404 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Pace. If I knew how and I had the power, I would write in the 

 provision that that man should have a risrht to produce sufficient 

 crops at a sufficient price to assure him a parity income. 



Mr. Talbott. In other words, a horizontal acreage adjustment that 

 is supposed to be fair because of its 10 percent. It hits everybody 

 alike. It hits the man with 5,000 acres of wheat much lighter to cut 

 off 10 percent of it than it does the fellow who has so few acres already 

 that 10 percent of it puts him out of business. 



That seems to me to be the basic thought there. 



Mr. Pace. Then when you are taking care of the family-sized 

 farmer you are necessarily going to take away something from this 

 big commercial operator ? 



Mr. Talbott. That is exactly right. 



Mr. Pace. Is it not a better approach than supporting just part of 

 the crop, when the danger is that it would cost so much that it would 

 soon crash of its own weight ? I can see where it would cost millions 

 of dollars. 



Mr. Talbott. In my calculations and in all of our discussions we 

 have been unable to find the basis for those conclusions as to the cost. 



Recognizing the possibility that we might be wrong, we have left 

 in specifically all the provisions for acreage allotments in the hope 

 that the committee and the Congress might do the thing that you 

 suggest in the event that it is necessary in making some kind of an 

 exemption. 



If you will thoroughly analyze the proposals in the unit system 

 where either single crops or multiples can be produced, then I think 

 with an exemption for whatever number of acres it is estimated will 

 produce those minimums below which a family cannot stay in business 

 on the farm, it seems to me that that would reasonably answer the 

 question as you see it, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Hope. Would the gentleman yield ? 



Mr. Albert. I will yield now. 



Mr. Hope. Isn't the answer the effect which the unsupported part 

 of any farmer's production or the production that is supported at a 

 lower rate would have on the whole program, depending a good deal 

 upon the question of the controls that you have as to that particular 

 commodity ? 



In other words, if you have acreage allotments and marketing quotas 

 on wheat based upon what would appear to be a normal yield, about 

 the quantity needed, it does not seem that there is much likelihood 

 that the amount of wheat that would be outside of the maximum 

 support-price level would break the market. In other words, if you 

 do not have controls to the extent that they will keep the production 

 within reasonable limits as compared with demand, you will probably 

 have a very difficult time keeping the market price up to support-price 

 levels under any conditions. 



Mr. Talbott. I agree with that and I gather by inference from 

 what you said that if the authority is there it is conceivable that you 

 might not always have to use it. 



Mr. Hope. I think very frequently you might not have to use it. 



Mr. Talbott. The authority there would certainly have something 

 of a salutary effect upon farmers and also upon the trades if they 

 knew the authority was there and would be invoked. 



