GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 983 



Mr. Case. But they still would go on the market. 



Mr. Pace. It is that penalty on the excess production that in the 

 case of the other basic commodities maintains compliance with the 

 goals of the acreage allotments. That is the only difference. It is 

 just that one little step. If you exceed your acreage goal, when you 

 sell the potatoes off the excess acreage that you planted you would 

 have to pay a penalty equal to one-half of the support price. That is 

 aU. 



Mr. Granger. Would the gentleman yield there? 



Mr. Pace. Yes. 



Mr. Granger. Has the chairman throught that thing through? 

 You are talking now about a perishable commodity. Would your 

 theory work on a commodity that is perishable like potatoes as it will 

 on wheat which you can store? It seems if we applied your theory 

 we would sometimes have a waste of potatoes that would be greater 

 than anything we have ever had. 



Mr. Pace. I do not see anything in it that would in the slightest 

 halt the movement of the potato market. My personal view is that 

 the way to handle it, of course, is through marketing agreements. 



Mr. Granger. Of course, if that had been in effect the potatoes 

 would not have gone to market because there would have been no price 

 for them. They could not store them. 



Mr. Pace. You understand, if they went to market and if the 

 Government had the support price. Uncle Sam would have to be stand- 

 ing there taking them. Wlien he took them from one of these non- 

 compliers, instead of giving him 60 percent of parity he would give 

 him 30 percent of parity. That would be the only difference. The 

 check would be just one-half. 



Mr. Case. May I make these points? The Potato Council and 

 industry have asked the Department to develop marketing agreements 

 as fast as possible. They have said it takes time, and I think they are 

 planning on four new marketing-agreement areas this year. We wish 

 they were all in. 



The cjualification of "where feasible" is upon the advice of the 

 Department that marketing agreements could not be operated in all 

 areas. They themselves, JVlr. Chairman, recommended that qualifi- 

 cation. 



The potato men are a little afraid that even though this man is 

 fined 50 percent of parity, those potatoes will still go on the market", 

 and if there was any quantity of those potatoes, it would force the 

 Government to buy more and more potatoes because they would be 

 taking up a part of the normal market outlet. So for that reason we 

 have not been as close to the marketing quotas as some other crops 

 have. 



Mr, CooLEY. If you had a very severe penalty on oveiproduction, 

 do you think you would likely have any surplus of any substantial 

 size? 



Mr. Case. We probably would have this trial year to go through, 

 if I might use the chairman's example. If a man overplanted 10 acres 

 and sold those potatoes he might do very well, if he was a 50-acre 

 grower, on the 40 acres free. If he was a 20-acre grower the penalty 

 might mean more to him. 



Mr. CooLEY. We have a penalty of 50 percent on tobacco grown in 

 surplus, and I know of no one who would deliberately plant tobacco 

 under those cii'cumstances. We made the law that way on pui*pose. 



