508 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Pace. I hate to interrupt yon so much, but let me ask this 

 question : Assuming there will be a carry-over of cotton on August 

 1 of 5,000,000 bales, and assuming there is the i^ossibility of a 15,0"00,- 

 000-bale crop this year, and that the carry-over on the 1st of August 

 1950 will be between 8,000,000 and 10,000,000 bales, do you not see 

 that under the x\iken bill we will have acreage controls and 72 percent 

 of parity support for the next 5 years or more ? 



Mr. WiNGATE. That would be my guess, with a crop like that. 



That is exactly the point I was trying to bring out, gentlemen. 

 If you went in with this production, you would cut his acreage tre- 

 mendously and then cut his price down to 72 })ercent. I have been 

 in this fight for a long time, sir, with our own group. 



Gentlemen, I want you to know that I have thought about this part 

 of it and I do not think enough stress has been put upon it. We have 

 a staggering debt facing us, over $250,000,000,000. 



This year in the budget there is one item of $5.4 billon-plus for 

 interest alone. Just 16 short vears ago, gentlemen, the total national 

 budget of this Nation was less than $5,000,000,000. The point I am 

 stressing there is that we are going to have to maintain a high national 

 income for a long time to come. 



We are going to have to maintain a national income sufficiently high 

 that we can drain off enough taxes to finance the situation. 



Otherwise we are facing disaster. That sounds like common sense 

 to me. 



Mr. CooLET. And you cannot do that with a decline in commodity 

 prices ? 



Mr. WiNGATE. You cannot do it with a decline in prices, Congress- 

 man. I want to say that agriculture is absolutely basic, gentlemen, in 

 our national economy. One of you mentioned this morning that you 

 have never had a depression when the farm prices did not lead it off. 

 I state to you that we have never had a depression in the history of 

 this Nation when farmers were prosperous. They say that it might 

 be possible, but I do not believe it is possible to do that. So agriculture 

 is absolutely basic in our national economy and we are going to have 

 to maintain good prices. I say to you if we put this 60 to 90 sliding 

 scale in, regardless of what point you guarantee, you are going to 

 have just as much control under it as you would if you had 90 percent. 



It is necessary that the farmer have this purchasing power if we keep 

 the national economy up. 



Mr. Granger. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Wingate. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Granger. In your opinion, if we accept the theory that agri- 

 culture is basic, should the Federal Governmxent support agricultural 

 prices; and how much money would the Congress be justified in spend- 

 ing to keep agriculture prosperous and thereby avoid a depression? 



Mr. Wingate. I would be unable to guess how much we would have 

 to spend on it, but I would like to bring out the point that we have 

 had this farm program in operation since 1934 and the records of the 

 Commodity Credit Corporation show that when they closed their 

 business on June 30, last year, they were $79,000,000 to the good. 



I know the war had something to do with that, but with the proper 

 controls, Congressman, for instance, cotton guaranteed at 90 percent 

 and corn and so on, guaranteed, those commodities cannot be sold 

 in competition with the farmer's price until they reach parity. 



