406 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



wheat on the market at $2.09? I do not think the Commodity Credit 

 could unload one single bushel of wheat until every surplus bushel 

 had been purchased and had found a home, except at a loss, which it 

 cannot do under the present law. 



Mr. Hope. I do not disagree with that at all and I do not think I 

 have said anything that is in disagreement with it. My question was 

 directed at a point which Mr. Pace made, which was that if you had 

 a certain quantity outside of the support, what woukl likely happen 

 would be that that quantity, being thrown on the market, would pull 

 down the general level of prices but it would increase the price that 

 this unsupported wheat might bring. 



I agree that that is probably true unless you have a situation such 

 as I described where j^ou have the allotments, and the quotas some- 

 where near what the market vrill absorb. 



I think that finally boils down to what Mr. Talbott has suggested, 

 that probably the chief benefit you would get from that would be that 

 you might discourage some of the larger operators. 



Mr. PoAGE. But if you keep your quotas so low that you are going to 

 hold the market price up, then you give the big operator just exactly 

 the same price that you give the small operator. 



Mr. Hope. That is right, I am not arguing about that. I am just 

 suggesting that that is one condition under which Mr. Pace's theory 

 would not work out. 



Mr. Pace. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Hope. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. I am trying to look at the thing realisically. The Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, and I am sure these gentlemen before the com- 

 mittee now, are all advocating an abundance of production, not squeez- 

 ing the supply to the exact demand. I think we have to look at it, 

 for the moment at least, in the attitude it is brought to us. Both the 

 Department of Agrnculture and the National Farmers Union supple- 

 ment that proposal with an abundance of production. The question 

 of keeping supply and demand in balance is out of the picture in the 

 present discussion. 



Mr. Hope. I do not know what you mean by an abundance of produc- 

 tion. You surely do not mean producing so much that you are going 

 to accumulate great quantities that cannot be disposed of. 



Mr. Pace. You are going to have to put your own interpretation 

 on that. 



Mr. Poage. The gentleman testified this morning that he wanted to 

 keep a year's supply on hand all the time. 



Mr. Hope. That is all right, I am not objecting to that. That would 

 be an abundant supply. But if on top of that you are still going to 

 continue year after year to produce more than we can consume, then 

 I do not think there is any question but what the program is going to 

 break down sooner or later. 



Mr. Pace. You will recall that the Secretary's last statement, made 

 yesterday afternoon in response to my questions, was that his philos- 

 ophy in production would be to produce that quantity which would 

 supply all the people with plenty to eat, with a good diet at a reason- 

 able price. 



You can take all that and put it in a basket and come up with the 

 answer. 



