TESTIMONY OF PRODUCER GROUPS AND MEMBERS OF 



CONGRESS 



MONDAY, MAY 9, 1949 



House of Representatives, 

 Special Subcommittee of the 



Committee on AaRicuLTURfi, 



Washington, D. C. 

 The special subcommittee of the House Committee on Agriculture 

 met at 10 a. m., Hon. Stephen Pace (chairman) presiding. 

 Mr. Pace. The committee will please come to order. 

 Gentlemen, we have met this morning to hear from producers and 

 representatives of the tung-oil industry. 



We are honored this morning by having present several distinguished 

 Members of Congress who represent the areas in which tung oil is 

 produced, and it will be our pleasure at this time to hear from the 

 Representative from Mississippi, Mr. Colmer. 



STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM M. COLMER, A REPRESENTATIVE 

 IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI 



Mr. Colmer. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, we are 

 appearing here this morning in behalf of the tung industry. Specifi- 

 cally we are appearing in behalf of my bill, H. R. 29. I am not going 

 to make a very long statement, but I do want to just give you a brief, 

 broad outline of the question involved. 



For the benefit of those who are not familiar with it, tung comes from 

 the foliage of the tree, the heart-shaped leaf, and "heart" in Chinese 

 means "tung." 



Tung oil, or tung, is produced in China and on the Coastal Plains of 

 the States lying along the Gulf of Mexico; and the British Government 

 is now undertaking, in anticipation of the China supply being cut off, 

 to plant tung trees in north Africa. The first report indicates that 

 Great Britain is going to spend some $4,000,000 right away for that 

 purpose. 



Mr. Andresen. And we will probably finance it; is that your under- 

 standing? 



Mr. Colmer. I would not want to argue that question \\-ith my 

 colleague, Mr. Andresen. 



Mr. Andresen. Just like we financed peanuts. 



Mr. Colmer. That is right. We may wind up financing it. But, 

 we are interested this morning. Congressman Andresen, in seeing that 

 tung oil gets a little assistance, American produced tung oil. 



iMow, so much for that. Tung oil really stnrted commercially in 

 this country following the World War, when we discovered that we 



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