484 GENERAL FARM PROGRAAI 



We recommend changing tliat. We believe that ^Tith acreage allot- 

 ments in effect the scale of loans ought to be available because there 

 are very great difficulties in some crops of administering quotas. 



Mr. Hope. You have given no reason that I have understood as to 

 why you object to having forward pricing if you expect the price to 

 influence shifts in production. 



Mr. Kline. If we were going over to a complete system of forward 

 XDricing that is one thing. There is provision in the act for forward 

 pricing in the case of very unusual necessity for some production. 



The Secretary may announce support levels, and they may even be 

 above 90 percent if that is deemed wise in the national interest. 



It is true that we do not favor eliminating our long-range program 

 which we have developed out of the experience of some 20 years plus 

 and supplant it with one whether either by discretion or by some 

 attempted formula we set the prices by edict a 3^ear ahead of time. 



Mr. Hope. You set them by edict at harvest time instead of plant- 

 ing time. What is the difference as far as the edict is concerned, as to 

 whether it is at planting time or harvest time ? 



Mr. Klixe. First we set the loan value and not the price. 



Mr. Hope. We are talking about the loan value at both times. 



Mr. Pace. Will the gentleman yield ? 



Mr. PIope. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Kline, at the present time, and^ up until the 1st day 

 of next January, when marketing quotas are submitted to a producer 

 he knows exactly what his price is going to be, subject to a minor 

 fluctuation in parity. Ke laiows it is going to be 90 percent of parity 

 as of the 1st day of July, the loth day of July, the 1st day of August 

 and the 1st day" of October, depending upon the commodity. 



We have not looked upon that as dictatorial. That has been our 

 system for a long time, letting the farmer know before he plants and 

 before he votes, what he may expect if he approves marketing quotas. 



You are not going to let him know what this support price is until 

 he gets ready to go to the field to harvest his crop. How that could 

 cause a shift in production is beyond me, because the crop is already 

 produced. I share IMr. Hope's concern as to what I consider a new 

 philosophy in the Aiken bill : 



We are not going to tell you what you get until you get ready to harvest. You 

 must vote blindly and you must plant blindly. 



I think that a range of 72 to 90 percent of parity means to millions 

 of fanners in this Nation the difference between a profit and a loss. 



Mr. Cooley. Mr. Chairman, let us see if he will agree with that. 



Mr. Pace. I do want his views. 



Mr. Klixe. What is your specific question ? 



Mr. Pace. You indicated it was a new policy and a good policy, 

 this philosophy in the Aiken bill. 



Mr. Klixe. The fact of the matter seems to me to be that this act of 

 1948 is far more a continuity in the thinking on agricultural programs 

 than the one j'ou have Ijeen talking about now in effect, for the reason 

 that we developed and operated, beginning in 193-''), national agricul- 

 tural ])rograms in the area in which we are now talking. 



The level of loans which was supplanted by the wartime legislation 

 was 52 to 75 percent of parity. They were exact, to be sure, but they~ 

 were 52 to 75 percent of parity. 



