GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 1083 



Mr. Pace. Maybe they want to confer about it. 



Mr. PoAGE. Maybe so, and that is perfectly all right. 



Mr. Granger. What did you hope to gain by having the definition 

 as a grade of wool or connected with wool? It seems to me that in- 

 stead of doing yourselves some good, you might do yourselves some 

 harm that way. It should be considered as wool in that definition, 

 should it not? 



Mr. Fisher. It is our judgment that is the best way to approach it. 

 Of course that does not mean that it will bring exactly the same price 

 as wool. 



Mr. Granger. You do not want it to. 



Mr. Fisher. Wools are different prices, depending on the types and 

 grades and likewise mohair is differently priced, depending on the 

 quality and the age of the animal, and so forth. So far as figuring out 

 exactly what it should be, we have not undertaken to do that. I do 

 not know yet just what the basis for the computation of the wool price 

 will be, as to whether it will be over an average of what has been paid 

 the past 10 years or whether it will be on the old parity basis or what. 

 Our thought was that mohair being so closely related to wool should 

 have some comparable treatment ^\'llen you undertake to establish the 

 price level of it, based upon the historical past and upon relative grade 

 values. 



Mr. Granger. I do not go along with the gentleman from Texas. 

 I do not know why you should not have 90 percent of parity the same 

 as any other commodity. 



Mr. PoAGE. I am sorry the gentleman did not come in in time to 

 hear my statement, because I tried to make it abundantly plain, 

 because they are as much entitled to it as cotton and wheat men or 

 anybody else, I have tried to repeatedly suggest if you put the support 

 price of any commodity far in excess of what the market will pay, that 

 you will get support prices about 1 or 2, or at the outside 3 years and 

 then you will be completely out of business, because when you have 

 put that support price on at a level far out of line with what the market 

 will pay, somebody is going to be smart enough to put synthetics 

 on the market, or bring in some kind of substitute at a good deal cheaper 

 price, and you will find your industry without any market what- 

 ever, and the Government is not going to buy any crop year after year, 

 the entire crop at far above the market. 



Mr. Granger. That is true, and that is true with any other thing. 



Mr. PoAGE. That is true, and that is why we try not to price our- 

 selves out of the market. As one interested in cotton I would love 

 to have 40 cents a pound, but I know if we price it at that, we would not 

 be growing cotton more than 3 years. 



Mr. Granger, All these men are asking for is 90 percent of what 

 the parity is. 



Mr. PoAGE. Their parity is so high that they are way above the 

 market price. I am simply trying to ask them whether they want 90 

 percent of parity; trying to let them answer the question. I have not 

 made any answer to the question here, because it is their move to 

 give us their suggestion as to what they think they could sell their 

 mohair for on the market. I am just as much agreed as you are that 

 they are entitled to 90 percent. I am willing to vote to give them 

 90 percent at the old parity if they want it. If they want the 58-cent 

 guarantee, why, it is all right with me but I do not think they can 

 stay in business and have a guarantee of 58 cents, not very long. 



