GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 337 



Secretary Brannan. That is in the Aiken law and we recommend 

 that it be a part of the present proposal. 



Mr. Cotton. So that we have the support to the farmer and a 

 lower-priced food level to the consumer, but as a protection to the 

 Treasury, there is still a definite provision for crop control when 

 necessary? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right, sir. 



Mr. Cotton. That is all. 



Mr. Granger. Will the gentleman yield there? 



The Chairman. Mr. Granger, do you want to ask a question? 



Mr. Granger. Yes. Along the line of Mr. Cotton's questioning, 

 why do you hesitate to say that you could not operate your 1,800 

 units in an area where crops are under control? We did that in 

 wheat, did we not, under the present law? 



Secretary Brannan. I do not get the analogy, Mr. Granger. 



Mr. Granger. Under the present law, you had hmitations on the 

 production of wheat. They had to comply, did they not, on wheat 

 acreage? 



Secretary Brannan. Before the war? 



Mr. Granger. Yes. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Granger. And it did not necessarily say that you could only 

 raise this much wheat, but he got paid for compliance. If you pro- 

 duced more than your acreage allotment you suffered a penalty, did 

 you not? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. That was a mandatory pro- 

 gram which would depend upon the farmers themselves voting it, if 

 you were going to apply any kind of penalties. 



Mr. Andresen. The program went to the extent that a farmer 

 who had raised more wheat than he was allowed to raise could not 

 feed that to the livestock on his farm if he was going to market the 

 hvestock. 



Mr. Granger. Unless he paid a penalty. 



Mr. Andresen. Yes; a penaltj^ of 50 cents a bushel. 



Secretary Brannan. There are comparable provisions under the 

 existing arrangements with respect to tobacco and peanuts. 



Mr. Granger. In that connection, it seems to me you sort of 

 hauled the flag down on the 1,800 units when you were being ques- 

 tioned by Air. Pace on the basis that you did not think you could 

 administer it where you had acreage controls. 



T\Tiy could you not administer it? 



Secretary Brannan. AMiere the farmers themselves have voted a 

 mandatory program of their o^^^l under the referendum submitted by 

 the Secretary, then it seems to me that what they have gone through 

 is a process of determming what production is consistent with the 

 national and foreign demand, and so forth. 



Therefore, anyone who stays within those agreements with his 

 fellow farmers should enjoy the benefits of support. 



That is the theory on which we reached that method. 



The Chairman. And when the farmers vote in favor of marketing 

 quotas, the^ leave it to the Secretary to determine the size of the 

 crop that shall be produced and marketed. You make that determi- 

 nation and fix the marketing quotas. That is all the power you need 

 over that particular commodity, is it not? You start out deliberately 



