GENERAL FAEM PEOGRAM (TESTIMONY OF FARM 

 ORGANIZATIONS) 



TUESDAY, MAY 10, 1949 



House of Representatives, 



Subcommittee of t-he 

 Committee on Agriculture, 



Washington^ D. G. 

 The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., Hon. Stephen Pace, (chairman), 

 presiding. 



Mr. Pace. The committee will please come to order. 

 Gentlemen, it is a pleasure this morning to have a representative 

 of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, represented here by 

 its executive secretary, Mr. John H. Davis, before us. Mr. Davis has 

 on many occasions contributed to the work of this committee. 

 Mr. Davis, we are delighted to hear from you at this time. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN H. DAVIS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, 

 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF FARMER COOPERATIVES 



Mr. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I am testifying in behalf of the National Council of Farmer Co- 

 operatives, a farm organization composed of farmers' marketing and 

 purchasing cooperatives serving over 2,600,000 farm families. 



By way of background, let me explain that last year we supported 

 S. 2318 of the Eightieth Congress as the basis for a long-time farm 

 program, not because we believed that every provision in it was 

 perfect, but because we considered its enactment an important step 

 in the right direction. 



The Council's executive committee, consisting of a representative 

 of each of its 17 commodity and functional divisions, met on April 11 

 and 12 and concluded that the soundest procedure with respect to 

 farm programs is to retain the present legislation, amending it from 

 time to time on the basis of experience. This action was taken after 

 study of the plan proposed by the Secretary of Agriculture on April 

 7. We have also sent copies of Secretary Brannan's proposal to all 

 of our member organizations, several of which are scheduled to ap- 

 pear before your committee to discuss farm policies and problems 

 as they relate to their respective commodities. Being an organization 

 whose policies are determined by members scattered throughout the 

 country, we will have a much clearer picture of the practicability 

 of the Secretary's plan after it has been throughly studied by our 

 commodity divisions and after they have had an opportunity to con- 



595 

 91215— 49— ser. r, pt. .3 16 



