514 GEXERAL FARM PROGRAISI 



to the farmer to give him what the Brannan plan calls a standard 

 income level? Under the Brannan plan payments are just direct 

 hand-onts? 



Mr. WiNGATE. Yes. 



Mr. PoAGE. The farmer is told in effect under that plan — 



You have worked all your life in farming. You grow a crop here and people 

 eat it or wear it but you are not contributing enough to society to make a living 

 yourself. We are not going to just kill you off: we are just going to let you 

 die slowly. We will hand you out some money. You go down here and sell your 

 crop for whatever you can get and whatever that lacks of keeping you and your 

 family will be handed out by the Government and you will be the Government's 

 wards to that extent. 



That is the way I understand the Brannan plan proposes to get this 

 $26,000,000,000 buying power in the hands of the farmer. 



I do not think we can say that the Government does not subsidize 

 other groups, both industry and labor. 



They are perhaps not subsidized so directly by the Government but 

 they are subsidized so they get an income that comes out of the other 

 people. 



The tariff takes from all the people of the Nation and gives to a 

 favored few, of course. 



The mail subsidies take from all of us and give to the operators of 

 the air lines. 



The land grants took from all the people and give to the railroads. 



We say to the laboring man, "You are going to enjoy social security, 

 you are going to enjoy an unemployment insurance." 



We do not say, "We will just give you something." That would be 

 too crude. We must not embarrass him by giving him something. 



"We are going to let you, Mr. Laboring Man, buy this insurance, 1 

 percent for unemployment, and then we are going to take something 

 out of your employer which is passed on in the cost to everybody." 



The Government enforces it. Well, when that maji gets out of 

 work he feels that he is just as much entitled to receive this unemploy- 

 ment compensation as is the man whose house burned and who had 

 paid the fire insurance company for insurance. 



He bought it and paid for it and it is his. He is not an object of 

 charity. 



]Might it not be better — not speaking of the whole Brannan plan but 

 just the manner in which we are paying it — if the farmer contributed 

 something, possibly a processing tax and in return received a guaran- 

 tee such as labor receives, such as industry receives in many instances, 

 that he would be paid a certain price for his products and if they did 

 not bring that price in the market he would get it in the form of 

 insurance. 



If I have an automobile accident I get paid by the insiirance com- 

 pany for my damage. 



Mr. WiNGATE. That is right. That plan is being studied, I under- 

 stand, Mr. Congressman, but I think if we could operate a plan that 

 would not cost the Government ver}-; much it would be better. 



You would have a hard job checking insurance all the way around. 

 It would be a pretty mean proposition. Under this Brannan plan I 

 do not see how in the world you would ever get enough accountants to 

 check on all these thinss. 



