590 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Hill. Then is it not about time we found out? 



Mr. Smith. It is very difficult until you know what kind of pro- 

 gram you are p:oing to have. 



Mr. Hill. Well, you have to put this land into something. You 

 cannot let the wind blow it away, which might happen in my terri- 

 tory. If it is entirely wiped out, it is the land that lies idle which 

 will be blown away, not the land that is put into crops. 



Mr. Smith. Our contention has been that it is possible to work out 

 a program that is much more voluntary than any that we have seri- 

 ously discussed up to this point. Then I take it if a wheat farmer 

 in the position you described were rewarded equally for shifting into 

 something else, there would be no particular compulsion required. 

 He would just do it if he could. 



Mr. White. Will the gentleman yield to me long enough to say 

 to him that if he will support me on the cotton matter I will support 

 him on the wheat ? 



Mr. Hill. You do not mean to say you want more cotton out in 

 California ? 



Mr. White. I do not want to be cut too much. 



Mr. Hill. I thought you said the other day you were willing to 

 adopt strict rules for cotton curtailment. 



Mr. Pace. There will be no open trading in the committee. 



Mr. Hill. It is a real problem. Let me give you an example of one 

 county in Colorado. It is not in my district. It had only eight or 

 ten thousand acres of wheat before 1942 and in 1948 it had 229,000 

 acres of wheat. That is just exactly what the gentleman from Cali- 

 fornia is worrying about. We have a right to worry about that. 

 Wliat are you going to do with that land? There is nothing that I 

 know that these farmers can grow outside of wheat. 



Mr. Pace. I think that problem is in the lap of the distinguished 

 gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Hope. 



Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, I have one final paragraph. 



I would like to have the record show that I hope this committee does 

 not embark on a futile attempt to take agiicultural legislation and its 

 administration out of politics. You will not succeed, in the first 

 place. 



If you should succeed, in the second place, it would be one of the 

 worst things that could happen to the American farmers. AVe are 

 not ashamed of politics in the Farmers Union. We think in a democ- 

 racy that the more things that are in politics the better off you are 

 and the more people who do something about them the better off you 

 are. We have consistently opposed any attempts to interpose boards 

 between Government officials and the people themselves. 



By and large I think most farmers feel that they do get results 

 from their votes. Thank you. 



Mr. Pace. We certainly thank jou, Mr, Smith. 



Are there any questions? 



Mr. Hope. Mr. Chairman, I have a question. 



In your formal statement, which I have just had an opportunity to 

 glance over rather hurriedly, you mention the matter of the commercial 

 and noncommercial wheat areas. Do you want to go into that any? 



Mr. Smith. Mr. Hope, we feel just about what I have said here — it 

 is a very difficult question — that the whole approach is unsatisfactory. 

 If you have to have a break-down between commercial and noncom- 



