TESTIMONY OF PKODUCER GKOUPS AND MEMBEES 

 OF CONGEESS 



WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1949 



House of Repkesentatives, 

 Special Subcommittee of the 



Committee ox Agriculture, 



Washington, D. C. 



The special subcommittee of the Committee on Agriculture met in 

 the committee room, 1310 New House Office Building, at 10 a. m., 

 Hon. Stephen Pace (subcommittee chairman) presiding. 



Mr. Pace. Gentlemen, the committee will please come to order. 



I would like to say at the outset that the committee welcomes the 

 opportunity to hear witnesses scheduled for today and tomorrow. 

 Present plans contemplate closing the hearing tomorrow. Therefore, 

 with some great 3mbarrassment I must say that the committee is going 

 to be very much pressed for time, both this morning and tomorrow 

 morning, but we do want to give the witnesses an opportunity to 

 present the views of the organizations they represent. 



The Chair understands that some witnesses scheduled to be present 

 were not able to be here and members of this committee will speak in 

 their behalf. 



Mr. John G. Wright, president of the Boston Wool Trade Associa- 

 tion, was unable to be present, and permission is asked to file his 

 statement at the proper point in the record, where otherwise he would 

 appear. 



We will treat him as the first witness and his statement will be 

 inserted in the record at this point. 



(The statement is as follows:) 



Statement of John G. Wright, Prestdent of the Boston Wool Trade Asso- 

 ciation, Before the House Agriculture Committee on the Proposed 

 New Agriculture Bill 



yiy name is John G. Wright of Boston where I am engaged in the wool business. 

 I appear here today as president of the Boston Wool Trade Association. This 

 association has among its members about 650 individuals and firms engaged in 

 the buying, selling, and manufacturing of wool. A large proportion of the wool 

 consumed in the United States is handled through the members of this association 

 which is natural as most of the wool which is manufactured in the United States is 

 manufactured in the Northeastern and ^Middle Atlantic States. 



The exigencies of the war unquestionably Justified the Government in taking 

 over the domestic wool clip and becoming a dealer in wool. It has been proved, 

 though, in years o' operation that free enterijrise can handle the very complex 

 operation of marketing the wool clip, more efficiently and economically than can 

 an agency of the Government. Each fleece of wool is different from every other 

 fleece with very wide variations m the quality, length, and yield and other charac- 

 teristics. This very wide variation in the characteristics causes a multiplicity of 

 grades which are used for many different purposes. 



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