420 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. AxDRESEN. I could not be here. I had another committee 

 meeting. 



Mr. Talbott. We see a necessity for forward announcement of sup- 

 port prices for a production cyde so that in regard to a commodity 

 where we need increiises in production, a farmer ought to know if he 

 is asked to expand his beef herd, to illustrate, that the price announced 

 is not just for a 12-month period. That is of no value to him and 

 no assurance at all to him. 



It ought to be for whatever period it takes him to start an increase 

 in his production herd and get the results of that increase in market- 

 able condition. If that is a year or 2 3'ears or 3 years, or whatever it 

 is, he ought to be able to depend on that announcement for that sup- 

 port price in relation to his plan. 



Mr. Andresen. But a good man}' people who have been producing 

 cotton or wheat are not even in the livestock business now. In the last 

 few years we haA^e lost 28 percent of the milk cows in North Dakota. 

 Our milk coav poi>ulation has gone down 4 or 5 uiillion head in the 

 last 4 or 5 years. It takes time. 



I want to point out that the county committee cannot go to the 

 farmer this spring or during the winter and say, "Now, we want you 

 to shift into some of these other crops or livestock." They can do it 

 on grain, of course, but I am speaking of some of these other com- 

 modities. They will haA^e to give the farmer, as you have stated, a 

 loug-range jJrogram in which to make the shift. 



Referring to what uiy friend from Texas has said about the situ- 

 ation over in England, I hiippeued to visit one of those farms where 

 tiie farmer would not produce what the county connnittee told him 

 to produce. They took the farm away from him. They brought a 

 group of men and women out from London to operate that farm. 



Joe Parker was with me on that farm. Of course they did not run 

 it as well as the farmer did himself, but they did run it. They had 

 a sy'^:tem where they took the farm awa}' from the operator because 

 he did not run it the way the county committee said he should. 



We do not wnnt anything like that to happen in the United States. 



Mr. Talbott. Mr. Congressman, I do not knovr the British system. 

 I have heard more about it here than I have heard any other place. 



Mr. Andresen. We happened to obserA^e that at that time. 



Mr. Talbott. I am assuming that that is accurate. 



Let me tell you a great many things Avere done in this country under 

 the pressui'es of alleged Avartime necessity — aud they do not question 

 it noAA- — Avl'.ei'e plenty of fiUTuers Avere put out of business in North 

 Dakota during the Avar by two things. It was under the guise, and 

 probably justifiably so. of the necessities of Avartime. 



If a felloAv Avas a reasonably small farmer Avhere his production did 

 not seem to be as important as that of a big farmer, he could not get 

 machineiy. If he did not have something he could patch up, he Avent 

 out of business. If he was a small farmer so that the labor power on 

 his farm was not as important in the total national production needs 

 as the big operator, his boys Avere drafted off the farm, and if he got 

 a hired man, he was drafted, if he was of draft age, and he Avent out of 

 business. That was done under wartime necessities. 



I hope Ave do not CA^en think of continuing that sort of thing in 

 peacetime. 



