GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 449 



Mr. Kline. This was a ■sYtirtime })roposition and as part of the 

 "wartime proposition I think it was quite sound. As a long-term 

 proposition, I think it is unsound. 



Mr. C'ooLEY. Why is it unsound if it is fair? 



Mr. Kline. The most unsound thing about it is that it will not re- 

 act to the betterment of farmers. It will not result in higher per 

 capita income for agriculture over the long run to strait-jacket 

 agriculture as it will be necessary to do if the Government guarantees 

 the high price and if we take out all of this free enterprise approach 

 to the proposition and get into completely administered prices. 



Mr. CooLEY. We had free enterprise and American agriculture 

 Avent through bankruptcy. We had no control programs or support 

 programs and the farmer was helpless. W^hen we provided the pro- 

 grams which have been provideti, the farmer enjoyed prosperity. 

 Xow we are coming into the postwar period and you must admit. Mr. 

 Kline, that everything indicates that surpluses are more likely to 

 appear now than in former years. Is that not true? 



Mr. Kline. The prospect of having more to sell than there is an 

 effective market for is A'ery good at the moment. That is quite true. 

 It does not follow, however, that the prosperity which agriculture has 

 more recentl}^ enjoyed Avas a result of the program. I repeat em- 

 phatically it was not. It was not the major program. The support 

 program was far below the average prices for agricultural com- 

 modities. There was unlimited demand for everything produced.. 

 It was out of those factors that the prosperity arose. 



Mr. CooLET. Then tell me one purpose that the 90 percent support 

 program has served. 



Mr. Kline. The 90 percent support program served, first, to give 

 farmers the confidence to go ahead, especially in the early stages of 

 the war and produce freely. Here was something which said tlie 

 Government is not going to let you down. We did not know Avhethei- 

 the war was to be short or long or whether we were to get in or how 

 far we were going in or how long we would stay in. That is the 

 first one it served. 



Second, it has served an admirable purpose in the postwar {)eriod 

 in saying to the farmer. "You expanded your production and built 

 a new dairv barn or something to help win the war and now you are 

 entitled to a continuation of the wartime supports during the re- 

 adjustment to peacetime demand.'' 



Mr. CooLET. But from that statement, the 90 percent program actu- 

 ally did not support agriculture at all. 



Mr. Kline'. It was not the major factor in the agricultural income 

 during the war. that is certain. 



Mr. White. Will you yield for a moment? 



Mr. CooLET. I am through. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. White. 



Mr. White. Mr. Kline, did you not say that the 90 percent support 

 ]irices did not hold up the price of the market ; in other words, that 

 agriculture would have gotten just as high an income without those- 

 supports? That is what I understood you to say. 



Mr. Kline. Bv and large, yes. 



Mr. White. Then you do not agree with Mr. Stassen in the political 

 campaign last year when he said they did hold up prices, do you? 



