GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 837 



Unless farm prices are supported at a high level we will experience 

 farm bankruptcies, foreclosures, and evictions very similar to the 

 period of the 1930's. One reason for this is that farm operating costs 

 have continued to rise, while farm prices have faUen. The break-even 

 point of ranching and farming, like other businesses, is higher in 

 relation to past periods. ]Most farms are mechanized. In the days 

 when farmers raised their own power in the form of horse flesh, hay 

 and grain, they were able to weather hard times and hang on a little 

 longer when the going was tough. But now the farmers have to pay 

 high prices for machinery, gas, oil, and all the other supplies they 

 need for their operations. When they do not have the money and 

 are unable to secure credit for these operating items, they simply 

 are unable to put in a crop, Some farmers are in this shape this 

 spring. Others have quit rather than take a chance on losing more 

 capital, since the farm market has dropped. They were young men, 

 just starting to farm, and theu' operations were geared to $2 corn 

 and $35 cattle. 



Another featm'e of Mr. Brannan's farm program with which we 

 are in agreement is his proposal to let the market for nonstorables 

 'seek its own level and compensate farmers for the dift'erence between 

 the market price and the price determined by Congress to be what 

 the farmers should receive as a support price. As consumers, the 

 members of our organization wish to receive the benefits of any low 

 market prices. Lower market prices make for a broader market 

 and enables low income consumers to buy more food. But we 

 believe that there should be some legislation, some sort of price 

 controls, so when cattle or hogs or sheep fall $5 per hundredweight 

 on the market, that this drop is handed down to the consumer when 

 he buys his steak or hamburger or pork chops over the meat counter. 



Past experience shows us that when livestock prices rise sharply 

 the price of meat in the butcher shop jumps along with it, but when 

 the livestock market falls the packer and retail butchers are very 

 reluctant to pass lower livestock prices on to the customers. We 

 know also that although wheat has dropped the price of bread has 

 not gone down any. Therefore, to prevent the food processors from 

 pocketing what the consumers should get in the form of lower prices 

 there should be some teeth put into the Brannan law in the form of 

 price controls. 



Still another principle of Mr. Brannan's original program which 

 we feel is necessary is the proposal to limit price supports to farms 

 having 1,800 units of production, or produce worth about $25,000 

 gross. We are in favor of making the cut-off point lower than Mr. 

 Brannan suggested, as we believe that the smaller farmers are more 

 in need of the benefits of the production payments than the larger 

 farmers. 



We feel that production payments should not be used to encourage 

 big agriculture and discourage small agriculture. We feel that no 

 legislation should be enacted which would speed up the trend toward 

 the elimination of the small farmers by the large commercial farmers 

 and corporate farming interests. 



In this connection we warn against making crop reduction or 

 marketing controls a condition for small farmers receiving the benefits 

 of the farm program. The bottom half of the farmers now have 



