GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 453 



This 72 percent of parity will ^rive a substantial iiiconie to tlie farmer 

 because he alwaj's has a niai'ket at tluit leveL 



I can further state that I am absohitely not satisfied with 7'2 percent 

 or even 90 percent of parit}- for the American farmer. I think to con- 

 temphite that he shall receive less on an average for tlie connnodity 

 which he sells, less than 100 percent of parity, is to be discriminatory 

 against the American farmer. 



I do, however, regard supports as a stop-loss, and absolutel3% gentle- 

 men, not as a farm program. It is only one factor among a great many 

 factors that will go to give tlie farmer a farm ])rogram. The farmer 

 was beginning to approach the parity level in VXV.}. but gentlemen, we 

 did not have a support level at 90 percent of parity at that time. We 

 do have, under the 194S program, the highest support level in legis- 

 lation that we have ever had at am* time in peacetime history. 



Another thing I want to call your attention to and emphasize is that 

 if the farmer is to look to the Govermnent foi- support prices and it 

 becomes a heavy drain upon the Federal Treasury at a time when we 

 have an all-time high in Federal income, near an all-time high in 

 Federal tax load, operating at this very instant on a deficit. I can easily 

 foresee the day when the deficit, without a very substantial increase in 

 tax rates, ma^^ put the Congress in a position that they are going to be 

 reluctant to support an appropriation which will guaraiitee the farmer 

 parity income, if we are going to look to support prices for that guar- 

 anty. It makes us subject to year by year approprijstions by the 

 Fetierai C(nigress if that is the farm program 



I woud like, gentlemen, to enumerate a few things that i think are 

 extremely important, in my opinion much more important than a sup- 

 port-price level, to give a farmer 100 percent of parity. In either one 

 or an}' one of these numerous things which I have jotted down here 

 there is a speech, but I shall not take time to more than mention them. 

 I refer to monetary and fiscal policies as a definite program: 



Federal debt manipulation. What can be done to our economy 

 through that? How deflation and inflation can be controlled. 



Commodity Credit Corporation mentioned in this act; 



Farm credit policies ; 



Marketing agreements ; 



Reciprocal trade agreements; 



International commodity agreements ; 



Agricultural marketing and purchasing cooperatives; 



Kural electrification, crop insurance, soil conservation, agriculture 

 extension, distribution, transportation, nutrition. 



A very long dissertation can be given on the importance of nutrition 

 to a national farm program. 



Full employment and a substantial purchasing power on tlic part of 

 that employment. 



Research into the fields of production, marketing, utilization. 



I vvould like to comment just a little bit on what we are d(jing in mar- 

 keting. Almost nothing, gentlemen. I can go back a veiy few years 

 when as a producer of wheat if I had had a mule team sufficiently well"^ 

 trained to go to the elevator and back without a driver that mule team 

 would have marketed that wheat just as intelligently as I could. The 

 farmer has never been a marketer. He has been a producer and a 

 deliverer to market, but he has not sold. We need a lot of research. 

 AVe ai-e doing something on that score rierht noAv. 



