GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 817 



We also realize we cannot have price support unless we are willing 

 to regulate ourselves and produce only that amount that is needed. 

 We realize it is not fair to ask the consumer to pay us a fair price for 

 something that he does not want or does not need. 



We do feel that that regulation should be put forward, and if we 

 do not vote favorable, then we should be out and on our own com- 

 pletely. I will say this for myself, I would feel like in any program 

 where it became necessary that we have Cj[uotas to safeguard the 

 Treasury and the consuming public in the amount of money we are 

 paying, that if we voted out those quotas, then we should be on our 

 own entirely. That is, if we want to go that way, let us go that way. 



We have heard a good deal about the food-stamp plan. Perhaps 

 that would solve the thing \ye have in mind and that will take care 

 of the surplus. To me the thing has always worked this way, gentle- 

 men. We have here the consuming public that is divided, we will say, 

 into groups as far as their income is concerned, starting with $1,000, 

 $2,000, and so on up. If we produce enough beefsteak to only take 

 care of those in the $3,000 and up group, they will consume it at a 

 price so that those under that salary cannot have the beefsteak. But 

 if we produce enough beefsteak for the $1,000 group on up, then they 

 would all receive it. 



Now farmers' costs are not based on an income like the $1,000 

 group. We pay the high wage rates, the big salaries, and all that 

 which goes into producing of those things that we are producing. We 

 pay high prices for all the things we use in production, so that we 

 can't produce milk and eggs at the price that this $1,000 income family 

 can afford to pay for them and keep our farms going. 



We talk a lot about soil conservation. Farmers believe in soil 

 conservation. The great majority know how to practice soil con- 

 servation. The main thing they need is income that will permit them 

 to do the things they know. We are not as short on technical advice 

 as we are on income to do the things we really know how to do. 



I will say this for my neighbor farmers, that every last one of those 

 would like to operate his farm to its fullest capacity and get a good 

 price for what he produces, but we do realize that if we produce more 

 than the consumers want, that we cannot do it that way. We don't 

 like the controls but I will say this, that I think that the great majority 

 of the farmers out there have decided if we are going to have any, we 

 will need to regulate ourselves along with it. 



Now I have just a few words to say about some of our present 

 legislation on the books. 



I have yet to meet a neighboring farmer who said he liked the Aiken 

 bill. They feel like there is just as much regulation in that. Con- 

 gressman Hope, I heard you make the statement — you made it once — ■ 

 that when that bill went through it was with the understanding you 

 would have the right to reconsider it and not just what it meant to the 

 farmers. That is the way the farmer feels. There is just as much 

 control in this bill as in any of the others but the return is not as great. 



I am rather amused at the farm bureau — and I have been a member 

 of the farm bureau ever since we had a farm bureau started with the 

 county farm bureau in 1917, and I have been a member ever since. 

 To begin with, they kind of gave us the idea that by having that, 

 we would avoid any marketing quotas, any control. Now we hear 

 them all the time talking about "it will be 72 percent rather than 60 



