1026 . GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Of course, in the case of many of our war enterprises, the Federal 

 Government did something for them at the end of the war in the way 

 of tax refunds, or termination of contract agreements, and that sort 

 of thing, to enable manufacturers to shift to other production. In 

 other words, we adopted policies to enable them to adjust themselves 

 to peacetime conditions. 



Mr. Rowlands. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Hope. Of course, I do not know whether you can use any of 

 those methods to take care of the tung-oil inckistry ; but it seems to me 

 that you are entitled to some consideration as a war industry; that 

 there ought to be some method by which you could be protected to 

 the extent that you developed the industry during the war. Whether 

 that would justify a policy that might result in continued expansion 

 of the industry, when we can import this product from other countries 

 at apparently much lower prices, I am not prepared to say at this 

 time. 



Of course, in the past we adjusted situations of that kind through 

 the tariff. We do not do that any more. We have a new policy. 

 So I do not know of any way whereby you can be helped very much 

 through tariffs. 



It is true that under section 22 of the AAA Act, if you had a price- 

 support program in effect, the President would have the authority to 

 put a quota on or to levy an import fee. But that, of course, is 

 subject, under the terms of the act itself, to international agreements 

 that we may have and I do not know to what extent our pending 

 international agreements might interfere with that. 



So I do not know to what extent you might get some relief from 

 that source. But certainly if we had a price-support program it could 

 never become effective and would cost a great deal of money unless 

 we had some way of limiting the imports that might come in under 

 section 22. 



It occurs to me also that if you were willing to limit the industry to 

 the point to which it had developed during the war, or to some reason- 

 able expansion, you might have a remedy in legislation somewhat 

 along the lines of the Sugar Act. We have a good deal the same 

 situation there in that sugar can be brought in, as it can be produced 

 more cheaply in the tropics than it can here in the United States. We 

 have had a sugar industry for some years which we protected by the 

 tariff. Finally, when Government policies changed and we no longer 

 used the taritf, we enacted a sugar-quota law which not only put 

 a quota upon imports but gave domestic producers a quota, too, in 

 order to preserve more or less the status quo on imports and domestic 

 production. 



It occurs to me that something along that line might fit your 

 situation and I am wondering if you have ever thought along that line. 



Mr. RowL.'^NDS. Of course, w^e asked for quotas but I do not know 

 what procedure we could take to limit the industry. You would 

 have to fertilize the trees every year. They are very sensitive. They 

 produce a very heavy crop. If you neglected the trees for 2 or 3 

 years, I would not say that it would be fatal, they probably could be 

 brought back, but after they are 12 years old, you have to keep up 

 your cultivation. 



Mr. Hope. I was not thinking of a quota that would cut down 

 the production of existing orchards, but I was thinking of a quota 



