GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 447 



Mr. Sutton. You speak of free enterprise. Would you suggest we 

 go back to the 1914 levels without any price supports or farm 

 legislation for the fanner whatsoever. 



Mr. Kline. Of course, it is always a purely academic question as 

 to whether you would like to go back to 1914. Personally, I would. 

 I was a junior in college and having a very good time, but the chance 

 is not very good. 



Mr. Sutton. We cannot physically go back to that time, but that is 

 what is embodied in your recommendations. 



Mr. Kline. I think it is quite as impossible to go back physically as 

 it is to go back any other way. 



Mr. Sutton. That is what I am driving at. Today when the admin- 

 istration and the people are asking for an iucrease in the 40-cent 

 minimum wage up to whatever point it might be, and in the present 

 bill a 75-cent miniunmi wage, and yet at the same time when we have 

 been enjoying 90 percent of parity in some cases and you are recom- 

 mending that we have 72 percent of parity in some cases and a tendency 

 to get down to (iO percent of parity, why is there that difference in 

 discrimination between the farmer and the labor organizations ( 



Mr. Kline. It seems to me that there is another assumption there 

 which is not correct. It is that the prices enjoyed by farmers over the 

 past 10 years have been 90 percent of parity and have been that be- 

 cause of same legislation. They have not been 90 percent of parity. 

 They have been up to 132 percent of parity and in many individual 

 cases vei\v much higher than that. They have averaged probably 118 

 to 120 percent of parity most of the time and have not been there 

 because of some legislation guaranteeiug them 90 percent of parity. 



Mr. Sutton. Do you object to that for the farmers i 



Mr. Kline. I certainly do not. I said -a little while ago that we 

 expect to earn a living and we are going to try to get it. 



Mr. Sutton. But if you cut him down to 60 percent, can he earn 

 a living ( 



Mr. Kline. There is nothing in this law which prevents what you 

 were holding up a minute ago as a good idea for the farmer. 



Mr. SLTTt)N. But the Aiken bill will cut him down, will it not ( 



Mr. Kline. Xo. It sets the floor, not the ceiling. 



Mr. CooLEY. Do you think the farmers would have enjoyed those 

 prices over recent years had we not provided a siip])ort program? 



^Ir. Kline. I see no reason why they would not have. 



Mr. CooLEY. Do you think cotton would have brought what it did 

 bring in 1948 and what it is bringing now but for the support program? 



Mr. Kline. Now is not the time we are sjjeaking of. Cotton is on 

 the support program now, that is quite right. 



Mr. CooLEY. Do you think tobacco woidd have brought anywhere 

 near a fair price if w^e had not had the marketing quotas and acreage 

 allotments and support prices and stabilization cor]iorations and all 

 the agencies Ave have working in behalf of th.at purpose? 



Mr. Kline. I do not. 



Mr. CooLEY. You do not think we would hcwe I 



Mr. Kltne. Nobody knows. 



Mr. Cooley. I thought you just made the statement that Ave have 

 enjoyed good prices but not because of anything Ave had done about it. 



Mr. Kline. There are some exceptional cases. We have treated 

 them se]i>iirately hi our statement. We have talked about cotton, pea- 



