512 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



I ^YOllld hate to have the job of explaining to the farmers in any 

 State that to set the price floor on a commodity before you planted it 

 was an edict and to set it after you had produced the crop was not. 



I could not explain that. That would be a hard thing for me to 

 explain to them. You brought that point out this morning. AVe have 

 a good farm program and I say we should improve on it and not make 

 these drastic changes. 



With reference to the Brannan plan, I would like to say that it is 

 revolutionary in our way of thinking. 



It is foreign to my way of thinking. I think the day you started 

 indicating the people in this country to giving away their food you 

 have started in the wrong direction. 



We all know that if you are going to pay your grocery bill through 

 the United States Treasury, eveiy time you want to pay $2 on it you 

 send them $3 or better. 



Mr. CooLEY. In that connection, you just pointed out the fact that 

 the cost of the raw agricultural commodity was only a negligible 

 amount of the total cost paid by the consumer, so it would be dimcult 

 under any circumstances to pass any of the actual benefits on to the 

 consumer, would it not ? 



Mr. WixoATE. Yes, sir; that is the point exactly. You are just 

 passing practically nothing on to them. 



Mr. CooLEY. In other words, tlie fact came out this morning that 

 wheat has declined substantially in recent months but bread has re- 

 mained at the same price. 



Mr. WiKGATE. That is right. The ditierences of the cut from 60 to 

 90, if passed, would be unnoticeable and that means the difference in 

 a healthy situation in agriculture. 



I want to speak of the Brannan program for a minute. 



Gentlemen, we did not reach a hundred billion dollars a year total 

 income in World War I. We did not reach it until this war. 



Now, should we drop back to one hundred billion a year total na- 

 tional income at this time, we would be in a worse depression than we 

 were in the thirties. 



At that time less than $5,000,000,000 was your total national budget. 

 You know what your budget will be this year ; around $42,000,000,000. 

 Suppose we whittled it down to 331/^ billion dollars and you dropped 

 back to a hundred billion and then added another $12,000,000,000 

 taxes for your cities, counties and States. It would bring you up to 

 where practically 50 cents on the dollar would have to go to pay for 

 these things. 



I say to you that we would be in a worse depression with $100,000,- 

 000,000 total national income than we were during the depression. 



I will venture to guess that we will be treading on dangerous 

 ground if we ever go below $150,000,000,000 total national income in 

 this Nation. 



With reference to the Brannan plan I can be very brief on that be- 

 cause I am just opposed to it. It was brought out'this morning that 

 if you do not get the money you will not have the program. 



Gentlemen, I challenge anybody to figure out anj^thing that will cost 

 less than 5 billion to 10 billion dollars a year to finance that plan. Just 

 use your milk program, the liquid part of it, as an example. 



