1016 ' GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



They opposed any restrictions whatsoever on China's illegal opera- 

 tions by fantastic statements to the effect that the American tung 

 grower can produce timg oil in competition with coolie labor, the 

 cheapest in the world. This statement is so ridiculous on the face of 

 it that it needs no rebuttal beyond stating that if the American 

 farmer is to be placed on a par with Chinese coolies, then perhaps 

 we should ask China for help instead of sending the Chinese billions 

 of dollars to raise their standard of living. 



Nobody but a fool or a person dictated by ulterior motives could 

 possibly contend that tung oil, or any other agricultural products, can 

 be produced in this country for the same cost as in China. 



We think it pertinent here to note that 13 of the largest paint and 

 varnish manufacturing companies were indicted last year by the 

 Federal Government on charges of conspiracy to jack up the price of 

 paint and varnish faster and higher than any other commodity pro- 

 duced in the United States. While the price of paint and lacquer 

 increased in this country from 75 to 100 percent, the price of tung oil 

 has dropped 50 percent. The purpose of this brief is to ask the Con- 

 gress to correct this condition through granting a parity rating to 

 tung nuts, thus assuring our American tung farmers a return on their 

 time, investment, and labor more in balance with the return accruing 

 to the consumers of their product. 



The change of attitude on the part of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture is much more difficult to understand. Why has the 

 Department and the Commodity Credit Corporation repeatedly 

 refused to grant a support price on the 1948 crop after having granted 

 a support price in 1947? 



Is it because the various men who have headed the Fats and Oils 

 Bureau of the Department of Agriculture for the last 8 or 9 times have 

 come invariably from jobs in the consumer industries? We believe 

 this situation should be corrected. The Department of Agriculture, 

 after all, is a branch of the Government charged with developing and 

 protecting the interests of American agricultm'e. Would it not be fau' 

 to this country's agricultural interests to place a man from agricultural 

 ranks and with an agricultural viewpoint at the head of a division 

 which concerns itself with such a vital branch of our agricultural 

 econom}^? The most often repeated excuse of the present head of the 

 Fats and Oils Division is that his department refused a support price 

 for 1948 because it did not want to "create an um-ealistic price for 

 tung oil." Now what is the record of tung oil prices? 



The price of tung oil in 1940 was 26 cents per pound, in 1941 prior 

 to the outbreak of World War II it reached 35^ cents per pound, jn 

 1942 the price was pegged by the OPA at 38% cents per pound in tank 

 car lots where it remained until the end of OPA when it climbed to 

 40 cents; at one point in 1947 it sold for 38% cents per pound. 



At the same time that tung oil was pegged at 38% cents per pound, 

 linseed oil was pegged at 15.8 cents per pound, and never sold for more 

 than 18)^ cents per pound all during the war. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture after refusing to grant any sort of support 

 price on tung in 1948 gave linseed oil a support price of 27.8 cents per 

 pound on a basis of $6 per bushel for flaxseed. This was done, we are 

 told, to prevent Argentina from gouging linseed-oil-consuming indus- 

 tries in this country. Isn't it strange that a Government bureau can 

 feel so keenly for the plight of an industry which it indicts as a po:5twar 



