702 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



he will plant more. It seems to me that the bill, by its very terms 

 backs clear away from the theory in it. 



Mr. Hughes. I would say that the aim, in the first place we are 

 here dealing with the size of the acreage allotment, and we aim at 

 a supply of 110 percent of normal and we asked the Secretary to 

 make acreage allotments based upon 110 percent of normal. And if 

 each farmer, each wheat grower, complies with the acreage allotment, 

 we are going to be in position there we will have support price, we 

 will be eligible for a good support price for the grain. 



Mr. Hope. You are not going to be influenced by the price, because 

 you would not know what the price is going to be. 



Mr. Hughes. That is for feed? 



Mr. Hope. Yes. 



Mr. Hughes. That is right. And of course, it is hard to carry 

 those things down, it seems to me. If he is sure of the kind of price, 

 before he plants his grain, he is pretty apt to disregard his allotment, it 

 would seem to me. 



Mr. Hope. Of course, the Secretary would be presumed, when he 

 announced the support price under the program, to announce the price 

 on the basis of the best information available at that time as to what 

 was needed and what was expected to be produced. 



Mr. Pace. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Hope. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. Of course, Congress has always provided for support by 

 saying that the support price on wheat this year, for instance, is going 

 to be 90 percent of parity on a certain date, and consequently, the 

 acreage that was needed, and he would laiow exactly what he was 

 going to get within a penny or two pennies; it is not a flexible support 

 price, over a period of 4 or 5 months, but the farmer is going to follow 

 the price fixed by law. And I think the gentleman from Kansas state- 

 ment of the philosophy of the Aiken bill, concerning shifting out of 

 surplus crops mto the nonsurplus crops, is correct, that nobody laiows 

 where he will be or what the price is going to be. 



I think we mjst assume that the farmers of the Nation have some 

 business judgement, and if they did not take into consideration what 

 their product is going to bring I do not thmk they would be acting as 

 good businessmen. 



Mr. Hughes. Well, of course — I suggest it would be possible to set 

 the support price m relation to the supply a year ahead of the crop. 



Mr. Pace. They have been doing that under the law since 1935, 

 was it, Mr. Hope? 



Mr. Hope. Under the 1938 act. 



Mr. Pace. 1938; for the last 11 years a wheat grower knew what he 

 was going to get in the way of support price before he put a seed in 

 the ground. 



Mr. Hughes. I do not think our objection is so much that as we 

 felt like that there should be some program to bring the supply more 

 nearly in line with demand, and possibly we could take the carry-over 

 and with the crop that is harvested, take the supply at the end of 

 July 1 and announce the support; I do feel that it should be based on 

 something more than just an estimate. 



Mr. Pace. It is all based on an estimate; we have an estimate of 

 what the export is going to be and what the domestic consumption is 

 going to be. 



