 

 the ability of the people in those other countries to get dollars to pay 

 for them. 



That is what they are short of now. Either we have to give them 

 the dollars so they can buy our products — not as they are doing now, 



