GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 881 



is put in our banks, securities, and other farm land, and does not help the market 

 for other goods. 



Mr. Andresen. May I ask you a question? 



Mr. Justice. I will be glad to answer any question. 



Mr. Andresen. We tried to limit the size of the payments that 

 went out to farmers so that we would hold no farmer could receive 

 over $750 a year in payments. That was changed this year so they 

 can pay out $2,500. As I understand your suggestion, it is this; 

 anybody who had an income of $3,000 and above you would eliminate 

 them from payments. 



Mr. Justice. I think it would be wise to do that. 



Mr. Andresen. And make the division to those in the under $3,000 

 class. I am sure you recognize this, that about anyway 70 percent 

 of the farmers receive only between 20 and 50 dollars a year in pay- 

 ments. That goes for the cotton section as well as for some other 

 sections. You mentioned something about Communist agents. Are 

 you troubled with Communist agents down in your area? 



Mr. Justice. No, sir; we have no trouble with them around my 

 place. 



Mr. Andresen. That is all. 



Mr. Pace. Thank you very much,. Mr. Justice. 



Mr. Justice. Thank you. 



Mr. Pace. We will next hear from Mr. Malcolm B. Ronald, of 

 Mitchell, S. Dak. You want to insert your statement and address 

 yourself to it generally? 



STATEMENT OF MALCOLM B. RONALD, MITCHELL, S. DAK. 



Mr. Ronald. Yes, I have submitted some prepared material. 

 However, it is very comprehensive, and I am not going to attempt to- 

 read any of it. I would like to make some extemporaneous remarks, 

 however. 



Mr. Pace. Suppose we msert your statement at the conclusion of 

 your extemporaneous remarks. 



Mr. Ronald. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. You may proceed, Mr. Ronald. 



Mr. Ronald. I am with the Daily Republic, a newspaper in 

 Mitchell, S. Dak. and the paper has been very much interested in 

 farm legislation for a number of years. As a result of circumstances 

 that are not particularly relevant to this discussion, we started in, 

 1945 holding meetings of farmers to discuss a permanent farm program. 

 In order to make the discussions practical, we kept them definite, and 

 the only requirement as to what was suggested or discussed was that 

 it would be a self-financing program, not supported by Government 

 payments. 



The only method by which that could be accomplished and still 

 give the farmers parity on their fan- share of production, that any 

 farmer at any of the meetings, and we covered eight States, getting 

 as far south as Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia in these meetings, 

 the only practical proposal involved the two-price system. 



As a result of these discussions, we have worked out a bill which we 

 had drafted in bill form by a competent professional bill drafter wha 

 had formerly been with the House Drafting Bureau, and had quite a 

 part in drafting some farm legislation. That was in order to provide 



