942 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Andresen. Let us get the record correct. So far as potatoes 

 were concerned, this committee did take definite action on estabhshing 

 60- to 90-percent support price, which is effective in 1949, and we did 

 give consideration to that and passed on it and unanimously reported 

 it from this committee, and that is now the law. 



Mr. Pace. If you are going to get the record straight, the provision 

 in the Aiken bill relating to potatoes was added in the Senate on the 

 floor by amendment. It was not in the House bill. 



Thank you, Mr. Bryant. 



We will now call on Mr. J. C. Jacobsen, Jr., president of the Kern 

 County Potato Growers Association, Bakersfield, Calif. 



STATEMENT OF J. C. JACOBSEN, JR., TEHACHAPI, CAIIF., 

 PRESIDENT, KERN COUNTY POTATO GROWERS ASSOCIATION, 

 BAKERSFIELD, CAIIF. 



Mr. Jacobsen. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my 

 name is J. C. Jacobsen, Jr. My home is at Tehachapi, Calif. I 

 am a farmer, having grown potatoes for 20 years. I am president of 

 the Kern County Potato Growers Association, Bakersfield, Calif., 

 with a membership of approximately 300 potato growers in Kern, 

 Tulare, and Kings Counties, Calif. This association was organized in 

 1943. 



I am also authorized to offer the following in behalf of the following 

 California potato growers: Southern California Potato Growers As- 

 sociation, Los Angeles; having a membership of approximately 100 

 growers in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties; 

 Xulelake Growers Association, Tulelake; having a membership of 

 approximately 300 growers in Modoc and Siskiyou Counties; Delta 

 Potato Growers Association, Stockton; having approximately 25 

 members in Stockton, San Joaquin, and Contra Costa Counties. 



Representatives of the above associations met with the Kern 

 County Potato Growers Association in a joint conference at Bakers- 

 field, Tuesday, April 26, 1949. The following recommendations were 

 adopted at that meeting: 



"1. We oppose the farm program recently sponsored by the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture, on the grounds that such a program is inconsistent 

 with the system of free enterprise upon which American farming is 

 based, and we believe that if such a program were to be put into 

 effect, it would eventually mean Federal subsidizing of all farm 

 products, and open the door to complete control and regimentation, 

 and in addition the program would place an impossible burden on the 

 Federal Treasury. 



"2. We believe that it would be sound public policy, both in the 

 interest of consumers and producers, to see a gradual and orderly 

 reduction of subsidies of American agriculture, with a gradual elimi- 

 nation of allotments and acreage controls. 



"3. We believe that in the interim period, the Agricultural Act of 

 1948, already studied and passed by Congress, embodies an economi- 

 cal, efficient, and workable program for potato growers in the United 

 States as a whole and that the act should be given a chance to operate 

 in 1950. 



"4. We believe that in making State acreage allotments the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture should be directed by Congress not to employ 



