412 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Pace. Let me say one thing at this point. I think the fallacy 

 of Mr. Poage's position is this : I understood the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture and I presume you gentlemen contemplate that in the pay- 

 ment plan there will be some goals. 



Mr. Talbot. Certainly. 



Mr. Pace. There will be controls? 



Mr. Talbott. Informed planning and informed announcement of 

 goals. 



Mr. Pace. Controls through goals somewhat comparable to con- 

 trols through marketing quotas on cotton. 



Assuming that is true, the thing I am having difficulty with is figur- 

 ing how in the world you are going to get statistical data to keep the 

 producers happy in fixing their goals. 



In other words, how is the Secretary of Agriculture, in the case 

 of eggs, going to determine exactly what your goal should be as com- 

 pared with the national need for eggs when there is no statistical data 

 available anywhere on all these commodities. 



He would be saying that you could produce 100 dozen eggs, taking 

 into account what your past production of eggs has been. Therefore, 

 I see that fallacy in your idea, that it is perfectly all right with you 

 to jump from wheat to eggs if you can be assured that your return 

 is going to be comparable. 



But if you have not been producing eggs and there is already being 

 produced across the Nation an adequate supply of eggs by old egg pro- 

 ducers, how is the Secretary going to give you an egg goal? 



Mr. Talbott. I would not think he would. 



Mr. Pace. Then where would be that freedom of shift that you ad- 

 mire and that I would admire? 



Mr. Talbott. I would not think the Secretary, Mr. Chairman, would 

 recommend that I shift from one surplus crop into another surplus 

 crop. 



I would think that he would recommend that the shifts would be 

 from out of a crop in long supply into the many crops that are in short 

 supply. 



Mr. Poage. You have just related a circumstance that makes me 

 want to tell you of a thing that happened to me last fall. 



I was in Great Britain last fall and had been riding around out in 

 the country seeing some of their operations and had come back into 

 town. The members of Parliament were very kind and invited me 

 to lunch on the terrace of the British Parliament and we were sitting 

 there and, of course, as would happen here, they asked me what I 

 though about what I saw in their country, what were my impressions. 

 I said, "It looked to me as if you have too much good grass going to 

 waste. You ought to have some stock on that." 



They said, "Don't we have all the stock we can carry?" I said, "I 

 just came from Holland and I saw they had similar grass and it 

 seemed to me they were running many times as much stock on the 

 same grass as you have going to waste. Why don't you have more 

 cattle and sheep on it?" 



They said, "We have been turning a lot of our grass into grain." 



I said "I can see that. I was here in 1944 and I saw you plowing it 

 up then and and you still have it in grain and it seems to me that is a 

 mistake, that these pastures would be worth more to you growing live- 



