332 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



entitled to some relationship that what you apply to the man who 

 owns the farm. 



Is that not right? 



Secretary Beannax. That is right. 



Air. Murray. That is all. 



Mr. Anderson. Will the gentleman yield? 



Secretary Brannan. The point was that you cannot accomplish all 

 of those purposes by devices and attachments on to the price support 

 program. 



Mr. Murray. I realize that. 



Secretary Brannan. We must get at that by other routes if we are 

 going to get into that field. 



Mr. Murray. We did in the Sugar ./^ct and that is where I got the 

 idea. That was not my brain child by any means. 



The Chairman. Mr. .A.ndresen. 



Mr. .Andresen. I just wanted to remark that under the Sugar Act 

 the gentleman overlooks the fact that most of the employees were 

 protected by minimum wages but were not American citizens. 



They were Mexicans and citizens of other countries. It is our cus- 

 tom here to protect citizens of foreign countries as against citizens of 

 other countries. 



The Chairman. Mr. Lind, do you desire to ask the Secretary any 

 question? 



Mr. Lind. No, thank vou. 



The Chairman. Mr. White? 



Mr. White. Yes; I have some questions. 



Mr. Secretary, it seems to me that one of the most constructive 

 things w^e can do at this time is to enlighten the American people as 

 to the reasons why it is necessary to have any control over agriculture 

 and to have a farm program. 



In traveling around my district I find a lot of people who resent the 

 fact that farmers are catered to, as they call it, and pampered. I 

 would like to go back with you for a moment and try to re^'iew what 

 has happened in our Nation in the last 170 years of its existence. 



The Chairman. All that in 5 minutes? 



Mr. White. Yes, sir. I guarantee I will not take 10 percent of 

 the time the gentleman from Wisconsin just took. 



As you know, when our Nation was first founded each family was a 

 self-sufficient, independent imit — 95 percent of our people were en- 

 gaged in agriculture, so there was no necessity for any controls. 



Over the past 170 years, through the advent of more and more 

 labor-saving machines, to which I do not object, our Nation has 

 gradually been transformed from a nation of self-sufficient independent 

 families into a nation of interpendent specialists, like myself, for 

 instance. 



I produce mostly cotton. Another many may produce fruit. With 

 the use of these machines, only 15 to 20 percent of our people now 

 produce agricultural commodities. That 15 to 20 percent of our 

 population, with these machines, can produce a veritable avalanche of 

 commodities in one season's production unless we regulate them. In- 

 asmuch as a depression is nothing more or less than a fall in the general 

 price level and the price level is determined by the relationship of the 

 quantity of products in the world compared with the amount of money 

 in the world in the hands of the people who need those products, it is 



