1060 . GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. CoLMER. No, no, I will answer it. The Chair has asked it, and 

 I am going to answer it. 



The Chair himself is familiar with some of the efforts that have been 

 made, if not all of them. I related earlier in the morning that we did 

 have this support price for one year, 1948-49 crop, with the approval 

 of Secretary Anderson. I also stated that Secretary Anderson, in my 

 presence, conferred with the gentlemen in the Department and gave 

 them the go-ahead sign on it for the next year. I don't think anybody 

 will deny that. We did not get it. We made repeated efforts and I 

 became convinced then that the only way we could get it would be 

 through the mandatory action of the Congress. That is why we are 

 here. 



Mr. Pace. The reason I put that question is to explain the situation. 

 As matters stand today, unless the Congress acts, what is known as the 

 Agricultural Act of 1948, sometimes commonly referred to as the 

 Aiken bill, will go into effect on the 1st day of January. I say to you 

 quite frankly, that I do not know of anything that would be as un- 

 fortunate for agriculture in the United States or for the economy of the 

 Nation as for that act to go into effect. But unless the gentlemen 

 from Mississippi, along with, I believe, the majority of this committee, 

 can bring about either its delay or repeal, it will go into effect. 



Then what are you faced with? You have there an act that gives a 

 flexible support price on a schedule for six so-called basic commodities, 

 cotton, corn, wheat, rice, peanuts, and tobacco. 



Then you have a specific support price from 60 to 90 for wool, and 

 a specific support price from 60 to 90 for Irish potatoes. Outside of 

 those, every other agricultural commodity produced in the Nation is 

 under a blanket to 90, in the discretion of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. 



Consequently, as I see it, where tung oil is today, and, as they say, 

 misery likes company, I suppose you are happy to have mohair along 

 with you in the hearing today, because they are in exactly the same 

 position unless there is a radical change in the act of 1948. 



In the light of your statement that you question whether or not the 

 Secretary will give you support, it is not likely that he would exercise 

 any discretion under the to 90. You see what I mean. Conse- 

 quently, there needs to be a complete rewriting of the support 

 program. 



Personally I feel, taking into account the elements of perishability 

 and storability, that every agricultural producer in this Nation should 

 be treated just exactly alike. I think that this tung growers' crop is 

 just as important to his economic welfare as is the crop of the cotton 

 grower, the wheat grower, the corn grower, the cattle producer, and 

 the hog producer, and so forth. That may not become the view of this 

 committee. I do not know. But the gentlemen I hope, and I do not 

 want to have anybody leaving here under false impressions, the gentle- 

 men I hope can understand the difficulty this committee would have 

 in reaching down into the basket of over 125 commodities that are 

 today in the to 90 schedule, reaching down and picking up tung oil 

 alone, notwithstanding the most impressive showing you made here 

 today, the difficulty we would have in just reaching down and getting 

 tung oil alone and bringing it up into mandatory support of 60 to 90. 



I am saying these things because I think that the gentlemen who 

 have come here from such great distances, and are in such great diffi- 



