GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 759 



2. Almost a complete absence in Government not only of actual 

 regulations limiting production but even of talk concerning the 

 limiting of production. It was just assumed that nothing should 

 stand in the way of making available for human use whatever resources 

 we had which sheep coulcl use best. This was very important to us 

 who were in business, because sheep raising is not something that 

 can be turned on and off at will by the day or month, or even by the 

 year. "\Mien you're in. you're in for better or worse and for a con- 

 siderable time. When you're out. you're out until you can reassemble 

 a proper combination of capital, feed conditions, and assured labor on 

 a fairly permanent basis. In fact, it has been the historic pattern of 

 sheep enterprises that they have learned to adjust fairly well to the 

 rigors of climate and the fluctuations of price changes in a free econ- 

 omy, but they stand completely unnerved and helpless when Govern- 

 ment frequently and arbitrarily changes the factors on which their 

 possibility of profit and often even the preservation of their life's 

 savings depend. 



Think now what has happened since the peak years of our sheep 

 population. 



1. There has been a reduction of 25 percent in the tariff on wool. 

 This is exactly the opposite of what should have been done to stimu- 

 late sheep production, because since 1941 the costs of producing wool 

 in the United States have increased faster than in competitive coun- 

 tries. Nothing has been done to compensate for this loss. As a 

 matter of facF, prominent Government spokesmen have indicated 

 further tariff reduction on wool. Considerable sheep production has 

 been lost here. 



2. During the war there were ceilings on meat and wool prices. 

 It is true there were subsidies which partially compensated, but the 

 subsidies were limited compensation when compared to the vastly 

 increased costs of labor and supplies. Those costs are still with us. 

 More production has fallen by the wayside on this score. 



3. Then there was talk by Government officials promoting the 

 fantastic idea of exclusive grain diets and there has been a consistent 

 attitude of Government support of grain production but a consistent 

 refusal to list wool as a basis commodity. But no one with even a 

 superficial knowledge of the position of the industry in over-all 

 United States economy can deny that from the standpoint of our 

 consumers and our military forces it is truly a basic commodity. 

 Nevertheless, on one day we see Government extolling the needs of a 

 sizable wool industry and talking of means to increase production, 

 on the next we witness removal by Government of the very features 

 that make production possible together with statements by promi- 

 nent officials that we should buy our wool abroad. No realistic 

 sheepman could study the Government policy of the past 8 years 

 and invest his money in sheep. Stiil more production was lost for 

 this reason. 



4. And to cap the climax, there has been a verj' considerable 

 Government tendency of late years to use public lands for many 

 purposes other than livestock and wool production. Because of the 

 fact that around 50 percent of the beef cattle and sheep slaughtered 

 in the United States have historically been developed on ranges, it 

 is easy to see what a revolutionary result this new policy is having 

 on meat and wool production. We simply cannot afi^ord to expand 



