GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 803 



Mr. PicKELL. Absolutely. 



Mr. Murray. Number 2, we can repeal the export controls whereby 

 we have been keeping people from shipping lard and all of the other 

 stuff out of this country. There are still controls over it. It is not a 

 free world market. 



Mr. PiCKELL. That is right. 



Mr. Murray. Thii'd, for just a change — I have been sitting here 

 10 years watching them dissipate section 32 funds and I would like 

 to live long enough to see them just once use a little of it for livestock 

 products, instead of using $136,000,000 for nonlivestock products, 

 like we did last year, and only $13,000,000 for livestock products. 

 I would like to see the reverse 1 year, because there is a fund that can 

 be used to great benefit to the producers of livestock products. 



Those three proposals all make sense in your language, do they not? 

 If farmers gave the milk away in man}'' sections the consumer would 

 still pay 10 to 12 cents per quart for it. 



Mr. PicKELL. Yes, sir. 



The Chairman. Did I understand you coiTectly to say that even 

 if the farmers gave the hogs to the packers, we still would not have 

 cheap meat in this country? 



Mr. PiCKELL. I do not think you would have anything like you 

 used to have back in the old days. 



The Chairman. Why? Is that because the price that the farmer 

 Teceives is such an inconsequential factor in the ultimate price that 

 the consumer pays? 



Mr. PicKELL. I have been trying to get some figures on that. 

 The nearest approach that I can get, and I asked the American Meat 

 Institute, and they said that they did not have any reliable figures on 

 it, but some figures that they saw of a Government analysis of it 

 showed that if the livestock was delivered to the packers for zero, 

 that they could cut the retail price about 25 percent. 



The Chairman. Then if that is true, certainly the farmer is not 

 responsible for the high cost of living. 



Mr. PicKELL. That is for sure. 



Mr. Pace. For the record, Mr. Pickell, I would like to read the law 

 as it is today with regard to hogs: 



The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized and directed through any instru- 

 mentality or agency within and under the direction of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, through loans, purchases, or other operations to support until January 1, 

 1950, a price to producers of hogs at 90 percent of the parity price. 



I am sure you will agree that that is entirely compulsory. 



Mr. Pickell. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Pace. On the part of the Secretary. 



Mr. Pickell. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Pace. You make the suggestion that the Secretary urge the 

 farmers to market their hogs between 200 and 225 pounds. 



Mr. Pickell. That is right. 



Mr. Pace. Wliat influence would that have upon the hog growers? 



Mr. Pickell. Well, point out to them that if they do not do it, 

 the price is going down. He has no way of supporting it down there. 

 I do not think the farmers, those that I know, are so plumb crazy that 

 they will cut their own throat. 



