GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1001 



SO that your people down there would not have to be in such keen 

 competition with people from foreign countries, the foreign producers 

 of tung oil. That is the problem, that the imports are coming in and 

 taking away the market, which, of course, reduces the price for your 

 commodity. 



Mr. BoYKiN. That is what is happening. 



Mr. Andresen. It seems to me that you should be presenting this 

 matter to the Ways and Means Committee to get a change in policy 

 instead of coming here. 



Mr. BoYKiN. Let me say that I am willing to go anywhere, and, 

 of course, we are willing to present the matter to the Ways and Means 

 Committee. But I do believe that we can do it best one at a time. 



Gentlemen, I do hope you get behind the plan of making parity 

 provision for tung oil. And I want to thank you. Air. Chairman, for 

 this opportunity. 



Mr. Andresen. Of course, I do not want to get into any heated 

 discussion with my good fiiend here, but as one who has consistently 

 opposed some of this foreign trade policy, I would like to know just 

 how the gentleman feels about some of the discussion with respect 

 to changing the policy? 



Mr. BoYKiN. I voted against the English loan. 



Mr. Andresen. How about the reciprocal trade agreement? 



Mr. BoYKiN. I do not remember. 



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



Mr. BoYKiN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT I. F. SIKES, A REPRESENTATIVE 

 IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA 



Mr. Pace. We will be delighted to hear from our distinguished 

 colleague from Florida at this time, Mr. Robert vSikts. 



Mr. SiKES. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I 

 appear in support of the bill introduced by the gentleman from 

 Mississippi, Mr. Colmer, H. R. 29, which provides parity for tung nuts. 



I would like to point out first to the committee, Mr. Chairman, 

 that our normal consumption of tung oil is apparently in the range of 

 125 to 150 tons per year; during the time we have been able to secure 

 it, we have secured the greater part of that from China — only about 15 

 tons have been produced in those years in this country, and the pro- 

 duction by and large has been less than that. 



That present production of 15 tons came about purely as a war 

 measure when the inflow of oU from China was decidedly limited, and 

 finaUy almost terminated by the war in the far Pacific. We reahzed 

 then fully the extreme importance of this oil to the industry of this 

 country. We realized that it not only had a value during peace- 

 time as a base for paints, insulation for electrical equipment and 

 similar uses, but we found out that it was a critical war material, 

 having many, many important uses in war industries, and stepped 

 up the local production in every way that we possibly could. 



We now have the benefit of war production, but even with it, it 

 does not supply the normal peacetime requirements of this country, 

 and in fact it falls far short of that. Only about 10 percent of our 

 normal needs for tung oil in this country are met by local production, 

 but that local production does provide a basis on which we can rely 



