GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 917 



indictments, I am confident that they could do a better job than the 

 Government. 



Mr. Andresen. Were they threatened with indictments when they 

 operated prior to the war? 



Mr. Gordon. I would like to make an unguarded statement. It 

 would all be very beautiful theoretically if this could be done, but are 

 we takmg a chance that we would lose what we might get if we would 

 start anew? 



I believe with you and Mr. Holman that there is no question that 

 industry would do a better job of running it than the Government, 

 although I cannot say that the Commodity Credit has done too bad 

 a job at all times. 



Mr. Andresen. It is nice to have somebody like you pat them on 

 the back once in a while. 



Mr. Gordon. I do not have an axe to grind. 



Mr. Andresen. You are a newspaperman, too. I would like to 

 have Mr. Kopitzke's comment. 



Mr. KopiTZKE. I agree with Mr. Gordon. I think that they did 

 a very good job. If they had some good men from industry it would 

 be a wonderful plan, better than subsidies and all of that. As Mr. 

 Holman stated, they had $1,000,000 to the good when they got 

 through. What you say would be "swell." Industry will not put up 

 that money. I think that it would be a nice thing if the Government 

 would put up about $1,000,000,000. They would make money m 

 the end and make money for the industry. 



Mr. Andresen. It would be a good investment? 



Mr. KopiTZKE. Yes, I think that it would be. 



Mr. Gordon. I would like to do one thing before we end this 

 session, if I fail to do it. I would like to make good the omission now — 

 it is awfully essential to a great many farmers of this country that we 

 not only have our milk parity, but this manufactured milk parity, 

 following along the lines of the bill I think you gentlemen have 

 introduced, but which stops short by saying "for the balance of this 

 year." We are pretty well taken care of this year. We do not operate 

 on a calendar-year basis; we operate roughly on an April 1 and March 

 31 crop year, and it is awfully important that that be adjusted. 



Now, if the Agricultural Act of 1948 were to be used there are two 

 points in here that I think you are very familiar with that should be 

 clarified. 



One of them provides that the Secretary through the Commodity 

 Credit Corporation accept as provided in subsection (c) — and then 

 we get over mto subsection (c), and I am not at all clear in my mind 

 that that protects milk and milk production in. any way because it 

 calls for a definition of what constitutes a storable commodity, and 

 that definition it does not supply. 



I would like to ask, ]Mr. Chairman, that the committee give that 

 serious thought when it is studying this question. 



Mr. Murray. I would like to get this back to the present time. 

 Mr. Gordon thinks that the committee is not going to accomplish 

 much. If a man is going to get murdered, he does not need to get 

 murdered in 1949; he might as well wait until 1950. The present 

 lavv^ is the law that I have been trying to operate on every since I got 

 back here in January. There is no use for anyone bringing a bill 

 into this committee and asking us to pass upon a bill that gives the 



