GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 585 



Nevertheless, at this time the Nation has no such established policy. It has 

 instead a consistent record of instances where supplies much larger than so-called 

 effective demand have resulted in disastrously low prices of farm products. 

 Furthermore, it should be noted that the acreage planted to wheat for harvest 

 this year is 4,000,000 acres more than was planted to wheat for harvest in 1948. 

 This increase in acreage has resulted in the face of prices which have run 

 continuously much lower this year than last, indicating that the formula provided 

 in title II of the Agricultural Act of 1948 will not be effective in reducing plant- 

 ings. If prices should continue downward, it seems likely, that in the absence of 

 controls, farmers will plant even more acreage to wheat in 1950. If this prospect 

 be coupled with the uncertainty as to exports and even to some extent as to 

 domestic consumption, then the uncertain price outlook in the absence of con- 

 trols becomes obvious. 



We therefore urge the committee to approve whatever steps are necessary to 

 make possible for the executive branch to prepare for the imposition of acreage 

 allotments and marketing quotas on those crops which appear to be faced with 

 price dilficulties arising from accumulation of stocks. We are glad to note 

 that the Senate Committee on Agriculture has acted to close the gap inadvertently 

 left in the law when the Agricultural Act of 1948 was adopted. This arises from 

 the fact that the new definitions of supply and carry-over contained in title II 

 of that act do not become effective util January 1, yet plans for the conduct of a 

 referendum must be laid now. In the absence of action by Congress, necessarily 

 these plans must be on the basis of the 1938 law. We believe, as the Secretary 

 has said, that it would be wise to adopt some measure enabling the Department 

 to move ahead at an early date on whatever operations must be undertaken in 

 the next growing and harvesting season. 



Another concern of our people is that Public Law 12, adopted in 1945, be 

 strengthened by giving the Department such funds and authority as may be 

 needed to make it genuinely effective. This is the statute which protects the 

 vrheat allotment of those fanners who, at the request of the Government, shifted 

 acreage from wheat into war-needed crops. Effective administration of this 

 provision unquestionably will be difficult. In a number of instances records are 

 inadequate for the task. In others, changes in ownership of farms or in the 

 composition of the farms themselves, make a fair judgment exceedingly difficult. 

 Yet this pledge of the Government to those farmers who cooperated in the war 

 effort must be carried out as efficiently and equitably as possible. Failure to 

 do so will create deep resentment and antagonism among the very people who 

 have cooperated most completely to make governmental programs effective. 



In oppniiig the hearings regarding marketing quotas for corn, the chairman 

 of the subcommittee asked potential witnesses six questions. These questions 

 seemed to us in the Farmers Union to point up significantly some of the major 

 issues that are involved in the whole question of crop adjustment. These qvies- 

 tions were : 



Do coin producers desire to place corn under marketing quotas? 

 Should the commercial corn area be expanded? 

 Should quotas apply to corn produced and fed on the farm? 

 Should quotas apply to corn produced for silage? 



Sliould competing grains be brought under quotas at the same time? 

 Should quotas apply throughout the Nation or be confined to the commercial 

 area ? 



I take it that the committee still is interested in the same questions insofar as 

 they apply to wheat. 



As to the first question, there is no doubt that the majority of wheat farmers 

 are reconciled to t" e probable necessity for a return both to acreage allotments 

 and marketing quotas. Many of them feel that marketing quotas are an essential 

 enforcement device and that mere imposition of acreage allotments with no means 

 for penalizing the deliberate overproducer will not be effective. Most of them 

 dislike tli^' use of allotments and quotas, not because they fear regimentation, but 

 because they like to feel that they are producing efficiently and abundantly and 

 in so doing are meeting the real needs of the Nation as well as producing an 

 adequate income for themselves. Many of our leading farmers who have ob- 

 served the operation of the Canadian system are inclined to believe that it could 

 be adapted to American use. and the allotments made on a bushel-per-acre basis. 

 However, our organization has no formal position on this question and I mention 

 it in the event that the committee might wish to ask for further information 

 regarding operations in our neighbor country to the north. 



