GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1033 



Mr. PoAGE. They have not been. 



Senator Holland. If not, Mr. Chairman, I would suggest and 

 request that Mr. Prichard be requested to produce those two state- 

 ments. He knows the two to which I refer. 



Mr. PoAGE. We will be glad to have them. 



Senator Holland. Mr. Chairman, the reason for my appearance 

 is that I feel very definitely that tung oil production and the products, 

 as one of the vegetable oils, is a stratetic material, and while it is not 

 at this time a strategic material in short supply, I feel that in the 

 absence of a support price program, or in the absence of giving it a 

 place in the picture, that to allow the tung oil industry to continue to 

 exist in a thoroughly unrealistic manner, when it is admitted by all 

 concerned, that tung oil is a strategic material, because of the omission 

 of any kind of a structure in the nature of price support to help the 

 tung oil producers, will very shortly remove them from the scene, 

 because in the case of tung oil the lands which are being utilized can 

 be used for other purposes. And it is completely unrealistic to expect 

 growers to continue to produce tung nuts in a rather confusing, and 

 thoroughly disregarded manner, insofar as price is concerned. 



Mr. Chairman, without attempting to more than state a few high- 

 lights of the matter, I want to call attention to the fact that the off- 

 shore imports, principally from China have, of course, constituted by 

 all means the major portion of the consumption of tung oil in the 

 United States prior to the World War. The charts prepared by Mr. 

 Prichard, just to use this illustration, I believe show that the two 

 largest years of imports were in 1936 when the import was 134,830, 

 in thousands of pounds; that would be 134,830,000 pounds, and in 

 1937 the import was 174,885,000. 



And as brought out by the report, in the table prepared by Mr. 

 Prichard, also in the year 1939 the total domestic production was 

 only 11,600 tons, which would be, I believe, 23,200,000 pounds. 



The figures as will be shown by table 1 which Vvdll be filed by 

 Mr. Prichard will show that in 1941, the year before the war, the total 

 domestic production was 8,750 tons. 



Immediately following the creation of the war condition, that is, 

 when the war was anticipated, and really after some study, and after 

 every effort was being used by way of encouraging the production — 

 and I thought by way of encouraging the planting, but Mr. Prichard 

 has indicated there was no encouragement for additional planting, 

 and I am sure that is correct as of his knowledge, but I am still under 

 the impression, however, that there had been encouragement to plant, 

 but certainly there was encouragement for increased production, and 

 this table supplied by Mr. Prichard will show that the production 

 went up to 16,350 tons in 1942. It was down again to 6,200 tons in 

 1943. It went up again 26,680 tons in 1944, and to 37,086 tons— and 

 I am speaking now of domestic production — in 1945. It shows that 

 it went up until the 1948 production, that is, last year's production, 

 was 67,200 tons. That was a tremendous growth in this industry, 

 which is producing a strategic material, although at the present time, 

 as I understand it is not the purpose to stock pile, because at the 

 present time it is not in short supply, but it could be in short supply 

 very quickly in view of what is happening now in China, the problem 

 might very quickly assume great proportions, from the standpoint of 

 strategic requirements. 



