1136 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



• 



probable losses on this inventory are presently estimated at $8,114,000.. Losses 

 on operations under the j)roa;rams through April 30, 1949, have totaled J^O^ 

 093,595. Including the $8,1 14,000 estimate for losses yet to be taken on the wools 

 remaining on hand as of April 30, 1949, total losses under all programs* to date, 

 beginning April 1943, are therefore expected to aproximate $88,000,000. • . * 



Figures on the cost of the wool-purchase program for the wools of each clip 

 year are not presently available. The wools tendered in any 1 year to Commodity 

 Credit Corporation are not all sold the same year; and, to obtain the losses f(3r' a 

 particular clip year, it would be necessary to trace the records for each lot and 

 apply the results to the appropriate clip year. A clerical task of such magnitude 

 is prohibitive from an administrative standpoint in relation to the ultimate use.pf 

 the end product. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Granger. 



Mr. Granger. Mr. Secretary, under price contr'ol yon did accumu- 

 late all the domestic wool and in addition to that a lot of foreign 

 wool, did you not? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, we did. 



Mr. Granger. Then, of course, you sold the better grades of wool 

 and you carried over the poorer grades of wool into this year. Is that 

 not true? You had the inferior grades of wool on hand that you 

 could not sell? 



Secretary Brannan. Mr. Granger, that is in part true. You sell 

 what people come after. They did come after the better grades 

 of wool and we have sold the better grades of wool, but we always 

 have the poorer grades of wool to move at some time. 



Mr. Granger. But you accumulate an unusually large amount 

 of interior wools over the war period years, is that not true? 



Secretary Brannan. We have. 



Mr. Granger. And that would not necessarily reflect what you 

 might lose on one year, 1947 or 1948, if you confined it entirely to 

 that year's product? 



Secretary Brannan. No, it would not necessarily, but it does 

 point up a very significant thing, that when the Government operates 

 as it does now with the purchase program for wool, it gets most of 

 the inferior grades anyhow and it is faced with the problem of always 

 trying to handle those inferior grades because the better grades 

 move out automatically into the market place notwithstanding. 

 What you say is true, Mr. Granger, but it is also very significant as 

 a part of the problem with which we have been confronted. We have 

 had to deal with tough problems in the wool marketing business from 

 the very beginning. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Poage. 



Mr. Poage. Mr. Secretary, you estimated for comparative purposes 

 that a drop of 20 percent would occur in the price of wool. I wonder 

 if there is any basis for that? Is there anything in that except that 

 you merely wanted some kind of illustration? 



Secretary Brannan. No, Mr. Poage, we just arbitrarily took 

 20 percent. 



Mr. Poage. I did not know whether there was a special probability 

 of a 20 percent drop. 



Mr. Pace. A\liat is the world price of wool? 



Secretary Brannan. The world price of wool is like cotton. There 

 are a hundred different prices for a hindred dufferent grades and styles 

 and character of fiber and their conditions. 



Mr. Pace. If you open a free market on American wool it would 

 drop the world price, would it not? 



